The start of the Drake-Maye era and everything else to watch for with the Patriots-Texans

FOXBORO – A new era of New England football will begin Sunday with the acquisition of Drake Maye as the Patriots' starting quarterback. The No. 3 overall pick was handed the keys to the Patriots' offense, which will hopefully give us a glimpse into the future while improving the present.

He has a lot to overcome this weekend, including a duel with a strong Houston defense. It's not the ideal time to start Maye, but here we are. Head coach Jerod Mayo said the change in energy was crystal clear in his week of practice, with Maye leading the show.

“You can feel it before you see it,” Mayo said Friday. “The boys are locked in and ready to go. They run back to the huddle and are ready for the next rep. That’s encouraging.”

Expectations will be high and the end results will likely be the same when the clock hits zero on Sunday, but the added excitement and tremendous encouragement is undeniable. That's what we'll expect from Maye and the Patriots as the rookie quarterback leads the team onto the field for the first time in his career.

Maye Day in New England

All anyone really cares about is Drake Lee Maye's game. He has the franchise and fan base excited for what could be coming, and the Patriots will finally start building something on Sunday.

We'll see how much, if at all, the playbook changes when Maye returns. The Pats want to make things easy for the rookie, and Rhamodnre Stevenson potentially missing the game won't help his cause.

But we'll get plenty of chances to see if the kid can play with his big arm and athleticism. Expect a lot of shotgunning and a lot of improvisation from Maye out of necessity. The Texans will be pushing — they sacked fellow rookie Caleb Williams seven times and subbed him twice in Week 2 — so Maye should have plenty of opportunities to go off script and try to make something out of nothing.

That alone will provide plenty of excitement for Patriots fans on Sunday. But just be prepared for a lot of mistakes and rookie mistakes. It's all part of the process. Maye's first NFL pass was almost deflected in his brief appearance in Week 3 against the Jets, and he's facing a really good defense this weekend. It's not the ideal starting point for a 22-year-old rookie, but the Patriots felt Maye was ready and it was time to make a change.

A big key will be that the Patriots don't fall short too soon – or at least not fall short too early – and give the kid a chance. An early deficit will put Maye in a lot of obvious passing situations, and that's when the Texans will really push.

Maye has worked hard to get to this point. He's made the adjustments to address his footwork issues in practice, and the hope is that he doesn't fall back into any bad habits with all the pressure coming his way on Sunday. And he will see it a lot Pressure from the Texans.

Further progress from the Patriots' O-line?

Maye is thrown out against a talented Houston defense that targets the quarterback more than any other team in the NFL. And he'll be playing behind one of the NFL's most worrisome offensive lines.

But at least it should be the same offensive line that played last weekend, which would be the first time this season that the Patriots have started the same line in consecutive weeks. And the group we saw last week — from left to right: Vederian Lowe, Michael Jordan, Nick Leverett, Michael Onwenu and Demontrey Jacobs — wasn't it The bad. The group allowed pressure on 43.8 percent of Jacoby Brissett's dropbacks, which was actually a season low for New England this season.

Let's see if some continuity in this group, along with Maye's athleticism, can prevent the Texans' pass rush from completely ruining the rookie's first career start on Sunday. That won't be easy to avoid, however, as Houston had a pretty dominant performance against the Bills, with Josh Allen running for his life (receiving nine hits) and throwing for just 131 yards in Week 5.

How much will New England's receivers benefit from having Maye at quarterback?

With Maye as QB, the deep ball will be on the line again for the Patriots. New England receivers need to be pumped up.

The child can throw a beautiful ball into the field and loves to let it go. Let's see if that means anything for guys like Ja'Lynn Polk, Kendrick Bourne and even Kayshon Boutte (who had his best overall game last week) on Sunday. The hope is that Maye will improve his receivers' play and that those receivers will actually have good deep passes in their direction when flying past opposing secondaries.

But since Maye is a 22-year-old rookie starting his first career game, he will likely rely heavily on DeMario Douglas for quick passes. Expect a big day from Douglas that could help the rest of the offense break through in Week 6.

CJ Stroud is really good and a lot of fun to watch

Patriots fans are probably tired of seeing opposing quarterbacks light up the Patriots. But CJ Stroud is one of those quarterbacks that you watch and say “Wow” about a dozen times a game.

Stroud established himself as one of the NFL's best young quarterbacks last season, throwing for 4,100 yards, 23 touchdowns and just five interceptions on his way to winning Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. He's off to another great start this year and continues to show the total package with a big arm and great mobility. Stroud can do everything the Patriots hope Maye can do.

Stroud won't have Nico Collins (one of the NFL's best receivers) available on Sunday, but he still has Tank Dell and Stefon Diggs in his arsenal. Houston's offense isn't in full swing yet, so perhaps the Patriots can keep them from really taking the spotlight. But if New England's defense falters at any point, Stroud will make them pay dearly.

BONUS: Will the Patriots clean things up?

The Patriots were flagged 14 times last weekend and a dozen of those penalties were accepted by the Dolphins. These infractions varied in questionable nature – such as Leverett's false start barely Postponing the football pre-snap – the annoying way. Twelve men on the field for a Miami punt and Keion White's tackle on the passer on third down (which negated a New England stop) fit the latter category . Christian Elliss' DPI, which negated a third-and-13 stop by the defense in the fourth quarter, gets its own category as the team's worst of all penalties and proved to be the real setback in the loss that resulted in Miami's go-ahead score the touchdown.

No matter how the quarterback plays, no team is going to win by putting that much laundry on the field. Hopefully the Patriots play a much cleaner game on Sunday and keep the referees out of this game.

Tune in to Patriots-Texans on WBZ-TV – your New England Patriots television home! Pregame coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. with Patriots GameDay (which you can also stream on CBSBoston.com), kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m., and after the game stick around for in-depth reaction and See analysis of the Patriots' 5th quarter!