The New England Patriots are ready for the future. Rookie No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye will assume starting quarterback duties this coming Sunday for the team’s Week 6 game against the Houston Texans, confirmed by the team on Wednesday. Earlier this week, coach Jerod Mayo insisted that Brissett would remain his starter, but the team has apparently reversed course.
The Patriots made things official on their social media pages.
Mayo explained what went into the decision to bench Brissett in favor of the rookie, saying this is what gives New England the best chance to put more checks in the win column.
“Going forward I think now Drake gives us the best chance to win now and going forward. He’s been getting better every single week. As I said before, at the end of training camp he actually was trending at a very high rate and that has continued through the early part of the season,” Mayo said.
After fielding many questions about whether he has complete control over decisions regarding the position, Mayo explicitly stated that this was his choice and his choice alone.
“It was solely my decision to make this choice,” Mayo continued. “I had a conversation one on one with Jacoby, I had a conversation with Drake, we’re all on board and I would also say, Jacoby’s a warrior and he took the news very well, like a professional like you would expect from a guy like that.”
Maye outperformed Brissett during the preseason, which Mayo admitted before naming Brissett the Week 1 starter, but the team elected to keep him on the bench to begin his career. That was likely owed at least in part to the supporting cast Maye will have around him as he steps into the lineup. (The Pats’ decision to give him 30% of the first-time reps in practice while he was still operating as the backup supports that theory. Starters usually get 95% of those reps or more.)
New England’s offensive line has been a disaster all season, and just lost its best player in center David Andrews. The corps of skill-position players is also one of the weakest in the NFL. The plan was seemingly to have Maye wait behind Brissett until he was truly ready and the team could ensure he was put in a position to succeed, but Brissett’s performance through the first month of the season made that untenable.
Brissett has completed just 58.5% of his passes at an average of 5.2 yards per attempt, with 2 touchdowns against 1 interception. He did not top 168 passing yards in any of New England’s five games, during which the team went 1-4 and maxed out at 20 points.
Maye came into one of those losses late in the game and went 4 of 8 for 22 yards. He was also sacked on 2 of his dropbacks and scrambled twice for 12 yards. He was consistently under pressure even in a garbage-time situation.
Maye has a high-level skill set, as he is both very mobile and willing to consistently attack down the field in the pass game. The Patriots desperately need some help in both of those areas to get their offense going. Rookies Jayden Daniels and more recently Caleb Williams have injected their offenses with life already this season, and now the Patriots are counting on Maye to do the same.
