FOXBOROUGH - Look, I have no idea if the Drake Maye-to-A.J. Brown connection is going to rival what Joe Burrow has with Ja’Marr Chase or what Matthew Stafford enjoys with Puka Nacua or Davante Adams. Still, if the last couple of practices are any indication, reports of their early camp struggles may be a mere footnote in what has the potential to be a successful season.
After completing four-of-five tosses to Brown on Thursday, Maye and his new number one receiver hooked up three more times on Friday, including their first deep ball connection. It came against a blitzing Patriot defense, with Kevin Byard running free toward the quarterback (sidenote: there was a little too much of that in day two of padded practices). Brown, working on the outside against Christian Gonzalez, patiently delivered a stop-and-go move, leaving Gonzalez in his wake. Maye easily lofted a high, arcing throw for what would have been a 50-or-so-yard touchdown. You wanted fireworks with these two, and they are starting to come.
“Just giving more chances to him,” Maye said post-practice of what’s led to more success throwing to Brown. “I think you see with the ball in his hands what he can do. So just finding more chances intermediate, short, deep, just not shying away from him. I’m not going to shy away from it. That’s how I play. I’m going to keep going at it, and it could be the fifth play in a row; I’m going to give him the rock.”
That is no doubt music to Brown’s ears. His on- and off-field relationship with Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia soured. Here, he has a clean slate with one of the best young passers in football, and the two are spending a ton of time working on their game, not just physically during practice, but on the sidelines when they watch the 2s and 3s compete. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I’ve spotted the duo conversing.
“I think just trying to get a feel for what he’s seeing, what I’m seeing, what he’s kind of feeling out there when he’s running routes in coverage,” Maye said. “We got some great competition. Him and Gonzo are going back and forth and going at it, so it’s great for us to talk and pull up some old things that he’s run and how he liked to run them and what he liked to do in the routes and kind of different looks.”
In the era of live-tweeting practices, these sessions carry far greater weight daily than they should (one good or bad day shouldn’t influence the overall body of work this summer). It’s about trying to get as complete a