Giardi: Maye looking comfortable in his shoes; plus, how do teammates feel about Gonzalez?

FOXBOROUGH - A year ago, damn near every team-produced social media clip had a miked-up Mike Vrabel exhorting his young quarterback, Drake Maye, to talk more, lead more, celebrate more. It seemed counter to Maye’s personality. He isn’t the loudest guy on the field by a long shot, and there were plenty of practices where you never heard him. 

In many ways, Maye’s the polar opposite of Tom Brady (even in the early days), at the end-of-the-line Cam Newton, and even Mac Jones, whose high-pitched screeches could be heard the next town over. But Vrabel’s directive from a season ago remains very much in the forefront for the third-year pro, even if it’s not entirely natural.

“It has to,” Maye said when I asked. “I think for me, I think the biggest thing I kept on saying last year was like, ‘I feel like I need to do something in this league before I start….’ And they kept on pushing me, said, ‘You gotta expect that to happen.’“

That point, about doing something in this league, should no longer be a concern. Judging from the way I’ve observed Maye operate this spring and now on day one of training camp, he feels that way too. No, that’s not to say he thinks he’s got the NFL figured out, but the 23-year-old (he’ll be 24 at the end of August) has a damn good foundation on his resume, and his teammates look at Maye and realize that as he goes, so do we (mostly). 

“I definitely got some more comfort in that area of pushing the guys and thinking I need to do it more and celebrating and be louder and show my personality more,” Maye said. “I think the guys will see that naturally. So I think that’s what camp’s for, and you build through it, and you kind of get to new levels. And that’s the best thing about spending every day, all day with each other.”

That interaction isn’t just what happens between the lines. It was post-practice, watching how easily he moved between players and their groups of friends and family that were in attendance. Whether it was playing with Hunter Henry’s kids, chatting up Milton Williams and his father and girlfriend, or dapping up the owner, Robert Kraft. Maye has no airs about him. He knows who he is, and what he needs to be, and it just feels as though that’s all coming more naturally as he evolves, both personally and professionally.

“There’s a lot on his plate, and he’s focusing about, doing the right thing and being as perfect as he can be and puts a lot on himself,” Vrabel said. “And then it’s like, ‘oh yeah, I just threw a touchdown.’ But it’s like, ‘no, like we’re going to go celebrate.’ I think you can really define yourself as a leader by how you handle yourself and your teammates when things aren’t great. 

“It’s easy to go celebrate, but is it - it’s harder to stand up there and say, ‘You know what, I screwed up. I might have made a mistake in the huddle, which caused another player not to do his job.’ … And, when you stand up and say, ‘You know what, that’s on me,’ it takes a lot of pressure off everybody else. So excited about where Drake’s going to be and just his growth…”

NEW BATTERY

As Vrabel mentioned, Maye has a ton on his plate, and now must break in a new center in Jared Wilson. The two spent very little time operating together a season ago, with veteran Garrett Bradbury assuming the top spot in the spring and never letting go of the job. 

Meanwhile, Wilson slid over from his natural spot to left guard, starting alongside another rookie in left tackle Will Campbell. There was some good, some bad, and some in between. Those swings in play will be far more noticeable in the pivot, and time on task will be critical for Wilson and Maye in the coming days, weeks, and months.

“Honestly, that's what it is,” Wilson said. “You know, the reps is… the reps is everything. You don't get the reps - I’m not even gonna say you don't trust each other - but you're just not confident in the connection that we need to have. So reps are everything.”

Wilson told us that Maye isn’t picky about his stance or the delivery of the ball - “He's like, ‘get the ball. Just give me the ball.” - which is in stark contrast to how Brady operated all those years. That will make the transition easier, for sure, but there will be kinks to iron out as seen on day one, when one center-quarterback exchange ended up on the ground.

“Yeah, I mean, the last snap in practice is my fault,” Maye confessed. “I held the cadence a little long, but Jared is, he’s natural there. I think, Garrett [Bradbury], you get to know a center for a year, and you get to know his little things and how he likes things. And if he’s going left and I’m going right, how it works, the little under-center things, and how he understands mic points. But Jared’s smart. He’s real smart.”

Wilson will need to be.

“I think that the center is the conduit to the rest of the offensive line,” noted Vrabel. “And so, when the quarterback needs to get something to the line, the center is the easiest way to get it. And then his communication to everybody else has to be great.”

These two knew each other before becoming teammates in New England. Wilson and Maye thought they were going to be college teammates at North Carolina before Wilson flipped his commitment. That topic came up today.

“Right before we started our team period, he was like, 'You good? Just me and you, right?’”’ Wilson recalled. “I was like, ‘Yeah, just me and you.’ It was supposed to happen a couple years ago, but you know, some things happened. I went to Georgia. He went and stayed at home. But we talk about that all the time, and I’m very fortunate that it was always meant to be…”

TEAMMATES LAUD GONZALEZ

As Greg reported in his observations, Christian Gonzalez was a full participant on day one, a stark contrast to mandatory mini-camp back in June. Teammates were certainly appreciative.

“I think that shows his main focus, and that’s football,” Maye said. “He’s the best corner in the league in my opinion. He’s not the big rah-rah guy.  He does it his own way, but he does it at the highest level. … I look up to how he does things, how he handles himself, and just his swagger he has in his own way. I think it’s great to see him out here playing around.  And I think you saw it in the locker room before. Everybody was wondering,  ‘What’s Gonzo gonna do?’ and he’s coming out here and, first play, he’s guarding AJ and man coverage.”

“He’s a team guy, and he’s not gonna let whatever’s going on, you know, he’s out here with us,” Carlton Davis said. “That’s all I can say about that, is he’s out here with us, and he’s always been a good guy. He’s always been a team player.”

Davis, who shined playing opposite Gonzalez, thinks that big-money deal his teammate desires is what he’s worth.

“He’s definitely one of the best corners in the league and definitely deserves to be paid as such,” Davis said. “He’s deserving of all of it.”

Interestingly, the reserved Gonzalez interacted with the large crowd before practice, throwing the ball to people in the stands. That drew quite the reaction (about as loud as it got all day). Later, Kraft and he interacted briefly during a drill (as seen in clip below).