CHICAGO -- Drake Maye didn't like what he'd seen from the Patriots in their Wednesday practice. The offense was lacking in its attention to detail. There were mental errors. A snap was mishandled. An assignment was missed in pass-protection.
Soon thereafter, Maye sought out Alex Van Pelt to ask if he could address the unit, and his offensive coordinator gave him the green light. Not all that far removed from his 22nd birthday. Just four games into his tenure as starting quarterback.
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Four days after his speech, Maye helped lead the Patriots to a 19-3 victory in Chicago, and it's become clear he's asserting himself as a leader.
"Just taking that next step is me being the quarterback in the offensive meeting room," Maye said when asked why he wanted to speak to his teammates. "Little things that are adding up and hurting us in practice that are leading to game day. I think last week I mentioned we had second and third down in [the] two-minute drill that we ran and couldn't pick up one yard.
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"Little things like that, just little detail, unfocused, and I think sometimes just getting into practice mode where you're just running plays and not really tuned in and trying to execute specific plays. You're trying to just get in a groove, like, 'Hey, we're just running plays out here just for nothing.' Just really trying to challenge those guys and challenge myself to take each play and know that when the game comes, this play is called, it matters.
"There's so many times throughout the game you see how much that play can impact the turnout of the game so I was just trying to get through to them and probably fumbled some words trying to do it, but I think those guys respected it."
Young players and veterans alike took Maye's words to heart, they explained in the visitor's locker room at Soldier Field.
"I think it just lit a fire under us," veteran offensive lineman Mike Onwenu said. "We all want to do better and play better for him. Whether it's in practice or the game. You can't play a good game without practicing well. That's what the message was, and that's what we did."
"I was surprised," second-year receiver DeMario Douglas said. "Me as a rookie, I couldn't do it. Talking in front of a lot of people, I'll get shy. But salute. It just shows his confidence. That's his confidence as a leader. That's where he's been growing. He's getting better on and off the field.
"I feel like he gave us energy. Just to have our leader, as a rookie, come and talk to us, it's like, 'OK, it's serious now.' It showed today that we took it from the practice field to the game field."
"After that practice," rookie receiver Ja'Lynn Polk said, "I kinda looked at him and was like, 'Bro, you're a leader on this team -- don't be afraid to take that next step of being vocal and telling us when we need to be at the right place, and the right things that we need to do.' For him to be able to do that, it tells you a lot about him and the leadership he has within this team."
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Back in the summer, Maye's coaches were pining for Maye to display more in the way of leadership. Even as a rookie who hadn't yet taken over the starting job, they hoped at the time that he would take the reins of the offense in some ways, push Jacoby Brissett harder, and display the take-charge mentality they knew he possessed.
After the last couple of weeks -- with Maye carrying the offense into overtime in Nashville and then addressing his offensive teammates a few days later -- it's safe to say they're seeing Maye turn into the leader they were confident he'd become.
"I think this is part of the evolution of Drake, and this is something that we've discussed behind closed doors," head coach Jerod Mayo said Monday. "I thought he did a good job, not only going out there and executing in practice, but also having those player-only meetings, and that's what we need from him. We need that.
"Anytime you have a quarterback that is as level-headed, is a smart guy, a competitor, all those things and a leader, there's no perfect time to do anything. So, we just said, ‘Hey, let's just do it right now.’ He's done an excellent job there, and I look forward to seeing that progress going forward."
Maye is still finding his voice in some ways, he acknowledged, occasionally fumbling a word here or there as he leans into being more vocal. But the message was received last week. And it sounds like that will be the first of many.
"He's a good speaker," Onwenu said with a smile. "It's funny. He'll ramble over words or whatever, but we all get the message and we all know what he means. His accent is a little strong when he's saying some words, but it's all coming from a good place, and we all know what he means. We all just go to war for him."
