Mike Vrabel Name-Drops Baseball Hall Of Famer When Praising Drake Maye

Drake Maye has been compared to plenty of Pro Football Hall of Famers despite being just two years in.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, though, referenced a Baseball Hall of Famer in an analogy pertaining to the second-year quarterback.

When asked if Maye’s accuracy was a product of coaching and development or sheer talent, Vrabel name-dropped four-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux.

“I think probably a little bit of both,” said Vrabel, crediting the coaching of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant as well as Maye’s innate ability.

Maye leads the NFL in on-target percentage (79.5 percent).

“It’s like a pitcher,” Vrabel said. “I don’t know if there’s a pitching coach that taught Greg Maddux how to paint the plate and put the ball wherever he wanted. So I think there’s some natural skill there.

“But I think they work on those things,” Vrabel continued. “They work on platform and throwing off different places, and still remaining accurate, and climbing the pocket and working with a base and all those things. And then there’s other times it’s just natural athletic ability, hand-eye coordination and putting the ball in good spots.”

Maye has built a case for NFL MVP in large part because he’s looked like one of the best deep-ball passers in the league. But as Maye has stressed time and time again, he’s more worried about winning than he is about statistics.

Maddux, one of 10 pitchers in history with 300-plus wins and 3,000 strikeouts, was familiar with both.