Patriots OTA takeaways: Drake Maye sees limited action; rookie Javon Baker flashes with two highlight catches

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Patriots’ offseason workouts continued Wednesday as the club held another OTA session. This is the second organized practice of team activities that has been open to the media, which gives us an idea of ​​the initial foundation that first-year head coach Jerod Mayo is laying before things start to ramp up with minicamp and camp training later this summer.

Naturally, all eyes continue to be on third overall pick Drake Maye, who the Patriots appear to be slowly bringing back. While it’s only a matter of time before the first-round quarterback takes over as the franchise’s starter, Wednesday’s sessions continued with him serving as the third-string quarterback during practice. Veteran Jacoby Brissett, who signed with the team in free agency, led the position group and was followed by Bailey Zappe before giving way to Maye for limited reps.

“My message is: It’s not about how many opportunities, it’s about what you do with the opportunities you get,” Mayo said before practice when asked if there were any concerns about the lack of reps Maye is getting. “Look, going back to the competition part, the better you do day in and day out, not just on the field but also in the classroom, the more reps you will get in the future.”

As for Maye’s performance, it was a bit of a shaky start. In 11-on-11 drills, he fouled JuJu Smith-Schuster on his first attempt and threw the ball too far in front of a screen pass on the next play. Maye would recover, however, completing his next and final two passes during the session.

As practice moved to a 7-on-7 series, Maye saw some extended work on one side of the field while Brissett and Zappe alternated on the other field. During this period, Maye completed 12 of his 14 passes and made some highlight plays. The UNC product perfectly placed a deep ball down the right sideline into the arms of Tyquan Thornton. Three plays later, he made another impressive throw where he slotted a deep ball into a tight window for Smith-Schuster. Maye also completed both of his passes during a limited showing in the team’s final 11-on-11 drill before concluding the day.

Here are some other nuggets from the practice fields outside Gillette Stadium:

• As I was almost exclusively watching Maye on the right practice field during his 7-on-7 session, my eyes were pulled to the left, to the other practice field, thanks to rookie Javon Baker. The fourth-rounder from UCF made two sensational catches on the left wing. The first was a contested catch in traffic with multiple defenders in the box, while the second was another contested catch, but arguably more impressive because of how close Baker was to the sideline, keeping both feet inbounds.
• Just by the eye test, Brissett was clearly the best quarterback on the field Wednesday, which makes sense given his time in the league and familiarity with Alex Van Pelt’s offense. Brissett was efficient during 11-on-11 drills and completed a series of impressive deep balls to players like Baker and DeMario Douglas. In my opinion, Brissett would be the Week 1 starter if the season started tomorrow.
• As for Zappe, it was a reasonable day for the third-year QB. During the 7-on-7 period, Zappe threw the team’s only interception. He also became visibly frustrated with himself during a drill that, as Zappe explained after practice, emphasized keeping the quarterback’s eyes up. Zappe struggled with some accuracy in that particular instance, which caused him to take an additional rep or two, and he even threw the ball into the net in what appeared to be frustration at not having pinpoint accuracy. Given Brissett’s presence, along with the arrival of two rookies in Maye and Joe Milton III, it remains to be seen how Zappe figures into New England’s plans on the QB depth chart as they begin building the 53-man roster.
• A lot of attention was paid to the Patriots quarterbacks on Wednesday, which made Milton’s absence even more apparent. Pass rusher Matthew Judon was another notable player absent from the session.
• Patriots owner Robert Kraft was present for most of the session before leaving as the team wrapped up the day with some special teams work.