Mike Vrabel shares what he believes is the ‘best way to support a young quarterback’

As Mike Vrabel takes over as head coach of the New England Patriots, the biggest task facing the team is the continued development and growth of quarterback Drake Maye. The third overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft showed plenty of promise during his rookie season, and now the question is how the team will continue to tap into that potential.

On Monday morning Vrabel sat down with 98.5 The Sports Hub's Mike Felger. During the interview, Felger asked Vrabel what he believes is 'the best way to support a young quarterback.'

"I think understanding the game. I think just how you want to play the game," Vrabel replied. "Being able to take care of football. I just think that there's a lot of instances in this league where there is bad football that gets you beat. So we want to make sure that we understand how we want play the game, how we want to take care to football, how we want him to take care of himself. There's times where he should slide and protect himself and protect the equipment.

"I think it just comes from that, and knowing that you don't have to do it all on one play - that you don't have to try to win the game on one specific play," Vrabel continued. "I think starts there. I think just starts on his leadership so that he can get it the best from everybody and that he could command the respect of the huddle. Those are important."

While Maye did show promise last year, those were areas he does need to improve in. He turned the ball over 15 times (10 interceptions, five lost fumbles) in 13 games as a rookie, and while not all of those turnovers are primarily on him (ex. dropped passes, missed blocking assignments) that number does need to come down. Maye also took multiple big hits while scrambling, including one that landed him in concussion protocol.

Part of helping Maye will also be improving his supporting cast. Asked about the defense-heavy approach in free agency as it relates to Maye, Vrabel told Felger "there's a focus on building the team, right? There's a focused on building the football team and whether we were able to add more offensive players - I think that that's something that we'll continue to do. We have to do that. But the focus was building the football team and trying to get as many players in here that we felt like could help us."

One spot the Patriots still need help at is left tackle. Vrabel discussed that hole during his full media availability on Monday morning. You can find those comments here.