When the New England Patriots take the field for their season opener Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, they won't have No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye under center. Instead, it will be Jacoby Brissett, with the Pats insisting that they are going to bring Maye along slowly.
Despite the fact that first-year Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo admitted that Maye outplayed Brissett in the preseason, New England ended up opting for the veteran as the Week 1 starter. Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt attributed the decision to the learning curve the rookie faces.
"There's certain things in this offense that Jacoby, having played in this offense, understands some of the tools that you can use to get out of certain situations, pressure situations, things like that. Drake is still learning," Van Pelt said, via the Patriots' official website. "The hardest position in sports is a quarterback, and especially for a rookie guy coming in and not seeing all the defenses that they're going to see in the NFL, it's tough. It's hard to transition, and it takes a little bit of time. We're going to be as patient as we can with that process."
But de facto general manager Eliot Wolf seemed to indicate that it won't be all that long before Maye takes over.
"We do have confidence in Drake," Wolf said, via The Boston Herald. "It's not like we're just going to let him collect dust for the year. He's going to be out there in practice taking reps, he's going to take some reps with the (starters), he's going to take some reps on the scout team and continue to progress and develop in that regard."
You don't give a quarterback reps with the No. 1 offense if you're not planning on him leading the No. 1 offense. Backups don't take those reps. Brissett will probably be under center for at least the first few weeks of the year, but especially if and when it becomes clear that the Patriots aren't contenders, the calls for Maye will be deafening.
And given that Maye has already outperformed Brissett through much of the offseason program, it won't make much sense to keep him on the bench. The Patriots' own website laid out the comparison between the two like this, using NFL.com's NextGen Stats:
| 2024 preseason stats | Drake Maye | Jacoby Brissett |
|---|---|---|
| Total dropbacks | 38 | 15 |
| EPA/dropback | +0.06 | -1.13 |
| Success rate | 34.2% | 20% |
| Comp. % over expectation | -3.9% | -20.4% |
Even once Maye takes over, though, Wolf insists that the Patriots won't tank for a higher draft pick.
"I think tanking cheats the game. (We) would never get in a situation where we think that's the right way to go," Wolf said. "That's not what the NFL is all about. That's not what pro football is all about, and that's not what we're gonna be about."
Given the state of the roster, however, it's likely that the Patriots won't have to proactively tank in order to secure themselves a spot near the top of the draft. That will likely happen naturally, and they can then use that pick to give Maye some more help in the future.