Mike Giardi

The Pats have dabbled in Seattle ‘stuff’ at various points during training camp, but Mike Vrabel told me they didn’t want to overwhelm their players.

"As I said a couple of days ago, as the head coach, I expect every player that's healthy and under contract to practice and to play," Vrabel said.

"I think it's an interesting dynamic; I've been on both sides," he said. “I think what's important for me is to try to communicate, to try to explain the players we really want to build around and have, and we've done that with Gonzo. Everybody knows that.

The last time we saw Drake Maye play a game that mattered, he - like his teammates - wasn’t good enough.

“I didn't do a good enough job. Point it at me. They 'out-everythinged' us in the game," McDaniels said, noting that Seattle did a good job with their rush concepts and when they did or didn’t blitz (and I’ll add, how they covered in some of those scenarios).

Who won? Both sides did, by acquiescing with a Week 1 deadline looming, though the organization actually surrendered more than the player did.

Everything you need to know from the Patriots’ 13-10 loss to the Seahawks in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:

On Wednesday night, Drake Maye reminded us he’s far from a finished product.

The Pats leaned heavily on bigger personnel and were very run-heavy on early downs, despite a 29% success rate. That number, were it to hold up over an entire season, would have been dead last in 2025.

After week one’s loss in Seattle, there are still plenty of reasons to be hopeful - a 10-0 lead in that environment is definitely noteworthy - but the negatives outweighed the positives, as reflected below.