FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Austin Hooper has built some chemistry down the stretch with Drake Maye.

Over the past four games, the veteran tight end has caught 15 passes from the rookie quarterback for 200 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Speaking in the locker room at Gillette Stadium on Monday morning, Hooper credited Maye for getting him into the end zone against the Indianapolis Colts last week before the bye.

“He threw me open again,” Hooper said. “The kid is good, man. Every game you can see the linear progression with him understanding the concepts. His eyes. Where he starts. Picking up blitzes. Sliding protections.”

But the nine-year vet was most excited about something that never will show up as a positive in the box score.

“The coolest play was – you guys would call it a negative play – (Maye) realized nothing was there. Go to the center of field, take a short sack,” Hooper said. “Those are the things that don’t show up on the stat sheet, but if you know you’re like, ‘That’s growth. That’s huge.’ So it’s little things like that. Getting the ball out, changing protection, making smart business decisions. Like hey, all right, nothing there, instead of throwing up a 50-50 (pass), we’re in a place where we can get points. Center it up. Take a short sack. Give the kicker a high-percentage opportunity. So it’s little things like that where you see him every week understanding it more and more and more. The progression has been the most fun part.”

At 30 years old on his fifth NFL team, Hooper is well aware of the reality of modern football.

“Breaking news: You go as high as your quarterback,” Hooper said. “It doesn’t matter what team you’re on, what level you’re on, you go as far as the QB goes. So as he gets more understanding, he gets more comfortable, things are going to open up. You don’t want to throw a kid in the deep end with cinder blocks on his feet, so every week you see a little more on his plate. Little more. You’re seeing how he’s progressed and able to see the field. You see him making checks, taking the short sack when we can get points, a lot of cool details in there.”

A free agent at the end of the season, Hooper said he’d “absolutely” like to continue playing alongside Maye, but also acknowledged the business side of the league.

“Great guy. Fun player to be around,” Hooper said. “Awesome person in the locker room. I’m not going to get into the business things, my job is just to bust my ass on the field and however it ends up it ends up. But wherever it’s at, I’ll continue to be a fan of Drake.”