ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — It’s a fine line that rookie quarterbacks are forced to tightrope.
The locker room is a delicate ecosystem where leadership roles are earned over time, but a team’s starting quarterback is inherently looked to as a leader. Catch-22. It’s a line that Mac Jones struggled with at times, but in Drake Maye, the Patriots have a player who’s growing more and more confident leading at 22 years old. Maye’s play on the field can’t hurt with that either, as he’s exceeded the lofty expectations that come with being the No. 3 overall pick. Everybody in New England’s locker room already believes in him.
Ahead of last month’s win over the Bears, Maye asked to address the entire offense because he thought practices had been too sloppy. He pointed the finger at himself, too. It wasn’t you need to be better. It was we need to be better — and here’s how we’re going to do it.
Maye certainly has the ear of his coaches, too.
After a week filled with headlines about Maye not running the football, the quarterback was chatting about it with his offensive coordinator behind closed doors, too. Maye was the only signal caller in the league without a designed run coming into Sunday’s loss at Buffalo, and against the Bills, his number was called four times. When asked about the game plan conversations this week, Maye made it clear that his voice was heard.
“I’m a big 6-5 dude that can pick up a yard or beat somebody with some speed. I think people underestimate me a little bit,” Maye said after Sunday’s 24-21 loss. “I think it helps us offensively to move the chains. At this point, we need some help whether it’s short yardage or different areas (like) down in the red zone for me to go make a play.”
As Maye’s postgame press conference rolled in a cramped room in the bowels of Highmark Stadium, the rookie’s voice grew even louder. Jerod Mayo has been embattled amidst a 3-12 first season, and there are even more questions about Alex Van Pelt’s job security. CBS cameras caught Jonathan Kraft criticizing his play-calling in Arizona, and the team president still hadn’t addressed it with Van Pelt as of last Thursday. Plenty of speculation about the offensive coordinator’s future followed.
For the first time since arriving in Foxborough, Maye really spoke up in a press conference. He’s heard enough criticism of his coaching staff.
“I think it’s some BS, to be quite honest,” Maye said. “Coach Mayo, we’ve got his back. He’s coaching us hard. He wants to win. We all want to win. We’re all frustrated. AVP has been, I feel like, calling it great these past (few) weeks. We’re just plays away. It’s me turning the ball over. I think it’s a testament to these guys to keep fighting, keep fighting.
“Shoot, we’re not going to make the playoffs. We’re out of the race and these guys are coming in, frustrated when we don’t score and they’ve got energy at practice. They’ve got energy coming to the game. We want to win. There’s guys not even playing that are yelling on the sidelines and wanting to win. So I think we’re building something good, building something that feels right here. And I’m proud to be a Patriot.”
A natural leader, Maye is finding his voice as New England’s quarterback of the future. And even if the rookie doesn’t speak directly to the Krafts about what his coaching staff will look like in 2025, Patriots ownership now knows exactly how he feels.
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