Image courtesy of Associated Press

FOXBOROUGH – Hunter Henry stepped to the podium inside the new workroom at the New Balance Athletics Center all smiles on Tuesday.

The now six-year Patriots tight end took questions for about seven or eight minutes from some assembled media as the team continues to go through the early portions of voluntary offseason workouts.

Henry touched on various things like the sting of the Super Bowl loss, the issues Mike Vrabel is dealing with and of course, QB1 Drake Maye.

Now entering his third season, Maye took a massive step forward in 2025 as the NFL MVP runner up. Now, it feels like No. 10 could be on the verge of doing something very, very special.

I asked Henry about his QB taking that next step this season.

“Yeah, man, there’s not enough good things I can say about Drake,” he said. “Obviously, you guys see the talent on the field and everything he does. The arm talent, the escapability, the extending plays, I mean, everything he does at a high level.

“But, I think the underrated thing he has this year is going into year two in this system is big. This system demands a lot on the quarterback position. It was kind of just learning as we go throughout a whole season and you still saw the product he put out there.

“So, to have a whole offseason to be in the same scheme and really build on what he did last year…I’m excited to see the jump and see the progress he can make on a day-to-day basis.”