Giardi: Maye finds his way to Gillette, and makes a good first impression

FOXBOROUGH - Rocking a new, stylish fit — with some of that Carolina blue in his suit — Drake Maye boarded the Kraft private plane this morning in Detroit, his future path set out before him. There was a Facetime call with center and team captain David Andrews and a slew of texts he has yet to respond to, although one from Kyle Dugger certainly stood out.

As the Pats' first-round pick and his family entered Foxborough airspace, they were taken on a flight path over Gillette Stadium to see his new football home and the giant video boards welcoming him to town. Not too many players were kicking around the locker room Friday - they're off - but Maye took it all in, understanding his world is changing.

"As the quarterback of this football team, and possibly the face of the franchise and face of the team, everything falls on me," he said at midfield of the stadium. "I got to get the team going offensively, defensively, and just come in with good work ethic, and hopefully be the starter at some point and be a leader. ... It starts with me. That's just kind of my motto and how I approach it. I gotta do my part before I start getting on others."

That dovetails with what I've been told by people in the UNC program - that while players gravitate toward him and embrace his leadership, a key to that has been Maye's willingness to admit mistakes, shoulder the blame, and, as Eliot Wolf pointed out Thursday night, not throw teammates or coaches under the bus. He's also a big believer in bringing his teams together, which should serve him well as he gets to know his new teammates.

"I think the biggest thing for me is getting outside of football, doing things outside of football where it's going to play golf, take them out to eat - I'm a big video gamer, so if any of the guys play, I'll be on," said Maye on building relationship. "If I'm not playing football, I'm playing video games. So little things like that, sitting down with them at lunch, asking them questions, and not sitting with the quarterbacks all the time, or the coaches, and just getting to know them. Things that just come from the heart."

Maye ended the media availability/photo op by introducing his three brothers - all older - by calling them up as the "Three Stooges" (he also brought up his longtime girlfriend. She did not get lumped into that conversation, wisely), then giving short bios of each. When he spoke of his brother Luke, a former UNC hoops star who plays overseas in Japan, he mentioned how Luke had written into his contract that he could fly back to see his brother have this moment. 

"That's just family. That's what we are. That's just the Mayes," said Drake, concluding the session by declaring, "This is my squad. If you're getting me, you're getting them."