Drake Maye had Devin McCourty at hello.
The Patriots quarterback and former Pro Bowl safety met in person during an NBC production meeting earlier in the season.
McCourty’s first impression?
“I loved the kid,” McCourty said this week “Eye on Foxborough.”
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The meeting took place during the pre-season. What stood out, why McCourty so impressed
One of the questions McCourty and the NBC staff asked Maye was about a poor performance in the joint practice with the Philadelphia Eagles in August.
“We asked him about it at the production meeting,” McCourty said. “And he said, ‘Yeah, it wasn’t ideal. I went out there, and practice had been going well, then we got to 11-on-11, and it was pretty bad and tough for me.”
Maye was sacked on virtually every drop during that 11-on-11 session.
McCourty then asked Maye how she handles this type of situation when it happens.
“He said, ‘Well, I go in there and watch the film.’ And he said, ‘I think, OK, if that pressure wasn’t there, what would I do? Where would I go with the ball? And then I think about, d ‘OK, the pressure is on, how can I make this play a better play, and not a disaster,” McCourty said. “And I’m like, not once did he talk about anybody else and what they could have done to improve the play … he just talked about what he could do.
“And for me, you see the progress in him, as a player, because of that mentality. He’s always thinking about what to do, how to do it.”
During the podcast, McCourty also discussed the importance of surrounding Maye with talent in Year 2. While acknowledging poisoning has raised the current cast, the patriots I shouldn’t want that to be the norm.
“You don’t want next year, your second-year quarterback to have to make everyone you put in look like a much better player,” he said. “That’s hard to do week in and week out for any young player. You have to get some things moving in the right direction. When you look at the Patriots on offense, it’s not good.”