Maye Watch: Patriots Qb Develops Connection With Treveyon Henderson

Maye Watch: Patriots QB develops connection with TreVeyon Henderson originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

FOXBORO — It was the biggest play of Tuesday’s practice. First-team offense versus first-team defense. Just seconds on the clock. Third down.

Of his five eligible targets on the field, Drake Maye looked for rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson.

Against an all-out blitz look, Maye bought time by taking the snap and immediately moving to his right. Henderson saw what was coming and understood how he could help, freeing himself up in the right flat. Maye found him quickly, and the resulting big gain is what ultimately set up a 43-yard field goal from Andy Borregales.

Not even 20 practices into his pro career, Henderson has already established himself as one of the top playmakers in New England’s offensive huddle. It’s clear Maye trusts him enough to look his way frequently as a receiver, as he did early in last weekend’s preseason win over the Vikings. A subtle tug on Henderson’s shoulder by a Vikings defender appeared to be the only thing that prevented Maye and Henderson from hooking up on a wheel route down the field.

Though Henderson appreciates the run he’s seen with starters, though he has to sense that he’ll factor significantly into offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels’ plans, he’s not necessarily buying his own hype.

“I don’t really pay attention to all the social media stuff,” Henderson said after Tuesday’s practice. “The biggest thing I know, people praise me now because I have this success. But I feel like it doesn’t come from true love. At the same time, people see me as a football player, so if things come crashing down, I know that love turns into hate. The biggest thing is I keep my eyes on God and focus on what he sees in me.”

Maye’s going to need Henderson to remain a reliable weapon out of the backfield if the Patriots are to reach their ceiling offensively in 2025. He’ll also need a receiver group led by DeMario Douglas, Stefon Diggs, Kayshon Boutte and Mack Hollins to outperform expectations.

Tuesday’s practice, which featured plenty of starter-on-starter work, provided a glimpse of how things might look for Maye with this season’s complement of weapons. The results were mixed, but they provided glimpses — particularly when Henderson got involved — of the kind of situational competency that head coach Mike Vrabel covets.

Let’s get to the details in our latest edition of Maye Watch…

Theme of the practice

This practice was all about 11-on-11 competition. Outside of their standard early-practice warmup, positional drills and a mid-practice field-goal period, full-team periods dominated the session.

At the end of the session was perhaps their most heated work, with the offense starting at its own 25-yard line with only 1:30 on the clock and having to drive for a field goal. That portion of practice was followed by a brief 15-seconds-left situation, where the offense had a shot to get chunk yardage before hustling the kicking team onto the field.

Crunching the numbers

Maye was 13-for-22 in 11-on-11 work, absorbing seven “sacks” on his first 18 dropbacks. The majority of those came via pressure looks from the Patriots defense, with Jabrill Peppers (two), Carlton Davis and Robert Spillane all getting into the backfield on blitzes. The coaching staff still seems to be sorting things out on the offensive line, with Ben Brown getting some starter snaps at center (replacing Garrett Bradbury) and left guard (replacing Jared Wilson).

Tuesday’s practice seemed to be another instance during which Maye settled in after a bit of a slower start. When counting completions on plays when Maye was sacked — which I typically omit from my 11-on-11 totals — he went 3-for-6 to start, then closed on a 14-for-20 (70 percent) heater that included a 6-for-8 run in the hurry-up period.

Maye targeted Boutte three times on his first four 11-on-11 throws of the practice, connecting on one. Boutte and Diggs (two catches from Maye) were targeted three times apiece by Maye. But it was DeMario Douglas (four catches from Maye) who led the team with five targets from Maye, followed by Hollins (two catches) and Hunter Henry (two catches) with four targets each.

Diggs’ involvement is worthy of note in that he hadn’t been as busy as other pass-catchers in recent practices during 11-on-11 periods. In two joint practices in Minnesota, with Maye dropping back to pass 48 times in full-team periods, Diggs was targeted three times total.

Perhaps an uptick in usage for Diggs on Tuesday — he also caught the one target sent his way by Josh Dobbs — is an indicator that he’s ramping up for the start of the regular season in two weeks.

Henderson was targeted only twice by Maye in 11-on-11 periods, but they came on back-to-back throws during a hurry-up period to get the Patriots into field-goal range.

Throw of the day

Maye’s best throw of the day was a seam pass he ripped to Henry that went for a huge gain in the end-of-practice hurry-up period.

Linebacker Christian Elliss was in close coverage on Henry, but Henry had a step on his defender, and when Maye saw Elliss’ back turned to the line of scrimmage, he pulled the trigger on a bullet that Henry snared once it buzzed past Elliss’ helmet.

Quote of note

Interior offensive lineman Ben Brown on the shuffling on the line, where Brown has seen reps at both center and guard with the starters:

“That’s something that’s not in our control. Every day we just have to go out there and do our job. That’s the most important thing. Am I doing what I can to contribute to this football team? That’s what we’re all focusing on right now.”