Entering their preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles fresh off a pair of joint practices, the New England Patriots are expected to give their starters some rest.
Quarterback Drake Maye and the other core players on offense and defense are “unlikely” to take the field during the Patriots-Eagles exhibition contest on Saturday night, as first reported by Mike Reiss of ESPN. This means that Maye and company will not have seen any game action through two postseason games.
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The Patriots’ approach nonetheless comes as no surprise considering the quantity of reps over the two joint sessions with the Eagles on Wednesday and Thursday. Maye, for example, attempted a combined 36 passes during full-team drills alone.
“I think we had a lot of great work,” the 23-year-old said on Thursday.
“The biggest thing is that is a good football team over there, and I think just not riding the rollercoaster. I feel like we had some good periods that we were attacking them and had some good plays. Then we had some periods where we got to continue the competitive stamina, and that is the thing about this game: it can’t just be one play here, one play there. You got to string some plays together in a row, and I felt like we did that more [Wednesday] than we did [Thursday].”
With Maye not expected to take the field on Saturday, backup Tommy DeVito is again expected to start at quarterback. In last week’s preseason opener against the Colts, DeVito went 13-for-22 for 138 yards and a touchdown. The game ended in a 13-13 tie.
Kickoff for the Patriots’ second preseason game against the Eagles is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET at Gillette Stadium.
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