🏈 No more brakes on Drake?

Good Morning, Boston

🤷🏾‍♂️ Stop me if you’ve seen this before... Rafael Devers hit yet another pitch at his eyeballs out of the park for a home run. If anyone can explain how he keeps doing that, let me know. 

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What’s on tap today:

• Bello blowing hitters away

• The Pats’ real MVP

• Are you serious, Mahomes?

Let’s get into it…

LEADING OFF

He Maye be good …

The Patriots answered an important question last week: Who’s the best quarterback on the team? Throughout training camp, observers have had a few different opinions on that. By the time Thursday’s preseason game against the Eagles ended, the discussion felt finished. Drake Maye’s time is coming. It’s only a matter of “when.”

Maye shows he’s “ready” right now. The No. 3 overall pick wasn’t flawless in his first extended preseason appearance. But he displayed two important things:

• He knows enough of what he’s doing to run the Patriots offense.

• He can make truly S-tier-quarterback throws.

Presumed starter Jacoby Brissett knows what he’s doing, but struggles to throw the ball effectively. Meanwhile, electrifying sixth-round pick Joe Milton still launches 200-mile-per-hour rockets at teammates five yards away and makes mental mistakes.

Maye has plenty to learn, but the Patriots offense has looked the best with him on the field.

So much for a QB “controversy”. For some reason, Maye was labeled a massive project who had to sit as a rookie. Then came the reports about Milton, a sixth-round pick, supposedly outperforming Maye in early camp practices. However, live-action football has revealed the gap between them. Maye’s not as purely exciting as Milton, who does standing backflips in practice, runs around and through defenders like prime Cam Newton and launches the football into the stratosphere. But Maye is better at the finer details of quarterbacking, and that makes all the difference.

Maye’s slowly proving the Patriots right... New England’s patient plan for Maye has naturally received criticism in this town. Why draft him without a good offensive line or receivers already here? Why not play him more in preseason games? First, highly drafted QBs are expected to elevate their teams – fair or not – given that their rosters are usually horrible when they get there. Second, coach Jerod Mayo and company have brought Maye along at his own pace, allowing him to show when he was ready for the next challenge. Now, the starting job is within reach.

…And that’s why they drafted him. The Patriots could’ve chosen to punt on a QB in this year’s draft and opted to build out their roster for next year. They took Maye instead and put the future of the franchise squarely on his shoulders. Why? Because he convinced them he could take it. After all, you don’t grow up the baby of the Maye brothers and not develop some toughness. If the Patriots thought a tough rookie year would break him, he wouldn’t be here. But he is, and he’s now on the cusp of becoming QB1.

POLL

Let’s hear it!

BOSTON SPORTS

Quick hits & headlines

🔥 Brayan Bello is turning the corner. Saturday’s stellar outing in Baltimore, which included five innings of no-hit ball, has kept the 25-year-old righty’s hot streak going. In six games since the All-Star Break, opponents are hitting just .224 against Bello after hitting .277 in the first half of the season. His ERA over those six games is 3.44, which is way better than the 5.32 mark he put up before the break. He still walks too many hitters, but the Red Sox have to be thrilled with his progress.

💪🏿 Mike Onwenu might be the Patriots’ MVP. The Patriots were wise to extend Ownenu, their best lineman by far, this offseason with uncertainty at both offensive guard and tackle. He’s an elite guard – legitimately one of the league’s best. But he switched to right tackle last year out of necessity and only gave up three sacks, allowing New England to put its best five linemen on the field. That’s not easy, but Onwenu’s ability and willingness to do literally whatever the Patriots need – and do it well – is priceless.

🏋🏿‍♂️ Jaylen Brown workout SZN is here. In case you had any doubts about the timing Brown is on coming into this season, here he is lifting weights underwater and teaching his body not to fear the concept of drowning. Once you do that, what’s scary about hitting a game-tying 3-pointer with a few seconds left in a game? He and Jayson Tatum are about to come back this year like two green harbingers of doom, and there might be nothing the NBA can do to stop them. Take that, Grant Hill and Steve Kerr.

BEYOND BOSTON

Out-of-town report

Wow, Caleb Williams. Please, Patriots fans: don’t be mad when Maye doesn’t regularly do stuff like this. This is just different.

Tyreek Hill challenges Noah Lyles. The Cheetah told the Olympic champ at 100 meters to race him in a 50-yard dash to see who’s faster. That’s not even a real race, but Hill has to do something to make the race look close.

Boy, Daniel Jones is awful. No wonder the New York Giants tried to trade up for Maye. Remember Patriots fans: it could always be this bad.

Last Call

Caitlin Clark is great, but …

The Caitlin Clark takes are getting silly. There’s no doubt Clark should run away with the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year award and is already one of the best passers in the league. But if I hear one more person try to proclaim her the best player in the W or deserves the MVP award over A’ja Wilson, who’s having one of the greatest seasons we’ve ever seen, I will descend swiftly into madness. Just…watch Wilson play basketball.

The Best Thing I Saw in Sports

Seriously, Pat?

Patrick Mahomes goes And-1 on the Lions. The behind-the-back pass is wild enough. But Mahomes explaining he did this “out of spite” because Travis Kelce ran the wrong route is hilarious. At this point, Mahomes is just trolling everyone.

🗞 That’s a wrap. I’ll be getting Tommy John surgery after trying that throw at home.

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