Patriots Insider Tom Curran: Why TreVeyon Henderson’s Role Isn’t Bigger

One completed pass is all it would have taken, in Tom Curran's view, to keep an entire region from debating whether the Patriots quarterback and his head coach still like each other.

"All Drake Maye had to do was complete that pass at the end of the Seahawks game to Mack Hollins, and nobody's talking about any of this stuff," Curran told Rich.

The NBC Sports Boston insider and Patriots Talk Podcast host traced the noise for the show. Dan Orlovsky wondered aloud whether Mike Vrabel and Maye were a compatible match, even while saying he still had confidence in the quarterback. Colin Cowherd floated the idea that Josh McDaniels might be rubbing Maye the wrong way. Then Greg Hill on WEEI said an insider had whispered that there was trouble afoot. Curran, for his part, admitted that sometimes "when you're casting about for reasons and issues," people land on things without anybody whispering anything at all.

Rich offered his own read on why the speculation has run wild: "Sports nature abhors a vacuum." Maye looked so good for so long last season that nobody has a ready explanation for why it looks so opposite now.

So is Kurt Warner right that Maye is in a crisis of confidence? Curran agreed, and said the problem goes back further than this season.

"It really stretches back to when he's played good teams, period," Curran said. He counted it as a seven-game stretch dating to last year's playoffs: seven fumbles in the postseason alone, 15 turnovers in those seven games and 30 sacks. He thinks Maye misses Stefon Diggs, "certainly misses A.J. Brown," and has been rattled after taking "a whole crap ton of heat" for mistakes against Seattle and Pittsburgh. Now, in the words of Curran's mother, "he kind of doesn't know whether to poop or go blind."

Rich noted Vrabel's golf analogy about gripping the club too hard and chasing an ace on every swing. Curran said the internal approach is mostly a plow-through-it mentality, and then reached for a comparison from his own beat. He has covered four starting quarterbacks since 1997: Drew Bledsoe, Tom Brady, Mac Jones and Maye. He sees "Bledsoe-ian tendencies" in the decision-making.

"I think with both Bledsoe and Maye you have gunslinger mentalities which sometimes would bristle at being reined in," Curran said. His exhibit was the interception against Seattle, with New England up 10-3 early in the fourth quarter on second and nine, when Maye threw a 45-yard ball into double coverage intended for Romeo Doubs. Afterward Maye said he needed to be patient, the same thing he said before last year's playoffs.

"They just wanted him to put his hands at 10:00 and 2:00," Curran said. "They're just not a good enough team for him to go out and throw picks."

Late in the segment, Chris relayed that McDaniels had just told reporters Maye's shoulder "got dinged" but had not affected the week four game plan. Curran noted Maye was a full participant in practice and said the shoulder is beside the point. "This isn't a shoulder issue. This is a decision-making issue. And Maye said that."

Rich asked when A.J. Brown is coming back. Curran was candid that he was guessing, but his guess was not short. Brown is dealing with a high ankle sprain, and Curran said a bigger, slightly older receiver whose routes rely on so much force could find it hard to return with the same explosiveness.

"If he's not back in the saddle by the end of the month, I wouldn't be surprised," Curran said. "So, maybe early November." He then added a disclaimer worth printing in full: "That is a full-on outright unadulterated unabashed guess."

Rich laid out why Sunday in Buffalo feels enormous. A loss drops New England to 1-3 while the Bills would be 4-0, putting the Patriots basically three and a half games back in a division they are trying to repeat in, with wild card tiebreakers on the line down the road. Last year, Rich pointed out, the Patriots went into Buffalo at .500, Maye "balled out," and it sparked a win streak.

Curran would not call it a must-win, and his reasoning was not exactly comforting. There is still time to get to 10 wins over the final 13 games, but "they barely have a pulse right now. They're the worst offense in football." He cited one touchdown and six picks, Buffalo averaging 33.7 points per game, Josh Allen accounting for 11 touchdowns, and Greg Rousseau playing like "a one-man wrecking crew." Injuries are stacking up too, with Christian Gonzalez missing practice with a shoulder and Craig Woodson likely out at safety.

"Buffalo is not looking at the Patriots and going, 'Uh-oh, these guys beat us last year,'" Curran said. "They're going, 'Whoa, these guys fell off.'"

Curran also said the Patriots would redo the decision to let Kayshon Boutte go to Houston, a move he tied to Boutte not playing special teams. Without Brown, he said, the only receiver with real size is Doubs, so an inaccurate quarterback is throwing to targets "no bigger than pylons."

Rich admitted he was thrilled when TreVeyon Henderson left the Big Ten, calling him "such a home run hitter," and asked the obvious question: why isn't he getting more touches?

"Yes, we have asked," Curran said. Part of the answer is Rhamondre Stevenson, who looked good all summer in training camp and in a couple of the early games, including a strong night against Seattle even though the offense as a whole struggled.

The other part is about Henderson himself. Curran thinks Henderson is the kind of back who needs volume to find a rhythm, and the cameo role is showing.

"His timing isn't great when he gets on the field and he's just doing cameos," Curran said. "Sometimes he's hesitant and other times he's running into the offensive lineman like he's the last guy trying to get on a subway."

If Curran could ask McDaniels one thing, it would be simple: can you get the ball to him in space? He imagines the answer would be yes, they are trying, but they are also trying 12 other things at the same time.

The bigger issue, in Curran's view, is that the Patriots lack a tight end answer in what he calls a tight end driven league. The rookie from Notre Dame got hurt last week, and Hunter Henry is off to a really poor start after a great season last year. That leaves a scattershot quarterback without the safety valve he needs, which loops right back to everything else wrong in New England right now.