The New England Patriots are sticking with Jacoby Brissett over first-round draft pick Drake Maye at quarterback despite a 1-3 start with one of the least productive offenses in the NFL. And they're scrubbing a team reporter's recent suggestion that the locker room is approaching "mutiny" over the decision.
Evan Lazar, who works for Patriots.com as a senior reporter and host of the team's "Patriots Catch-22" podcast, initially used that word in a Thursday episode previewing New England's Week 5 matchup.
"Right now they're teetering on mutiny in that locker room," he said. "And I don't want to be alarmist or hyperbolic, I don't. But I was in that locker room. ... You're at the point now, with 52 other guys in that locker room, that all watch these two quarterbacks practice every single day, that all know they drafted Drake Maye third overall, and at what point in time do some of these guys say to themselves, 'Why am I going out there and getting my butt kicked every single Sunday, and Drake can't? Why am I going out there with a quarterback who can't get me the football when we have the Ferrari back in the garage that can get me the football?'"
While Lazar's comments can still be heard on some platforms in both audio and video form, his first line about "teetering on mutiny" has been edited out of the version of the podcast now on Patriots.com. His other scathing critiques and concerns related to the Patriots offense remain intact.
"Right now you have players who are visibly and audibly frustrated with this team," Lazar continued on the episode. "Right now, they're sitting the best quarterback that they have on the roster, and I worry that [the players] are going to start to really resent the coaching staff and the front office for making this decision."
Appearing on Boston's 98.5 The Sports Hub after the podcast's initial release, Lazar downplayed his most jarring comments, attempting to backtrack on the notion of a serious internal divide.
"I got a little carried away ... in the heat of the moment," he said. "There's no mutiny in the Patriots' locker room. I got carried away. That was my bad. ... That was just my opinion, and it kinda came out a little stronger than I intended it to."
