OL needs a complete overhaul. We knew this before the playoffs.
Wrs, LBs and kickers need upgrading. Feel they are below average units.
DL needs better edge rushers. One sack on Sam Darnold is crazy.
Maye and the secondary are the only things I'm sold on.
You?re sold on Maye even though he didn?t have any good games in the playoffs? He was solid in the regular season, but the competition wasn?t great. Next year will be telling, IMO.
While the quality of teams in the NFL varies, the saying "any given Sunday" is used because every NFL team has a chance to win every Sunday. Drake Maye played against NFL teams with NFL athletes all season and won 17 out of 21 times.
The defenses he faced in the playoffs were consistently strong and his offensive line was bad. That's a disastrous combination. Nonetheless the team won 3 playoff games. Yes, his performance was not on par with the regular season, but he did what he needed to do to make it to a Super Bowl in his second season. I think it's more likely he learns from this experience and gets better for it than he was traumatized and will be developmentally stuck. And since none of us knows for sure what will happen, I guess I just prefer to think he'll be good moving forward than he'll be bad.
I am MUCH more sold on the idea that Maye is at the start, barring injury, of a very successful career than I am sold on the idea that he will forever wilt under pressure. Show me the other second year QBs in the league today who have won 3 playoff games. And how many have been to the Super Bowl? Just having had this experience puts him ahead of other young, talented QBs in the league.
I am WAY more concerned about building an offensive line that can protect and run block. Do that, add a top flight receiver, and I think Pats will be in the mix for SB61. And Drake will continue to develop, which is the grace afforded every other 23 year old QB.
Drake didn?t win the playoff games, though. The defense and run game did. Darnold isn?t a great QB, but he won that game against the Rams. 3 TDs/356 yards. Drake had zero good games in the postseason. Hopefully he can learn from this and perform better in the postseason. We shall see..
Maye finished 2nd in MVP voting. You don't just luck into that.
He had a passer rating over 100 in a playoff game this year (with 3 passing TD's in that game) and was better than Darnold in many respects in the SB (better passer rating, nearly 300 yards, 2 TD). All his games weren't like the Denver game (which mind you was in a snow storm against an elite defense).
Drake was good in the regular season and bad in the playoffs. If you think that he was better than Darnold in the SB, I will have what you are having. Maye had a QBR of 16. It was probably the worst performance I?ve seen in a SB.
Sam completed just 50% of his throws. He badly missed one many and is pretty lucky to not have thrown multiple picks. He was off all night, he just didn't turn it over. There is a reason that Drake had a better passer rating than Sam even with the turnovers. Neither played particularly well in the SB.
Seattle won because they ran the ball and New England did not. Seattle stuck with what got them there, NE did not. The Patriots were significantly out schemed and out coached. The Pats didn't start to move the ball until the Pats took the training wheels off after the game was basically over. They clearly didn't trust Drake, but they also forgot to run the ball. You can't play a conservative passing game if you aren't going to run it (they had just 4 designed runs in the 3rd quarter for 19 yards and 0 in the 4th quarter). NE's game plan was basically do nothing on offense and hope Seattle turns it over. Not a way to win a game and a very good way to lose, which is exactly what happened.
As for worst SB, no where close. I mean even the great Patrick Mahomes has had a horrid SB in the past. Perhaps you remember the Brady Bucs taking the Chiefs to the woodshed. Mahomes in that game had 1 TD and 2 INT with a passer rating of 52.3. Or the year before with Jimmy G and his 69.2 with 2 picks and 1 td and just 219 yards. Mahomes wasn't a lot better in that one with a very similar stat line to Maye i.e. 286 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT, and 2 fumbles (though neither was lost). Passer rating 78.1. Of course Mahomes won that game because Jimmy was awful. Year before that was the 13-3 Brady/Goff debacle of a SB where they were both bad. Manning/Newton SB was also a real gem where the QB's combined for 0 TD, 2 INT, 4 fumbles (3 lost), and 11 sacks. Manning edged Newton in passer rating 56.6 to 55.4.
Those are in the last 11 years alone. Maye did not play very well, but neither did Darnold but both were better than a whole host of QB's in the SB in just the last 11 seasons alone, including some of the best to ever play.
