The Patriots broke the huddle trailing 13-7 in the second quarter at Soldier Field in Chicago last Thursday night, facing a 1st-and-10 at their own 32-yard line.

With the offense in a two-tight-end set, QB Drake Maye has three receivers to his right, and rookie TE Eli Raridon is the only receiver to his left in a 3x1 formation. The Bears match the Pats heavy personnel grouping in base defense, with Chicago's defensive front aligning with six rushers up on the line of scrimmage. As the offense's conductor, Maye slides the protection to his left to account for five of the six potential rushers, knowing the blitzer furthest to his right would be unblocked if S Cam Lewis blitzes.

At the snap, all six rushers blitz for the Bears, with Chicago playing man coverage in the back end. Lewis is unblocked, a free runner to the quarterback. Maye looks left, hoping RB Corey Kiner will sneak into the flat as a quick option, but Bears LB Noah Sewell peels off the rush to take away Kiner's release. Now, it's a scramble drill.

This season, the Pats QB has become the NFL's most dangerous out-of-structure quarterback, ranking fourth in how often he extends plays (16.4%). According to NextGen Stats, Maye leads 33 qualified quarterbacks in completions (21), passing yards (449), passer rating (132.7), and EPA per play (+0.40) on extended drop-backs (four or more seconds). Maye has added +17.4 total EPA on scramble drills this season, with the next closest QB, Ravens backup Tyler Huntley, adding less than a third of that as the second-most effective out-of-structure playmaker (+5.0).

"I certainly value that from Drake and his ability to extend plays. Sometimes you can't block them all, or you don't block them very well at all. Sometimes somebody makes a play, and Drake extends and either runs or keeps his eyes down the field like he did a few times there when we needed to have some plays," head coach Mike Vrabel said.

Back to Chicago, Maye rolled to his right after avoiding Lewis in the backfield. At the same time, WR Efton Chism III broke off his shallow crossing route and returned to the sideline, mirroring Maye's movements. Chism separates from Bears CB Tyrique Stevenson, and Maye finds him for a 16-yard gain.

"Getting open for him, especially when he starts to scramble, is just trying to find space, trying to be available for him. When it breaks down, you never know who is going to get the ball and when you're going to get the ball. More often than not, a lot of those scramble plays end up in explosives, so trying to give him an opportunity to get a positive play going," Chism said. "In that play, I saw him going to my left and I just wanted to be, like I said, I wanted to be available for him. He does such a great job of extending plays."

Along with his great athleticism, Maye having the controls at the line of scrimmage aids him in extending plays. The Patriots are one of the few offenses where the quarterback sets protections before the snap. In most systems, that responsibility falls on the center. Controlling the protections lets Maye anticipate where the pressure might come from, and the rest, as teammate Hunter Henry said, is instinct. Henry, a steady presence since Maye's rookie season, has great chemistry with the Pats QB on scramble drills.

"He's super athletic, so just using his legs and being able to improvise and we all just have to work with him," Henry said. "It's just a feel thing. I think reps, obviously, like actual game reps, just allow you to get a feel for each other."

The other Patriots receiver who has been highly effective on extended drop-backs is DeMario Douglas. Douglas's feel for scramble drills comes from playing with current Dolphins QB Malik Willis at Liberty University. The Patriots will, of course, see Willis on Sunday. Douglas's seven catches are tied for the most in the NFL, and he ranks second in receiving yards (124), with a perfect 158.3 passer rating when targeted on extended drop-backs. Douglas stressed the importance of getting in the quarterback's "vision" when Maye begins to scramble.

"Shoot, just get in his path, in his vision so he can see me and get open. Wherever the defenders aren't, that's where I want to go," Douglas said. "We did a lot of scramble drills [at Liberty with Malik Willis]. That's where I really worked on that and I just brought it up here."

Although there's heavy improvisation, the coaching staff and Maye himself outlined how the Patriots practice scramble drills and the rules they implement to maximize off-script plays. Like most offenses, New England has a science to how it operates out of structure. In particular, Maye stressed the importance of having routes at different levels when he starts to scramble.

"One of the biggest things is that you want a deep element, an intermediate element and an outlet that you can throw to, and also me running is another option," Maye said. "The best thing I liked about our guys lately, they've been getting their eyes back to me. Make sure they're looking for the ball, trying to see space, and not trying to run into the same area. I think usually when you're trying to go one way, you either try to settle or work to the sideline. I think oftentimes you get in trouble when you're trying to work back across the field, away from where I'm going.

"The guys have got a great feel for it. I always tell them to try to come back to the football and keep coming back to it. Even if you're running downhill and you end up with a 3-yard catch, it's better than throwing it away," Maye continued. " It's 100% something you can practice. I think it's hard when you're trying to play on time and throughout practice trying to hit passing game looks. But every now and then you get out there, and the scout team does a good job of covering something up. I try to get outside in the red zone or maybe on third down and try to make something happen."

While echoing Maye's sentiments about running routes at different levels, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said Vrabel builds scramble drills into the Patriots' practices.

"It may look helter-skelter, but hopefully it's a little bit more organized than that," McDaniels said. "It's not an easy thing to practice if you want to do it without telling the players that it's coming. Mike (Vrabel) has done a good job since we've been together here in the last two years of allowing some of the plays in practice to just kind of play out. He encourages the quarterbacks to go ahead and break contain and practice that instead of blowing the whistle, blowing the play dead.

"You want to try to mirror where the quarterback is heading. If he's running to our right, we would love for all our skill players to run in the same direction, or at least most of them. And then you have to look in front of you because if somebody is standing over there on the sideline, then maybe you pick either a deeper or shorter avenue to pursue so that we don't have two or three guys standing in the same area. You never really want the quarterback to throw the ball back toward the middle of the field once he's broken the pocket. We try as best as we can to get those guys not to do that, as tempting as it is."

Although the goal is always for the play to work as designed, not every play will be executed perfectly in the NFL, and defenses also have a say in how well play designs work. That's why we're seeing quarterbacks who can operate out of structure taking over the league: do you have the athleticism and instincts to make a play when nothing is there initially? It's almost become a requirement for quarterbacks to create off-script plays to survive in today's NFL.

Based on the data and film, the Patriots have one of the NFL's best out-of-structure playmakers in Drake Maye.

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