Bill Belichick gives his opinion on Drake Maye's preseason

“I think his inexperience really showed up in the preseason, as it did a little bit at North Carolina.”

Bill Belichick wasn’t overly impressed with what he saw from Drake Maye in his first NFL action last month. AP Photo/Nick Wass

A few days after giving his thoughts on the Patriots’ roster decisions entering the 2024-25 NFL season, Bill Belichick offered a blunt assessment of what he saw from Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye in the preseason.

“You like his size and you like his arm. I think his inexperience really showed up in the preseason, as it did a little bit at North Carolina,” Belichick said of Maye in a video clip shared by Underdog Fantasy, seemingly another teaser of his upcoming show with the daily fantasy site, titled “Coach, with Bill Belichick.” “And I think that he needs a lot of seasoning in terms of reading coverages, overall throwing mechanics, and consistency.

“Is he a big fast athlete? Yeah, but I think it’s going to take more than that to be ready to play quarterback in the National Football League.”

Belichick doesn’t sound too impressed with the No. 3 overall pick’s preseason offerings last month.

Maye, who will be New England’s backup quarterback to start the season, didn’t necessarily have a flashy preseason under center. The 22-year-old owned a 61.8 completion percentage over three games and logged one touchdown. Over three games, Maye split QB duties with Jacoby Brissett, Joe Milton III, and the now-Kansas City Chiefs backup Bailey Zappe.

The ex-Patriots head coach then doubled down on what Maye needs to improve on to eventually succeed Brissett as New England’s starter.

“You expect quarterbacks at this level to be able to throw check downs to backs, to throw slant routes to wide receivers, to hit a wide open seam,” Belichick said. “And look, we all have plays that we wish we had back. Just saying, these are some of the things that we need to work on.

“I think that Maye probably has more of these than the other quarterbacks do, based on what we’ve seen in preseason. Which is, granted, a limited sample.”

In this particular clip, Belichick is discussing Maye with Michael Lombardi (former Patriots coach Matt Patricia appeared in a previous video). Lombardi began working under Belichick as the Cleveland Browns’ director of player personnel in 1987 and was an assistant to the Patriots’ coaching staff from 2014-16.

Lombardi gave a more optimistic take on Maye after Belichick offered his opinion. Lombardi emphasized the importance of being patient with the quarterback, seemingly agreeing with New England’s decision to make him their No. 2 QB to begin the season.

“The one thing we learned today is it’s gonna take some patience right? None of these guys are going to step in. Troy Aikman went 1-15 his first year in the league. Peyton Manning was 1-15, threw a ridiculous amount of interceptions,” Lombardi said.

“[Patrick] Mahomes and [Tom] Brady didn’t even play. They didn’t play,” Belichick interjected.

“And that probably was a good thing,” Lombardi continued. “So I think there has to be a level of patience. Look, all of them show the skill set that they need to have to become starting quarterbacks in the league. It’s just we have to lower our expectations and take less time because too many of those bad plays results in losses.”