It's a short week. The Patriots are dealing with a litany of injuries. But they're making no excuses ahead of Thursday's matchup with the Jets at Gillette Stadium, with head coach Mike Vrabel calling the next few days an "all-hands-on-deck" stretch for his squad.

The compressed week also means we're opening our Mailbag a day early, and there's plenty to get to in this edition, from the narrative around Drake Maye to some bigger-picture assessments of the 8-2 Patriots.

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Let's dive right in.

Editor's Note: Some questions have been lightly edited for clarity.

That's just the nature of the beast, Kyle. You can quibble with how he scrambles, whether or not he protects himself well enough, or if he's a tad too aggress

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