Drake Maye Had One Final Hurdle To Become Face Of The Franchise. He’s Cleared It

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — On A.J. Brown’s first day as a Patriot, he witnessed Drake Maye interrupt his offensive coordinator. Maye did so politely, of course. Massachusetts may have adopted him, but he is still a southern gentleman. The topic of the meeting was “chunk plays,” the ones that served as fire-starters for the team’s offense last year. So, naturally, the receivers got excited when the film study got rolling. And the third-year Patriots quarterback took control, even if that meant cutting off his coach. “There’s always room for his voice,” Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels told me. “If he wants to say something, he has the floor. If he needs to say something, he has the floor. And anytime he speaks, I’m never going to interject myself, nor would I want anybody else to do that either, because he’s the most important cog in the wheel.” These moments make leaders. These moments turn a quarterback into the face of a franchise. These moments change the outcomes of games — including Super Bowls. More than ever, Maye is identifying and maximizing these leadership opportunities. So, what did Maye say, exactly? Well, he tempered his receivers’ unbridled enthusiasm with a mature and holistic lesson. “He illustrated an entire play coming full circle,” Patriots quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant told me. “Drake was trying to paint the picture for the receivers how important the [offensive line’s] protection is, and paint a picture for the protection about how important it is that they give time for the receivers to work.” It made one hell of an impression on Brown, the three-time All-Pro receiver acquired from the Eagles who’s expected to make more chunk plays than anyone else on the roster — and maybe even anyone else in the NFL. “I would say he kind of took over the meeting. Josh was speaking and he kind of cut Josh off, not in a rude way, but he just kind of took over,” Brown said in June during his introductory press conference. “It says so much about a young guy … to be the voice of this team. So when I heard that, I was like, ‘Wow, that was impressive.’ You know, obviously, I heard great things about him, but that part alone tells me a lot about him.” I would’ve guessed Brown would have brought up Maye’s physical tools as the attribute that impressed him most. But it was that first meeting that changed what Brown thought he knew about the 24-year-old QB. This has been the next step for Maye for a year now. Going back to training camp last year when coach Mike Vrabel first arrived, he urged Maye to use his voice (captured on mic’d up clips) — in the huddle, on the sideline, in the meeting room and everywhere in between. “It’s my job to push these guys,” Maye told me at training camp. “And I got to be on my stuff and know my stuff. But from there, I can push these guys and be an echo of McDaniels, of Coach [Vrabel] in the huddle and when I’m out there on the field. Because it’s just us [players]. That’s the thing about this game. It’s just us on the field, and my job is to get these guys going, and I’m trying to take that head-on.” Maye ascended from a fringe starter in 2024 to the MVP runner-up (and Super Bowl runner-up) in 2025. Even if he couldn’t quite win MVP (or the Super Bowl), he was certainly the most improved player on the New England roster — and probably league-wide. With help from Vrabel and McDaniels, Maye helped turn the Patriots around from a 4-13 team to a 14-3 team. As the Patriots prepare for a Super Bowl rematch against the Seattle Seahawks to open the season on Wednesday, Maye’s development should be visible on the field. It’s hard to imagine the QB struggling as much as he did against Seattle’s elite and heady defense in February, when they sacked him six times and intercepted him twice. If he looks like a different guy on the field, it’ll no doubt be a product of all the work he’s doing to become the most essential cog in this offense. “If Josh has a sick day, [Drake] can come in there and take us along. … He’s been stepping up into a big leadership role, and man, I’m loving it,” receiver Demario Douglas told me. I asked Maye, as he speaks and teaches more, if he feels he’s starting to imprint himself on the offense — or even make it his own. “Yeah, try not to make it mine too much. Coach McDaniels does a great job of what he does. I’m just trying to buy into what he’s doing,” Maye told me. “And in my second year of doing it, I think it’s really a lot easier for me to understand why we’re doing things, why we’re getting into stuff against different looks. I think Coach McDaniels is one of the best in the business at identifying problems and knowing what to do with them.” For Maye to have authority in the offense, he first had to first set the right example on and off the field. He absolutely did that in 2025. Then, for him to have command in teaching the offense, he had to have fluency. “The golden rule of coaching is, when you have a quarterback that has established himself and he performs the way that Drake performs and he prepares as hard as Drake prepares, when he wants to say something, that’s the most important thing,” McDaniels told me. “And so that’s what we’re witnessing.” We’re witnessing a quarterback become QB1 in real time. More than that, we’re witnessing a QB1 become the face of a franchise. When a quarterback takes on this role authentically and organically, it makes everything within the organization run more smoothly. McDaniels, of course, has seen this happen with Tom Brady. But Brady never came up during our conversation. (Not in this conversation, at least.) The work and the communication — it’s all groundwork for Maye to build a relationship with the players. And perhaps most importantly, it’s the foundation for his relationship with Brown. That’s, no doubt, why that moment stuck in Brown’s mind. That’s, no doubt, why Maye and Brown have looked completely in sync on the field. Maye knows the offense. Maye knows how he likes to operate the offense. And Maye knows how to communicate those things to the other stars in this offense. That, folks, is how the best offenses operate. “There’s no shortcuts to it,” McDaniels said when asked about the rapport between Maye and Brown. “They watch film together. They go back and look at whether it’s the scheme or it’s some things that A.J. may have more experience doing or what have you. So there’s a lot of ways to do that. But the most important thing is that … they’re both honest and willing to work extra to get it right, and that’s what I’ve seen from Drake.” In some ways, the season opener is a harbinger. It’s brutal for the Patriots to open the season against the Seahawks. But it’s the first element of a largely brutal schedule for New England, with matchups against the vaunted NFC North, the Chiefs, the Jaguars and the Broncos. And that’s not even accounting for the twice-a-year grudge match with the Bills. Maye’s voice is an absolute necessity if New England is going to fight regression in 2026. Of course, he’ll have to play well. That’s not the question. But with the slimmest margin for error this year, Maye’s words may well dictate the successes — or lack thereof — for the Patriots. It would be unwise for him to go around interrupting his coaches. He surely knows that. But if he picks his spots wisely and clearly communicates the offense to his peers, Maye’s game will grow. That’s not just the way to become a franchise quarterback, it’s the way for a quarterback’s game to feel limitless.