CHICAGO — Drake Maye wasn’t pleased after Wednesday’s practice.
The emphasis had been physicality, and while the Patriots were physical on the backfields at Gillette Stadium, they were sloppy, too. Maye dropped a snap, the offensive line struggled in pass protection, and there were too many mental errors. With the team sitting 2-7, it simply wasn’t good enough.
Mindful of his status as a rookie, Maye also knows that a team’s quarterback is a natural leader. He weighed his options, and ultimately asked Alex Van Pelt if he could address the offense as a group on Wednesday afternoon.
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“I think that’s something you’ve gotta balance, getting to know these guys and being genuine with them,” Maye said. “Creating different relationships. Sitting with different people when we’re getting something to eat or playing (with) different guys.
“Reaching out to different guys trying to get on a personal level instead of just, ‘Hey, I’m a teammate, we’re friends when we come to work and then we go home.’ Text them after or send them a video, ‘Hey in this look’ when we’re watching film at home. Little things like that I think can go a long way. Trying to get each guy on a personal level. Then you feel like, ‘I know Drake and he cares about me.’ That’s how I’m approaching it.”
Van Pelt felt confident enough in his 22-year-old quarterback to give him the floor, and Maye’s message to the group was straightforward. There were too many little mistakes on the practice field that were showing up on game day, and the Patriots needed to clean them up.
“We’ve gotta be better. Simple,” Ja’Lynn Polk said of Maye’s message. “He even included himself, so that tells you he’s not a selfish player. He holds himself to that standard as well.”
The rookie wideout believed Maye’s speech was a “10 out of 10″ because the quarterback knows how to connect with people. What Maye said resonated in the room.
“Everybody loved it, man. We need that. We need that from our starting quarterback,” Polk said. “You’re a leader on this team. Don’t be afraid to take that next step of just being vocal… For him to be able to do that, it tells you a lot about him and the leadership he has.”
The veterans were impressed by the first-year quarterback’s message, too.
Michael Onwenu, who has been in New England longer than anybody on offense, has been really impressed with Maye’s command of his surroundings.
“It’s really great for Drake. He’s beyond his years being a rookie. It feels like he has a lot of experience and like he’s — I don’t want to say like he’s been there before, but he knows how to control the environment and just everything well,” Onwenu said. “When you aren’t winning games, you’ve gotta look at yourself and see what you’re doing wrong and see what you can improve on. I think it just showed up. We had a good week of practice (after that) and it transitioned to the game.
“We all see what he’s doing — the work he puts in — so we all want to be better for him.”
The Patriots were better for Maye on Sunday afternoon at Solider Field.
New England stunned Chicago, 19-3, for their second road upset of the season. Maye and company picked up 328 yards of total offense — their highest total of the season — and were efficient in the running game and the passing game. Things looked a lot cleaner than they’d been in Tennessee last weekend — and apparently cleaner than at Wednesday’s practice, too.
“The rest of the week was better,” Vederian Lowe said. “Big ups to Drake for going out there and standing in front of the offense and saying those things. Because he was right. We all needed to be better.
“I think (Maye stepping up) says a lot. He’s our quarterback. He makes our offense go. We know that. Everybody knows that. He has a tremendous amount of talent. With him being the type of player that he is and also with the type of future that he has, him just doing that really speaks a lot for us to trust and believe in him. It makes us want to play for him even harder.”
