- This is an excerpt from a longer profile on Drake Maye’s leadership. You can find the full story here.
Heading into the 2025 season, this is Drake Maye’s offense.
Jacoby Brissett is gone — the veteran signed with Arizona — and when Week 1 rolls around, fans in Foxborough will look to Maye to lift the Patriots back toward prosperity in the wake of two 4-13 seasons.
In Mike Vrabel, New England hired a no-bones-about-it leader at the top of their organization. But to step forward as contenders, Maye will need to keep growing in his leadership role, too.
The quarterback knows this. On Radio Row at the Super Bowl, he repeatedly said he wants to sharpen those leadership skills in a crucial Year 2.
Vrabel returns to New England with 14 years of experience as an NFL player and another 12 years as a coach. He’s seen how different quarterbacks can lift a locker room. So in one of his first meetings with Maye, Vrabel made a point to deliver a message to his young quarterback.
“You just have to invest time,” Vrabel said. “The biggest thing is being able to include everybody. When you include everybody, you get to know them. Quarterbacks are afforded a lot of privilege around town. They go to restaurants, they go to games, and I said, ‘Hey, always remember that you can always invite other people that may be outside of your immediate group and use those as experiences and get to know players you may not know right now. I think that was a good example I tried to give him.”
Vrabel cited his own time with the most decorated quarterback in NFL history as proof.
“It’s something I felt like Tom (Brady) did, and I don’t want to be like, ‘Oh be Tom Brady,’” Vrabel said. “I’m just saying players that I’ve been around were like, ‘Hey let’s go to this game. Let’s go to the Celtics. Let’s go to the Red Sox. You can use those avenues…’ he has to lead in his own way. But again, the better you know somebody, the better you can hold him accountable.”
Karen Guregian contributed to the reporting in this story.
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