Patriots' Mike Vrabel shares warning to Drake Maye after previous leadership whispers

It's now no secret that the New England Patriots want Drake Maye to improve as a leader coming off an up-and-down rookie season. 

During a Monday appearance on Boston sports radio station WEEI, first-year Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel touched upon that aspect of Maye's ongoing development.

"The expectation is that he's leading this football team," Vrabel said about Maye, as shared by Tom Carroll of Audacy. “That's what the job of the head coach and the quarterback is. That's pretty much how this thing goes. And that he can't take days off. I mean, sometimes the performance isn't going to be extraordinary, but the leadership and the demeanor has to be. And I think he's learning that. I love the fact that he's willing to learn and push and try to do those things to where he's demanding of everybody and making sure that everybody's on the same page." 

Vrabel and Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf previously acknowledged they expected Maye to deliver key "leadership moments" behind the scenes this spring and summer. Thus, it was somewhat worrisome when former Patriots linebacker and three-time Super Bowl champion Ted Johnson said earlier in the summer that he had reason to fear that Maye hadn't yet "fully accepted that part of the job." 

For what it's worth, Maye hosted workouts held in his hometown ahead of training camp as a way to build his relationships with some teammates. More recently, he lost a fumble when he should've thrown the ball away in New England's 48-18 preseason win over the Washington Commanders. He also rushed for a touchdown in the victory.

"We talked about staying off the roller coaster, you know what I mean? Roller coasters go up, they go down, they get stuck sometimes, and then you're really in trouble. So we're trying to stay off the roller coaster and just continue to build some consistency in what we're doing positively," Vrabel said about a message he's delivered to Maye and others in the locker room throughout the summer.

According to StatMuse, only three quarterbacks committed more turnovers than Maye (10 interceptions, six lost fumbles) last season. Vrabel, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and others on the New England staff will look to coach such mistakes out of Maye before the Patriots open the 2025 campaign with a home game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sept. 7.