For the third straight year in his young NFL career, New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is heading into a season with a new weapon in the passing game. He didn’t have a star-studded receiving corps during his rookie year. In his second season, he had Stefon Diggs, who helped him reach the Super Bowl. And now, Maye has another new target in AJ Brown.

Naturally, that raises questions about what his chemistry with yet another receiver will look like in Year 3. Head coach Mike Vrabel just addressed it and claimed that the connection between Maye and Brown is currently a work in progress.

“They found each other a couple of times yesterday in the red zone. I think that’s a work in progress,” Vrabel said. “…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 maybe what’s worked for them and what they’ve been able to pick up over the years of doing it.

“So, there’s some professional initiative. We have that in every facet of our program… I think that’ll happen with Drake and AJ as well. That there’ll be some things that maybe he’s done before and he likes, and there’ll be things that we add new to him.”

A strong chemistry isn’t guaranteed when a team brings a veteran wide receiver for its young quarterback. Luckily, for the Patriots, it’s still June, and the training camp is still over a month away, which allows Maye and Brown to build a strong connection. The Patriots acquired the Pro Bowl receiver from the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick.

And Vrabel’s point is true when he said that successful players in the league allow you to learn. AJ Brown is coming after spending four seasons with the Eagles, where he won a Super Bowl ring and never had a season below 1,000 yards mark. Across four seasons, the 28-year-old receiver accumulated 339 receptions for 5,034 yards and 32 touchdowns.

“Just talking to my mom, I was like, ‘Man, I’m still in awe.’ I’m trying to adjust and walking up the hill with the uniform on, I was like, ‘Man, this is real,” Brown said after the trade became official, as he’s now expected to lead the Patriots wide receiver room.

Maye, meanwhile, has shown signs of becoming Tom Brady’s successor in New England. But even Brady needed some of the game’s best playmakers to win six Super Bowl rings with the Patriots. Maye, however, has yet to find that kind of stability around him.

To put that into perspective, Maye showed flashes in his rookie season, but lacked a star-studded receiving corps. The Patriots had DeMario Douglas, Kayshon Boutte, Kendrick Bourne, Ja’Lynn Polk, and Javon Baker as their wide receivers, and none of them crossed the 650-yard mark.

Maye’s second season received a much-needed update when the Patriots signed Stefon Diggs on a long-term deal. The veteran receiver hauled in 85 receptions for 1,013 yards and 4 touchdowns in the regular season, and added 110 more yards in the playoffs as the Patriots reached the Super Bowl. But fast forward to the 2026 offseason, and New England parted ways with Diggs just one season after signing him.

That left Maye facing uncertainty heading into the 2026 season. The Patriots didn’t do much to address the wide receiver room outside of adding Romeo Doubs. But now that the team has traded for AJ Brown, Maye is once again preparing to throw to a new veteran receiver.

That’s why the quarterback’s chemistry with AJ Brown will be one of the biggest storylines in New England. At the same time, Mike Vrabel also addressed the possibility of a Stefon Diggs reunion and didn’t rule it out.

Mike Vrabel addresses Stefon Diggs potentially returning to the Patriots

The wide receiver unit has undergone a massive overhaul in Foxborough, which would make one think a potential return of Stefon Diggs isn’t possible. However, when Mike Vrabel was asked about the receiver’s reunion in New England, the head coach didn’t rule out a potential signing.

“I wouldn’t say anything is off the table,” Vrabel said. “We would want to add anybody that could help us. I’m not going to give a percentage on it, but I think we’re happy with where we’re at right now with the numbers and the people in the receiver room.

“I appreciate Stefon as a person and as a player and what he did for us last year. I’ll value that. Helped us win football games and helped us get to where we got, but right now I don’t think that that’s something that, you know, that we are exploring, but I would never say no.”

We’re in the second week of June, and Diggs is still unsigned despite a strong 2025 season. The Patriots released the receiver due to salary-cap complications, as Diggs’ base salary was set to increase from $2.9 million last season to $20.6 million in 2026 and 2027. For now, speculation still centers on a Diggs-Patriots reunion. But if that doesn’t materialize, Diggs is expected to play for the third team in as many seasons.