Drake Maye's limited playing time in preseason opener was always the plan

The NFL returning was enough to get many fans to tune into Thursday's preseason action featuring the New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers, but a vast majority of fans tuned in with the idea of watching Drake Maye, the No. 3 overall pick from this past NFL Draft.

Maye did play, but barely. His professional debut lasted all but six plays. One drive was all Patriots fans got to see from their new franchise player, and the fans made sure to voice their opinion on the matter. This was right after Jacoby Brissett, the quarterback New England signed this past offseason, also played just one drive.

The game might've been meaningless, but Patriots fans wanted to get as much of a glimpse at their quarterback of the future as they could. After watching the quarterbacks who have taken snaps since Tom Brady left, who can blame them?

As frustrating as it was to see Maye get such limited playing time, new head coach Jerod Mayo confirmed that Maye (and Brissett) receiving just one drive was the plan all along.

Patriots confirm Drake Maye's limited playing time was always the plan

After hearing Mayo's explanation as to why Maye was limited to just one drive, his thought process does make some sense.

"If he's in there, you want him in there with the starting offensive line. We've gotta protect that guy."

He's right. Maye is the player that the Patriots must protect. He might not be their Week 1 starter in the regular season, but it wouldn't be shocking at all to see him start some games this season, and we know they're planning on having him be their future at the position. Ensuring that Maye is healthy, especially in a preseason game, has to be their No. 1 priority, so Maye should only realistically be out there with the starters on the offensive line.

"This is the first preseason game. We still have two left. He'll have plenty of opportunities to go against the two other teams before the regular season."

Their plan was to simply get Maye's feet wet, and he did just that, completing two of his three passes for 19 yards and a first down. The drive stalled after that first down was picked up, but as Mayo said, there are two other preseason games. It sure sounds as if he's going to play much more in those contests.

The most important thing to come out of this is that Mayo did get some playing time and left the game 100 percent healthy. Obviously the training wheels will have to come off at some point, but they had no reason to play him more than they did without the starting offensive line and in poor weather conditions. Assuming Mother Nature cooperates, Maye should show much more in their second game.