Patriots' Mike Vrabel wants Drake Maye to be like Tom Brady in this way

Back in November, New England Patriots players and franchise icons compared Drake Maye to living legend Tom Brady after Maye met with offensive players following what the then-rookie quarterback felt was a poor practice. 

For a lengthy piece published on Thursday, Chris Mason and Karen Guregian of MassLive shared something Mike Vrabel told Maye shortly after the Patriots hired Vrabel as their new head coach this past winter.

"You just have to invest time," Vrabel said about a QB1. "The biggest thing is being able to include everybody. When you include everybody, you get to know them. Quarterbacks are afforded a lot of privilege around town. They go to restaurants. They go to games. And I said, 'Hey, always remember that you can always invite other people that may be outside of your immediate group and use those as experiences and get to know players you may not know right now.'"

Vrabel and Brady earned three Super Bowl rings as teammates with the Patriots from 2001-08, so the former knows plenty about how Brady interacted with others in the locker room behind the scenes when cameras weren't documenting his every move. 

While it was important for Maye to speak up before New England's Week 10 game at the Chicago Bears, which the Patriots ultimately won 19-3, his "efforts to sit with different teammates during lunch and send texts when they were away from Gillette Stadium" were also quite Brady-like. 

"It’s something I felt like Tom did, and I don’t want to be like, 'Oh, be Tom Brady,'" Vrabel continued. "I’m just saying players that I’ve been around were like, 'Hey let’s go to this game. Let’s go to the Celtics. Let’s go to the Red Sox.' You can use those avenues...He has to lead in his own way. But again, the better you know somebody, the better you can hold him accountable."

Maye made only 12 starts as a rookie, so it's to be expected that he'll endure sophomore setbacks this coming fall as he works to improve as both a player and a leader. He'll also spend much of this spring learning the terminology and "wordy offense" installed by new offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

With all that said, Vrabel and Co. clearly believe Maye is heading in the right direction in his attempt to follow in Brady's footsteps as it pertains to winning more than a handful of games.