FOXBORO, Mass. — Halfway through the New England Patriots’ first mandatory practice of the offseason, Drake Maye dropped back to pass and knew right where the ball was going.All offseason, coach Mike Vrabel has harped on his team about the importance of improved play in the red zone. He rattles off the stats from last season with ease. They ranked fifth in trips inside the 20. But they ranked 24th in the percentage of those drives that resulted in points. Negative plays and turnovers plagued them. The coach wants more decisiveness and better results.Enter A.J. Brown.On Tuesday, Maye rifled that pass to Brown for a back-shoulder strike in the end zone. It looked virtually unguardable.
Back shoulder beauty 🎯@DrakeMaye2 | @newbalance pic.twitter.com/z9unrbZ8YF
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) June 9, 2026Already, just a few practices into a marriage they hope yields massive success, Maye and Brown are delivering everything the Patriots hoped for when they pulled off a blockbuster trade to land the veteran wideout.An offense that ranked at the top of nearly every NFL statistic a year ago again looks dominant, albeit in a few spring practices. If nothing else, Josh McDaniels’ unit looks ahead of last year’s pace at this point.“We should be,” McDaniels said.Of course, his point isn’t without merit. The Patriots returned most of their offensive personnel. Nearly every coach on that side of the ball is back. And they added a legit No. 1 wide receiver. So, yes, they should look good.But another year in McDaniels’ offense with Maye another year into his development has given the Patriots the ability to tweak and fine-tune. Specifically, they’re looking at two areas: red zone performance and avoiding negative plays.“We did a lot of good things offensively,” Vrabel said of last season before adding a caveat. “(We were) just pretty average in the red zone.”The addition of Brown should be a big help. He is expected to play a major role in every part of the offense. But in the red zone, he can be a go-to target for Maye. Brown has seven touchdowns in each of the last three seasons. The Patriots haven’t had a wide receiver total seven or more receiving touchdowns since Brandin Cooks in 2017.“They found each other a couple times yesterday in the red zone, and I think that’s a work in progress,” Vrabel said Wednesday on the connection between Maye and Brown. “I think that is just how it goes from having a player come in. I think that connection is critical to rely on. A quarterback and receiver have to be on the same page. Practice is critical. The reps are critical. Sometimes when you get players that have had success in this league, and they come onto your team, you get an opportunity to learn what’s worked for them and what they have been able to pick up over the years.”The other area of focus for the Patriots in these early practices is avoiding negative plays. Last season, 23 percent of New England’s rushes went for 0 or negative yards, which ranked 28th in the NFL.One goal of the offseason was to improve the run blocking, something the Pats hope to have accomplished by signing guard Alijah Vera-Tucker, fullback Reggie Gilliam and tight end Julian Hill (though Hill subsequently suffered a season-ending injury).But the other part of improving there comes down to Maye.McDaniels has lauded Maye’s mastery of the offense and how far ahead he is in understanding the scheme as compared to a year ago. Now, they want to give him more responsibility.To test him, the Patriots have rushed to the line of scrimmage at points in practice without a play, then let Maye pick a play from there based on how the defense is lined up. That’s because even with improved run-blocking personnel, part of success in that area comes down to the quarterback ensuring the offense is in a play that can succeed.“I think it’s awesome to challenge me and push my limits of knowing the offense, knowing what play looks good against what the defense is doing,” Maye said. “The thing we’ve been focusing on is eliminating negative plays. … Knowing that it’s really on me to put us in good plays and get us out of bad plays and stay ahead of the chains.”So much of the Patriots offense in 2026 will come down to Maye and Brown. Brown wasn’t brought here only to help improve the team in the red zone, even if that has been the early focus.It has only been a few practices, but Brown is already quite involved and has checked many of the boxes in terms of what the team is hoping for from its new star receiver.“I think the weekend probably served him well to be able to take a deep breath and get some rest,” Vrabel said of Brown. “I am sure it has been a whirlwind for him, but he is excited about learning the system and eventually moving around and doing different things. I think it has been great just having him around and continuing to integrate himself into our football team.”
