Patriots mailbag: It’s too early to worry about Drake Maye, Stefon Diggs

Sunday s matchup between the Patriots and Dolphins features two teams already looking to turn around their seasons in Week The Patriots and Dolphins both got off to disappointing starts Specific members of the Patriots fanbase are already starting to panic Let s talk them down a bit in this week s Patriots mailbag Related Articles Patriots cut training camp standout have open spot on -man roster Patriots-Raiders film review What went wrong for Drake Maye and Mike Vrabel s defense in Week Mike Vrabel explains why Patriots abandoned run in Week loss Mike Vrabel Patriots to evaluate Drake Maye s responsibilites Patriots Kayshon Boutte isn t surprised by Week breakout performance DeansDesk How worried should we be about Drake Maye Week is too early to be worried about Maye but we can t just assume that this giant leap is coming until we see it Maye indicated improvement during the spring over OTAs and minicamp But there wasn t an obvious upward trajectory during training camp and the preseason And then Maye looked like in specific options a less dangerous version of himself from last year in Week We need to see serious increase from Maye during the class of this season That s how Josh Allen s second season played out with the Bills and then he was one of the NFL s top quarterbacks in Year Allen was also coming into the league far less developed than Maye So the career arcs are definitely different and expecting Maye to become Allen a perennial MVP candidate is unrealistic One final thing It makes sense that the Patriots want to protect Maye and keep him away from unnecessary hits but if he s already struggling with accuracy and decision making taking away his explosive-play ability on the ground will only further hamper the offense Maye can t run on every play but he also can t be scared to take off Scott what were your thoughts on Diggs week performance and do you think it gets better as the season goes along I was personally surprised that Stefon Diggs only played of snaps He seemed ready to take on a full workload while speaking to the media last Wednesday He finished behind Kayshon Boutte and DeMario Douglas and only two snaps ahead of Mack Hollins in total offensive snaps against the Raiders That being announced I thought he looked fine It s fair to question if he can be a bona fide No wide receiver however Catching six passes on seven targets for yards given his diminished snap count is relatively impressive Extrapolate that over a full season and you re talking about nearly yards I think he will get better and more secure as the season goes along boom This is not an over reaction we all know work was not done on the WR room but Sunday was a stark reminder We still don t have anyone on offense with any kind of gravity Which WRs should we be watching in matter they shake loose Ceedee Lamb is the dream Anyone else Let s be fair anything after Week is a slight overreaction But yeah eventually the Patriots will need to go all-in on a legitimate top wide receiver whether that s through the draft or a bargain because those types of players never hit free agency Typically players are traded after Year If the Patriots were to deal for a wide receiver next offseason they d be looking at the NFL Draft class It wasn t a particularly strong one for wide receivers Nuggsy Bogue Should we expect Kayshon Boutte to continue to see a lot of targets each week Yes but it s allegedly unreasonable to expect him to go off for yards each week Boutte led all Patriots wide receivers in snaps in Week He was also playing nearly every offensive snap last season as well It s clear that Mike Vrabel Josh McDaniels and last year s coaching staff all trust Boutte as a blocker I still like Boutte s upside He looked like the next great LSU wide receiver early in his college career Injuries and off-field issues slowed him but he s feeling good and the coaching staff praised his maturity and professionalism this entire offseason Patsfan After watching last night Vikings offense struggle severely until the run tournament got going vs our points with no run match and stuck in mud do you see the run tournament as the the bulk significant part of the upcoming meeting s to help Drake Maye Yes improving and sticking with the run tournament should help the entire offense immensely Let s also point out that McCarthy made several big plays in the fourth quarter of that championship and put his club on his shoulders to win We know that Maye can do that but it was something that he lacked in Sunday s loss to the Vikings BobRyan Do you think we will be seeing more Kyle Williams and Efton Chism instead of guys like Mack Hollins If not this week how long will it take for a spark plug like Chism to not be a healthy scratch MailDoug The only real path for Chism to see substantial playing time would be at the expense of DeMario Douglas since both players are primarily slot receivers Douglas didn t have a great meeting on Sunday but I would be surprised if the Patriots were willing to make a switch there this soon And Hollins played nearly all of the Patriots rushing snaps So clearly the Patriots value his role as a blocker in the run championship Hollins is a much bigger athlete than Williams so once again I d be surprised if the Patriots were willing to make a switch there this early That being stated Williams is a speedy big-play threat at wide receiver and it s certainly worth carving out a limited snaps to give him a bigger role AndrewAM Should we start panicking about the Pass defense The Patriots were playing without their best pass defender last week with Christian Gonzalez out So it s too early to panic about the pass defense I thought Carlton Davis and Alex Austin played well and the Patriots generated significantly more pass rush than last year s defense Michael Will we run the ball more than times against Miami They absolutely need to The Patriots run blocking was seriously lacking against the Raiders but rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson especially demands to see more than five carries this week against the Dolphins He s a big-play threat every time he touches the ball and he can keep moving forward through contact