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"Yeah, I gave him a little word, tried to just give him a little word of encouragement," Stroud said. "I thought he played really solid and definitely feel like he'll just get better and better as he keeps going.
"I told him how much I believed in him and I hope to see him do well in this league."
Stroud was very complimentary of Maye ahead of April's draft, calling the North Carolina product the most pro-ready QB prospect available.
"You watch his tape, just his arm talent jumps off," Stroud said in the spring. "He's one guy that, to me, the one mistake I made early on was, I moved around too much. I didn't get the ball out on time. I started taking risks. ... When you watch his tape, he scrambles when he needs to, he throws guys open, he has roll-out ability, different arm angles. I like Drake Maye."
Maye got off to a shaky start, firing his first pass well out of bounds and throwing an interception on his third attempt of the afternoon. But the No. 3 pick settled into things after that, leading an impressive touchdown drive to close out the first half, capped off by a beautiful throw down the right sideline to Kayshon Boutte for a 40-yard touchdown.
Maye finished the day 20 of 33 for those 243 yards and three scores, adding touchdown passes to Hunter Henry and DeMario Douglas, becoming the first Patriots QB in the Super Bowl era to throw for three touchdowns in his first NFL start.
Stroud is just the sort of success story the Patriots might hope to emulate, as the former Ohio State star already looks like one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL leading one of the league's best offenses in year two. Stroud was asked Sunday what he wished he knew when he was in Maye's position just over a year ago.
"Honestly, just take completions, stay in the positive, and make guys around you better, I'd say those are the three things I'd want to know," Stroud said. "It doesn't happen overnight, it's not easy, and [Maye] has, hopefully, a team helping him. I did last year. I had so many guys helping me, but those three things just helped me on top of being disciplined.
"Just be yourself. Everything that got you here will take care of where you want to go."