Patriots' Drake Maye continuing to embrace leadership challenge after Super Bowl appearance

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye answered calls to grow as a leader ahead of his second pro season in a big way, as he ultimately became a Most Valuable Player Award finalist en route to guiding his club to a Super Bowl appearance. 

Maye isn't simply taking time away from football ahead of the start of springtime workouts in April. 

Why Drake Maye workout was special for more than just Patriots players

For a piece published on Sunday, ESPN's Mike Reiss explained how Maye contacted Florida Atlantic University head coach Zach Kittley about completing a workout with receivers Mack Hollins, DeMario Douglas and Kyle Williams at the school's facility. Kittley obliged, as both he and Maye are close with current New York Jets quarterback Bailey Zappe.

"Just interacting with those guys, seeing who they are as people," Kittley told Reiss about Florida Atlantic players being able to chat with some pros. "I didn't sit there and hang out with them for hours, but I can tell you Drake seems like an unbelievable person, first and foremost. I'm all for helping great people. He was willing to talk to those guys and answer any questions they might have had. You're looking at the best of the best, a team that just played in the Super Bowl. So [our players] watched how they worked their craft. Any time you can have professional football players out here who can give you some pointers and show you kind of what it's supposed to look like, all that can do is help us. Our guys enjoyed it."

Last offseason, Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf publicly shared that they wanted Maye to become more of a leader as the CEO of the New England offense. While it was suggested early in the summer that Maye hadn't adequately responded to such comments, it now seems that he eventually became all that Vrabel and Wolf wanted him to be behind the scenes. 

Drake Maye already in midseason form?

"I didn't realize how big he was -- man, he's a big guy," Kittley added about Maye. "Just watching him throw the ball around, super smooth, very nice release. Extremely, extremely accurate with the football. That was probably the biggest thing I saw -- every ball he threw was right on the money, wideouts never had to [break] stride. He was awesome. I know we're just throwing on air, but he was pinpoint with every throw."

It certainly sounds like Maye isn't completely taking it easy this spring, coming off New England's Super Bowl LX loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Perhaps Vrabel, Wolf and others associated with the Patriots won't feel a need to challenge Maye in quite the same way over the next several months.