Some Patriots news and notes on this Wednesday:

What Patriots Retaining Young Core Means For State Of Franchise

The Patriots primarily used their massive amount of cap space this offseason to retain their homegrown core players, and it could be a positive sign for New England in the post-Bill Belichick era.

Head coach Jerod Mayo admitted he made a “rookie mistake” when he set lofty expectations of free agent signings. That didn’t come to fruition, but there does appear to be buy-in from the Patriots’ young core.

Mike Onwenu, Joshua Uche, Anfernee Jennings, Kyle Dugger and Christian Barmore were among the notable players who signed extensions with the Patriots this offseason. Barmore’s contract will make him one of the highest-paid defensive tackles.

“This team drafts, develops and keyword retains talent,” Travis Thomas said on Wednesday’s edition of NESN’s “Boston Has Entered The Chat.”

Thomas viewed the signings as a “new day” for the Patriots. However, George Balekji pushed back and argued New England only would be a destination if external players chose to sign. Calvin Ridley, one of the best free agents available this offseason, chose to sign with the Tennessee Titans over the Patriots.

Balekji believes there was a positive that players saw in working for Mayo and first-year defensive coordinator Demarcus Covington. While Uche didn’t sign a lucrative contract, he could have a breakout season under the new Patriots regime and sign a deal he’s seeking.

Thomas viewed the desire to retain players like Barmore and Dugger at high-priced contracts as a new version of the “Patriot Way,” where players are valued and re-signed to big deals but not contracts that “break the bank.”

You can check out the Wednesday edition of “Boston Has Entered The Chat” in the YouTube video embedded above.

Maye Had a Bad Habit to Break

Heading into his rookie season, New England Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye has a variety of things he needs to work on from a fundamentals standpoint as he looks to transition himself to the next level.

His footwork is one big issue he needs that has been discussed, along with the fact that he was also a bit notorious for throwing off his back foot while making throws.

The latter situation is similar to what we saw from Mac Jones, albeit Maye was able to get away with it because, unlike Jones, he’s so much stronger that he was often able to still complete the pass.

Those are things that simply take time, and the hope is that New England’s offensive line will get to a point where Maye will have more time to operate.  Those throws often come when the protection breaks down, which ultimately contributed to Jones regression.  That’s something they’ve already begun making moves toward avoiding this time around, addressing the offensive line twice last weekend as part of Maye’s 2024 Patriots Draft class.

Still, Maye’s also a much bigger player.  The nearly 6’5″ former Tarheel certainly checks the boxes when it comes to the physical tools, and he’s also extremely athletic.  His ability to get out of the pocket and also make plays with his feet caused him to draw comparisons to Buffalo’s Josh Allen, with Maye also using his size to his advantage in college as he ran upfield.

But apparently, there was a stretch where Maye, who is also a former high school basketball star, had a tendency to try and leap over defenders due to his vertical leap and his athleticism.

Former high school teammate and friend Duwe Ferris told the Charlotte Observer that it was something that coaches had to repeatedly tell Maye to stop doing because he was still doing it at the college level at times at North Carolina.

“In high school, he would always try to jump over people, and he did because he was so much bigger,” said Farris. “So there are all these great plays where it looks like he is just dunking the football over somebody on a QB run. “But then in college, his coaches were like, ‘You cannot do that.’ It took him a while, I think, to get it out of his system.”

Allen is another player who relied on his size and his athleticism after getting to the NFL and started piling up the hits.  He admitted just last year that he had to start getting smarter about getting down and not taking the same punishment.

Guys at this level are much bigger and faster, with the hits significantly harder than what both Allen and Maye experienced in college.  Allen’s learned this lesson the hard way, while the hope is that Maye will avoid those missteps when his time eventually comes.

He was asked about when he might see the field this season on Monday on WEEI, with the rookie admitting the goal is just to learn and then be ready when his number is finally called.

“I’m looking forward to help the Patriots any way [I can],” said Maye.  “Obviously, that’s the goal, but ready for anything that happens. I think one of the best things about being a 21-year-old coming in there is get ready to learn and just soak it all in. And if I’m the best guy, I think Coach Mayo kind of said that, he said that publicly, if the best guy is going to play. So if it happens to be me, I’m ready to go and if it’s not, I’m going to prepare like it and compete and learn as much as I can from the other guys to get ready to do that.”

Patriots Add Linebacker Ximines

The Patriots made a signing on Tuesday, with the club reportedly agreeing to terms with former Giants linebacker, Oshane Ximines.

The 28-year old has spent the past five seasons in New York after being selected in the 3rd round back in 2019.  He’s appeared in 48 regular season games, piling up 69 tackles along with 6.5 sacks, and 6 passes defended.  He also has one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.

His best year came during his rookie season, where Ximines finished with 25 tackles along with 4.5 sacks.  His last big year came in 2022 where he finished with 24 tackles and two sacks.

He played in just three games last season due to a quad injury, ending with three tackles before the Giants ultimately released him following New York’s Week 13 win over New England.

The former Old Dominion standout made a little history by being drafted, becoming the first player in the school’s history to be selected in the NFL draft.  He set records at the time for the university after finishing with a total of 33 career sacks, including 12.5 in 2018.

His addition currently has the New England Patriots roster sitting at 89, with one open spot on its 90-man roster remaining with less than two months to go before training camp.

Odds and Ends

Patriots linebacker Joshua Uche told reporters on Tuesday that he decided to follow his “heart” in his decision to sign a one-year deal to come back to New England  “There were some options on the table, but in my heart, I felt that I was destined to be a Patriot,” said Uche via Boston.com’s Conor Ryan.  “Despite what I was offered, I felt like this was my calling to be a Patriot.” Uche reportedly had several offers, including a multi-year deal from one team that was said to be worth up to $15 million.  Instead, he settled for a one-year deal in New England that could be worth up to $8 million, deciding to simply remain in a place where he feels at home.  “I felt like it’s what I was destined to do,” said Uche.  “It’s where I went to be. I don’t want to be anywhere else. So, gotta do what you gotta do — follow your heart.” … Down in Jacksonville, to no one’s surprise, the Jaguars have reportedly declined to pick up Mac Jones’ 5th year option.  The former first-round pick is now set to compete with veteran C.J. Beathard for the backup option behind Trevor Lawrence. … Ironically, the 193rd overall pick the Patriots acquired in that trade with Jacksonville turned out to be Tennessee QB, Joe Milton.  Milton has a cannon for an arm and he’s a big strong player, but it remains to be seen what kind of role he’ll ultimately carve out here. …  Head coach Jerod Mayo talked about Milton on Monday, noting that if nothing else, he’ll likely play a big role in their preparation.  “He’ll give us a good look defensively,” said Mayo.  “We start going offense versus defense, having a guy that size, but we’re going to play some of those guys as well. So we’ll see what he can do.” … Both rookie receivers Javon Baker and Ja’Lynn Polk are already getting some work in, with a video appearing on Instagram in a Story under Sports and Fitness specialist coach Steph Brown of both working in some drills this week.  The two are both certainly exciting players, with the hope that they’ll provide a much-needed boost to an offense that was stagnant for much of 2023.