How Drake Maye is doing the little things the Patriots need in a leader

FOXBOROUGH — It’s easy to feel encouraged by what drake maye has shown since he took the field.

Although he has yet to find the win column, the rookie has shown a live arm, decisiveness in his reads and his laser 40-yard touchdown to Kayshon Boutte showed why the Patriots picked Maye #3 overall. His potential is off the charts.

But what the rookie is doing behind the scenes has his teammates very excited.

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Maye is quietly becoming the leader the team hoped he would be. Since he ascended to the starting position, there has been no doubt. You no longer have to worry about stepping on Jacoby Brissett’s toes. Now it’s Maye’s offense and he’s behaving accordingly.

In the fourth quarter in London, Maye felt the stock collapse and tried to escape rather than step forward. Rookie mistake. He ended up retreating toward Travon Walker, who Mike Onwenu was trying to push off the edge, and the Jaguars defensive end scored an easy sack. Afterwards, Maye rushed to find the entrance and let him know that it was his fault, not Onwenu’s. It didn’t matter that Onwenu was a well-established veteran. Maye still wanted to let him know that it wasn’t his fault.

“With the situation we’re in and our record, it’s honorable,” Onwenu said. “But obviously I have to do my job and protect him… I’ve seen him grow tremendously in the two weeks he played. Even during practice, every week he has been improving and becoming better as a leader and quarterback.”

After the defeat at Wembley Stadium, Maye also reached out to veteran Kendrick Bourne. to let him know that he needed to give the receiver more ball. It’s clear he’s already comfortable communicating with his veteran teammates, and his rookie teammates are seeing it, too.

“It helps us a lot,” Javon Baker said of Maye’s message to Bourne. “Just for the simple fact that he knows our mind as a receiver, that we want the ball. If the quarterback knows we want the ball, at the end of the day he will throw it.”

And Maye has certainly had the support of rookie teammate Ja’Lynn Polk.

After another poor performance by the catcher in London, Maye sounded like a veteran in defending his teammate. Polk had four balls thrown at him, didn’t catch a single target, and fell on a two-point attempt. But Maye praised his teammate as “a great player” after the loss, blamed himself for a missed connection, the poor conditions of others and took responsibility for his teammates’ struggles.

“I have to find ways to get him the ball early,” Maye said. “I have to get him into the game early… He’s a good player for us and we need him out there. So it’s up to me to get it going.”

While it hasn’t led to a victory, his approach has made his teammates believe that Maye will be the person to get them there.

“He is the supreme leader,” Rhamondre Stevenson said.