The New England Patriots were the last team in the NFL to officially name their starting quarterback for the start of the 2024 campaign. And while they made the correct choice in selecting Jacoby Brissett over Drake Maye, the fact that Jerod Mayo and the rest of the coaching staff waited as long as they did to make the announcement shows that the competition was closer than expected.
We've already discussed at length why Brissett was the right choice to start the season over Maye. The Patriots offense isn't exactly surrounded with talent, so throwing Maye into the fire right off the bat didn't really make much sense. Beyond that, it's not as if playing Maye over Brissett is going to magically turn New England into a playoff contender.
The Pats are rebuilding, which is why they can afford to trot out Brissett and hope that he can help them exceed their incredibly low expectations. But make no sense, Maye will be on the field at some point in the 2024 campaign, so when could fans expect the third overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft to suit up for the team?
Why Drake Maye will almost certainly play for the Patriots at some point in 2024
Maye appears to have quite a high ceiling for the Patriots, as he put together some solid outings in preseason play to show why New England selected him with the third overall pick of the draft. The problem is that he's still raw in a lot of ways, and the Patriots offense is not built to support him right now.
Brissett is in a better position than Maye to succeed. He's been in the NFL for awhile now, and there's not nearly as much risk playing him and having the offense fall apart. In a way, Brissett is expected to fail because of how limited his supporting cast is. If Maye goes in and struggles, then there's all sorts of problems that the team has to deal with.
By starting Brissett over Maye, New England is protecting themselves and their talented rookie passer. Simply put, everybody believes that he is not ready to play yet, which in a sense is true. But in the event he does end up on the field at some point in 2024, the expectations for him will be far lower than they would have been if the Patriots came out and declared he beat Brissett out for the job.
We all saw how that went for Mac Jones. While he was solid early on, the expectations eventually became too high, and he crumbled for a variety of reasons. The goal is to avoid those same mistakes with Maye, and while it may seem like a boring move, naming Brissett the starting quarterback was precisely what they had to do to take that first step towards achieving that goal.
In a perfect world, Maye sits on the sidelines and develops behind the scenes for his entire rookie campaign, but that almost certainly won't happen. Whether it be due to injury, poor play, or the coaching staff simply deciding they have more to gain by playing Maye over Brissett, the chances of him not playing a single snap this season are incredibly small.
As we saw in the preseason, playing behind this offensive line is a flight risk in its own right, and if Brissett is already picking up bumps and bruises, that isn't exactly a good sign for the upcoming regular season. Beyond that, the veteran passer struggled during preseason play, so it's fair to wonder if he will be able to find his way once the games actually matter.
Predicting when Maye will first take the field is a tough task, because there are several different variables to consider. If New England is getting blown out late in a game, will they pull Brissett and give Maye some action on the field? Chances are they would, and looking at the Patriots schedule, they could get blown out in pretty much any of their games this season.
The most realistic timeline (if there is one) would seemingly be at some point between Weeks 4 and 8. By then, the Patriots coaches will know if Brissett is struggling or not, and there's a good shot one of these games ends up being a blowout. Of course, it could be earlier if Brissett were to go down with any sort of injury, but if he stays healthy and plays turnover-free football, the incentive simply won't be there.
There's no sense in forcing it and throwing Maye into action just for the sake of doing so. But chances are they will have to play him at some point this season whether they want to or not. Hopefully it's just in mop-up duty for Brissett, but once he ends up under center, all bets are off, and it will be interesting to see if things work out better for Maye than they did for their previous quarterback of the future in Jones.
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