Posted on | August 9, 2025 | No Comments
After six months of enduring the off-season — forced to subside on nothing but speculation and rumors from NFL commentators — we are finally approaching real football, as the pre-season exhibition games are now underway. Of course, the outcomes of pre-season games don’t mean anything, and you can’t even evaluate the relative strength of teams, because so much of the playing time goes to rookies and scrubs who will be lucky if they get signed for some team’s practice squad.
Nevertheless, some starters actually take the field during pre-season, and we have learned a little bit from the games so far. Consider the fact that the projected QB1 for the Indianapolis Colts, Anthony Richardson, lasted just seven plays Friday night before leaving the game with a dislocated finger after he got sacked by Baltimore Ravens linebacker David Ojabo.
Ojabo probably locked down a roster spot with that play, blitzing off the left side of the defense (which is the right side of the offense), but what does it tell us about Anthony Richardson’s abilities? NFL analyst Chase Daniel, who spent 14 seasons as a backup quarterback in the league, offered a brutal breakdown of the video on that play:
Let me explain why this is 100% on Anthony Richardson & not on the Line or RB. https://t.co/LwYA8dbB9f pic.twitter.com/M6u9RXKotF
— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) August 8, 2025
Richardson’s “pre-snap read” of the defense was wrong. He was looking at the cornerback on his left as the potential blitzer, rather than Ojabo on his right. He never even looked to his left once the ball was snapped. In explaining what Richardson did wrong on the play, Chase Daniel calls it a “Day One install” issue — very basic. What Richardson should have done (being “hot,” with the free blitzer coming from his right) was to dump the ball quickly to his running back (also on the right), which might have actually gotten big yardage, but certainly would have prevented the sack.
Anthony Richardson is not an NFL starting quarterback, period. The weird thing about this situation is that the Colts could have saved themselves a lot of woe just by listening to my brother Kirby.
My brother didn’t play in the NFL, but he lives and breathes Southeastern Conference football, and he saw enough of Anthony Richardson at the University of Florida to know he wasn’t NFL caliber. The statistics from Florida, where Richardson only started 13 games during his entire collegiate career and completed less than 54% of his passes his senior year, are impossible to reconcile with him being a first-round pick — #4 overall — in the 2023 NFL draft. Yet that’s where Indianapolis drafted him, but now he’s injured (again) and so the Colts will have to rely on ex-Giants QB Daniel Jones. Basically, Indianapolis wasted their 2023 first-round pick because they let themselves be distracted by the “athletic, mobile, dual-threat” hype. But he can’t read defenses, and what good is a quarterback who can’t read defenses? Meanwhile, in New England . . .
Am I trying to trash Drake Maye? No. But do I still hold a grudge against the Patriots for their mistreatment of my boy Mac Jones? Yes, of course.
Mac’s now with the 49ers, doing just fine as the projected QB2 behind Brock Purdy, and probably I should just forget about New England and move on, but I can’t. Mac got unfairly scapegoated for what went wrong during his three seasons with the Patriots. Any honest analyst could see that the biggest problem in Foxboro was the offensive line. The running game wasn’t working and the pass protection was lousy, and Mac got “sped up” so badly it wrecked his confidence and decision-making.
Anyway, after the Patriots cut Mac Jones, they drafted Drake Maye in the first round. Maye is another one of those “athletic, mobile, dual-threat” type of quarterbacks who get endlessly hyped by sports media nowadays. Ever since Patrick Mahomes first took the Kansas City Chiefs to the Super Bowl in the 2019 season, every NFL teams seems to be hunting for “the next Mahomes,” and Drake Maye’s collegiate career at the University of North Carolina certainly makes him a promising prospect. In two seasons as the starting QB for the Tarheels, Maye passed for nearly 8,000 total yards and ran for another 1,300-plus yards. Not throwing any shade on him, but New England’s offensive line is still suspect.
So here’s Drake Maye getting strip-sacked on third down:
Pressure from the left side leads to a Drake Maye strip sack.
Commanders miss the ensuing field goal.
Maye seems set to return. @abc6 #nepats #patscamp pic.twitter.com/Nw0QfEA88v
— Ian Steele (@RealianSteele6) August 8, 2025
What happened? Well, to begin with, Maye seemed to have gotten the crazy idea that he could depend on his offensive line to protect him for more than two seconds, an idea which the recent history of the Patriots would demonstrate to be utter folly. If you’re a quarterback in New England and your first read isn’t open, you’re not likely to find your second read before you get buried by the defensive rush.
Feeling the pressure from his right, Maye begins rolling to his left, but just then, Redskins Commanders tackle Johnny Newton fights through a block and comes rushing head-on. Newton grabs Maye who — relying on his vaunted athleticism — is still trying to throw the ball when it slips out of his hand for a fumble. Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel later had strong words about Mayes’ error:
Mike Vrabel on Drake Maye’s turnover:
“That’s a bad decision. I think we’re gonna need better from him, and I think he knows that and that’s obvious.”
–@CLNSMedia #Patriots #NFL pic.twitter.com/yspjz7Hv51— Patriots on CLNS (@PatriotsCLNS) August 9, 2025
Translation: Throw the damned ball away.
Although I consider Drake Maye head-and-shoulders above Anthony Richardson, Maye nevertheless has the common weakness of “dual-threat” quarterbacks, namely a tendency to try to play Superman. Every NFL fan has been amazed at the ability of Patrick Mahomes to get away with this kind of stuff, throwing off-balance while in the grasp of a defender and yet, by some arcane wizardry, getting the completion. Mahomes is a unique talent, however, and Drake Maye’s attempt to imitate that wizardry was, as Coach Vrable said, “a bad decision.”
The Patriots are almost certain to do better this season than they did last year, because when you’re 4-13, it’s difficult to do worse. Drake Maye is going to be a fine quarterback, eventually, unless he suffers a career-ending injury because that crappy New England offensive line can’t protect him — which is at least a 50/50 likelihood.
Anyway, I’m glad Mac Jones is with San Francisco now, and the 49ers play their first preseason game tonight against the Broncos in Denver, so it will be almost — almost — like real football.
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