Drake Maye excited to work with new Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel: ‘He’s been awesome’

The New England Patriots have their quarterback of the future. Drake Maye played well in 2024 despite being thrown into poor circumstances, completing 66.6% of his passes at an average of 6.7 yards per attempt, with 15 touchdowns against 10 interceptions in 13 starts. He also ran for 421 yards and two additional scores on his 54 carries. Considering the offensive line in front of him and the pass-catching corps at his disposal, it was a pretty fantastic rookie season.

But the Patriots themselves were kind of a disaster, and so the Jerod Mayo-led coaching staff was let go after just one season. To replace Mayo, the Patriots reached back into the past to hire Mike Vrabel, the former head coach of the Tennessee Titans whose best years as a player also came in New England. And Vrabel himself reached into the past for an offensive coordinator, bringing in longtime former Pats OC Josh McDaniels to run the offense.

And Maye is excited to work with them both.

“Yeah, he reached out to me and we got on the phone. He’s been awesome,” Maye said of Vrabel, via Sirius XM. “Obviously, a guy who’s done it and played in the league and won a Super Bowl, you have a respect of what he’s done and seeing what he’s done. I think the biggest thing is he’s been a head coach and he knows what it’s like. So excited to get up to New England and get things going.”

As for McDaniels, he seemed enthused by the idea of playing for a guy who helped direct the successes of the player who is considered by many to be the greatest quarterback of all time.

“Coach McDaniels, obviously, what he’s done there and the success he’s had. Fortunate to be able to have a guy come in who’s done it at a high level and learn from him coaching one of the best ever and the best ever, in my opinion, Tom [Brady],” Maye said. “Got a great chance to go back and all those years of film you have in a little database, it’s all their play calls and all coach McDaniels’ stuff and what he did with Tom. It’s fortunate for me to go back and study it up and get ready for this next season.”

Maye has a chance to build on what he did as a rookie, through the Patriots. The Patriots should at the very least be a better-coached team in 2025 than they were in 2024, and that should help Maye raise his baseline level of play. They’ll need to give him a great deal more help if they want him to fulfill his potential, though, and that’s something that will have to be done this offseason.