FOXBOROUGH - Drake Maye may have already received more leadership questions in the last six months than is allowed by law. His words on this front don't matter all that much. He's saying what he's supposed to say.
What does carry weight are his actions. So, Maye getting the offensive playmakers together in North Carolina before the start of training camp is an essential step in his growth as a player, and there's that word again, leader.
"I think it's something that you miss those guys for a month, and, you know, you just want to get back, get a refresher for them, whether it's route-wise, play-wise," said Maye. "I think the most important thing is just bonding together, getting the guys together, go out to eat, having some fun, get some work in. I was glad that those guys came out and showed up."
There is an intentionality that you need from your quarterback, and while Maye didn't reveal anything more than you read above, this wasn't something that could just be slapped together last minute. It required foresight and planning. It needed someone to take charge.
"I think that there's a lot of things that go into that," said Mike Vrabel. "I think that's part of it. Being able to organize it. He did, I would say, 95% of it on his own. To be able to plan the travel, the housing, the location, and everything that they were going to do, and the places that they were going to do it.
"So, I think that that's a large step... it was important to him. I think that was something that he wanted to do. It was something that he approached me with early on. Something that he was thinking about."
Building those relationships — whether pre-existing or new (think Stefon Diggs and Kyle Williams) — can help create or foster trust between the quarterback and receiver. Think of how many hours away from the facility Tom Brady spent throwing with the likes of Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, and Danny Amendola. Did it make a difference, even acknowledging that Brady is the greatest quarterback of his generation and Gronk the greatest tight end of his? Brady thought so, which is why he had them do it year after year.
"You want to get in as much as you can with the quarterback as a receiver, " acknowledged Diggs post-practice. "They say, you know, timing and all that, but it's more so just about trust. You want to be around a guy that you could trust. He's a young quarterback. I believe in him. I think he's gonna have a lot of success in this league. Breeding confidence in him is very important when they're young and just talking through a lot of this stuff."
When Diggs got traded from Minnesota to Buffalo, he and Josh Allen started their process by playing video games with one another while in different states. By the time they actually got to work out together and practice, the two had already peeled some of the layers off the onion, so to speak, and hit the ground running. It's no coincidence that Allen took off when the Bills gave him a weapon like Diggs. Now, the 31-year-old is at a different stage of his career, and coming off the ACL injury (the limp that showed itself in the spring was not visible to my eyes today), but Maye went to him several times in team, and you can already glimpse a comfort there.
"There are certain players that have that trust right when they come in," said Maye of Diggs, then also pointing to center Garrett Bradbury, Morgan Moses, Hunter Henry, and Mack Hollins. "It's me kind of earning their trust...that they can trust that guy back there."
The more trust earned, the more Maye will command not just the huddle, but the entire team. That's undoubtedly a goal that Vrabel has set for his second-year signal caller, and it's why he's constantly encouraging Maye to talk with his teammates between plays and between series.
"I try to recreate these practices the same way the game is," said Vrabel. "The offense goes over there, we have a drive that lasts one play, three plays, eight plays, twelve plays. It ends in six points, three points, whatever it ends in, or a punt.
"And you go over there, and you have to talk to the coordinator, you've got to talk to Josh [McDaniels], but then the quarterback's going to have to go up and down and make sure, hey, we just had this happen on this last play, if get it again, I saw this defense for the first time. There are a lot of things, because it's always going to mean more coming from the guy that's out there leading them."
With no Jacoby Brissett or even Joe Milton lingering, there's no question it's Maye's time to take those reins.
OWNER WEIGHS IN
We got a brief state of the franchise on Wednesday when owner Robert Kraft stepped in front of the microphones. Most of what he said is what you've heard many times, but he did share some insight into what life in Foxborough has been like now that Vrabel is the head coach.
Kraft recalled how the two men were "duking it out" when Vrabel was the Pats' player rep for the NFLPA, even going so far as to bring up Vrabel's comments about Patriot Place that, depending on who you believe, may have led to him getting traded back in the 2009 offseason (packaged to KC with Matt Cassel).
"Now I hope, now that we have totally aligned interests, that he can bring that same spirit and energy," said Kraft. "Look, he won three Super Bowls with us, and he's had the experience of coaching, and I think did a very good job down in Tennessee. So I'm looking forward to it. We've been able to bring in a group of young free agents, and I like our draft, and some real veterans that I think hopefully can make it happen.
"I know everyone in my family says, 'Calm down, Dad,' but…"