Patriots' Christian Gonzalez addresses leadership concerns about Drake Maye

This past offseason, first-year New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf made it known they expected quarterback Drake Maye to improve as a leader ahead of his second pro season. 

During a Tuesday appearance on NFL Network, Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez suggested Maye has reacted positively to the comments made by Vrabel and Wolf since the spring. 

How Drake Maye has grown as a leader

"I feel like he’s really made that leadership change," Gonzalez said about Maye, per Lauren Campbell of MassLive. "He’s speaking a lot more, using his voice more and we really appreciate it. It was fun to watch him in camp and see what he’s done so far. The best thing for him is he always wants to get better. He’s never satisfied. I think that’s gonna take him a long way."

Following the Patriots' 20-13 Week 1 home loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels reminded outsiders that Maye is "a young quarterback" who is still "learning through all these experiences." As The Athletic's Derrik Klassen noted, the 23-year-old signal-caller then "came close" to being perfect as he completed 19-of-23 pass attempts for 230 yards and two touchdowns in New England's 33-27 win over the Miami Dolphins in Week 2. Maye also rushed for a score in that victory. 

An example of Drake Maye's leadership

During the summer, a video showing Vrabel encouraging Maye to celebrate a New England touchdown with the offense went viral among Patriots fans. After Maye recorded his rushing score against Miami, he handed the ball to offensive lineman Michael Onwenu. 

"I was running to congratulate him, and he said, 'Here, I’m not going to celebrate,'" Onwenu said about that exchange while speaking with reporters on Monday, according to Karen Guregian of MassLive. "I was like, 'Yeah, that’s dope.' So I spiked it." 

Onwenu added that he felt "it’s nice" that Maye thought of a teammate in that moment. Onwenu, Maye and other Patriots players will hope to celebrate multiple scores when 1-1 New England hosts the 1-1 Pittsburgh Steelers this coming Sunday. 

As of Wednesday morning, ESPN BET had the Patriots as 1.5-point home underdogs against the Steelers.