{"id":916245,"date":"2026-06-11T19:51:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/916245\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T19:51:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:51:46","slug":"chemistry-between-patriots-drake-maye-a-j-brown-already-taking-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/916245\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemistry between Patriots’ Drake Maye, A.J. Brown already taking shape"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOXBORO \u2014 Drake Maye has only been throwing to A.J. Brown for just over a week<\/a>, but you wouldn\u2019t know it based on their already impressive connection.<\/p>\n

The bond between quarterback and wide receiver was already apparent three days into minicamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brown was challenging Maye heading into Thursday\u2019s minicamp practice, the Patriots\u2019 final session before their six-week break until training camp, to be perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just bragging on him, talking him up,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI say, \u2018Man, you\u2019re like that. You can make any throw.\u2019 I just want him to be confident. I was kind of pushing him today. I told him, \u2018I want you to be perfect today.\u2019 He was like, \u2018Let\u2019s be perfect.\u2019 I said, \u2018Don\u2019t worry about anybody else, just focus on yourself. You be perfect, you\u2019re going to raise that standard, and everybody else will follow.\u2019 So, just trying to poke at him a little bit, see how far you can go. But he\u2019s a great player, and I\u2019m excited for the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown acknowledged that he\u2019s already taken on somewhat of a leadership role on the Patriots. He\u2019s even been leading stretching lines ahead of practice.<\/p>\n

That comes with the territory for Brown, a three-time Pro Bowl selection and Super Bowl champion who will be 29 years old later this month.<\/p>\n

Maye said Wednesday it\u2019s hard not to get excited about having Brown in the offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a player he is, and just right off the bat, what a great teammate so far,\u201d Maye said. \u201cHe was eager to learn. He\u2019s great with the guys in the locker room, and we just look forward to playing with a guy of that caliber. I know he\u2019s been a great player in this league. He\u2019s gone everywhere. He\u2019s been a guy that you see on SportsCenter the next day, making plays and scoring. The best thing about him, he\u2019s been a winner. He knows what it\u2019s like to win, and he\u2019s someone in that room that we were looking for. I think that\u2019s the best thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Stefon Diggs provided it for us last year. Now there have been guys that are growing in their roles, but just coming in with that stature, his ability, his size, and just the respect that you walk in there with, that kind of Stef had, A.J.\u2019s got it too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maye connected with Brown on one of the plays of training camp on Thursday. Working in the red zone, Maye tossed a floater into the left corner of the end zone before Brown had even turned his back. Brown made a last-second adjustment for the ball to beat cornerback Kindle Vildor for the touchdown.<\/p>\n

Brown said he learned those skills as a baseball player. The Pro Bowl wide receiver was selected in the 19th round of the 2016 MLB Draft by the Padres out of Starkville (Miss.) High School.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrake started on the right side, but he came back to me a little late, and he threw the ball as a back shoulder,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt was a great ball, back shoulder, and I just kind of turned my head. Obviously the DB doesn\u2019t know where the ball is, so, and my background playing baseball in center field, turning over shoulder, looking over the shoulder. It\u2019s a tough catch, and I\u2019m just glad I got my feet down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maye and Brown connected on two touchdowns during Thursday\u2019s practice.<\/p>\n

Maye actually hit the turf on the Patriots\u2019 final play of training camp, but before he went down, he connected with Brown in the right corner of the end zone.<\/p>\n

The Patriots starting quarterback has made a strong first impression on Brown, who arrived in Foxboro last Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I learned about him, the talent speaks for itself,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe can make any throw, but I think what\u2019s more impressive to me is that he knows what he\u2019s doing, and to be that young, and to understand the defense, and to understand every little check, the hots, the blitz, and all those things, so young and so fast, it\u2019s very impressive. So, I really admire that he knows what he\u2019s talking about. He demands everybody else to know as well. He\u2019s a true leader of men, and it\u2019s crazy to see at a young age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown said Thursday that he plans to meet up with Maye at some point in the offseason to work out together. The Patriots begin training camp on Saturday July 25 in the field adjacent to the New Balance Athletics Center.<\/p>\n

Maye and Brown seemed to make the most of their time together over the last nine days, however, spending extra time throwing after practice.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s important is just building that time, having that time together, building those reps, thinking how you\u2019re thinking, playing, seeing different looks,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAnd just how he\u2019s throwing the ball, and where I need to be. I\u2019m just trying to be where he wants me to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBORO \u2014 Drake Maye has only been throwing to A.J. Brown for just over a week, but you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[4955,833,839,7,838,1167,249,2326,2094,6,15,835,61050,208,107497,43714,112574,19972,112575,834,61051,61052,80497,724,837,505],"class_list":["post-916245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-drake-maye","tag-eliot-wolf","tag-football","tag-mike-vrabel","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-nfl-news","tag-nfl-patriots","tag-patriots","tag-patriots-2026","tag-patriots-free-agency","tag-patriots-free-agents","tag-patriots-game","tag-patriots-moves","tag-patriots-news","tag-patriots-schedule","tag-patriots-stats","tag-patriots-trades","tag-pats","tag-robert-kraft","tag-super-bowl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116733221322605319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}