Patriots notes, quotes, and anecdotes: The case for (and against) starting Drake Maye

Good morning, happy Sunday, and welcome back into another edition of ‘Patriots notes, quotes, & anecdotes’. We’re back with another column hitting on all happenings surrounding the New England Patriots.

Here we go:

---

The Patriots got their doors blown off on Thursday night against the New York Jets. The 24-3 loss puts them at 1-2 on the season and heading into Week 4, leaves them with plenty more questions than answers.

The most important inquiry: When will Drake Maye take over as the team’s starting quarterback? The rookie made his NFL debut on Thursday with just over four minutes to go in the game, commanding New England’s offense on a 16-play, 46-yard drive to close out the contest. He went 4-of-4 passing for 28 yards, ran the ball twice for 12 yards (including an 11-yard 4th down conversion), and was sacked twice.

“Jacoby [Brissett] is our quarterback until I say he’s not the quarterback,” Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo said on Friday morning after briefly leaving the door open for a change on Thursday night. “I thought last night he showed a lot of toughness, a lot of grit… I would say as a team, as a coaching staff, we’ve just got to be better.”

Mayo can say whatever he wants, but some toothpaste leaked out of the tube once Maye stepped on that field at MetLife, and it’ll be impossible to put it back in. As things currently stand, the rookie is getting 30% of the starting reps in practice and with 10 days in between their next game at San Francisco, the team has plenty of time to ramp up his development.

Though it won’t happen next weekend against the 49ers, New England handing the keys over to Maye is coming sooner rather than later. So, for this week’s notes, quotes, & anecdotes, we’re making the case for and against them putting Maye under center:

— The case FOR starting Drake Maye.

Isn’t it obvious? We want to see the kid play! New England spent the No. 3 overall pick on the signal caller last April, and they did so with the idea of eventually tabbing him as their franchise QB. So why not do it now? There’s plenty of data to back up doing so.

Prior to 2008, the year rookies Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco took the Falcons and Ravens to the playoffs, it was pretty rare to see a first-year quarterback start right away — but now? It’s far more acceptable. Since ’08, 24 of the 52 quarterbacks drafted in the first round began their rookie season as the Week 1 starter, and just ONE (Jake Locker, 2012) did not start a game at all. Jordan Love and Patrick Mahomes were de facto redshirts, but they did technically start when their team’s starter (Rodgers/Smith) rested in Week 17.

So there’s a precedent for Maye to be in there.

There’s also the fact that during the Patriots’ first three preseason games, Maye outplayed starter Jacoby Brissett. The rookie completed 21 of his 34 pass attempts (62%) for 192 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 32 yards and a score. Brissett, meanwhile, was 5 for 19 (26%) for 26 yards and an interception.

Don’t want to take my word for it? Take Jerod Mayo’s, who said so prior to roster cuts:

“This [was] a true competition and I would say at this current point, Drake has outplayed Jacoby,” he told WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show on August 26.

In saying that, he also clarified that New England took in “the whole body of work”, including the spring and the beginning of training camp, in deciding on Brissett as the team’s starting quarterback.

And finally, Mayo has said several times that you get better at football by playing football, so it’s clearly important to him (the guy who told me on Thursday that it was his decision “100%” to put into the game), that the rookie see the field in order to improve.

There isn’t really a playbook for this, but history now shows that throwing your rookie into the proverbial pool to sink or swim is more than Kosher in today’s NFL.

— The case AGAINST starting Drake Maye.

Okay now let’s get reasonable. The Patriots’ offensive line is in a bad spot.

Through New England’s first three games, they’ve started three different players at left tackle, a left guard in Michael Jordan who was cut at the end of training camp, a rookie in Layden Robinson at right guard, and Mike Onwenu at his least-favorable position of right tackle.

As a result of this, Brissett has been under siege. He’s been sacked nine times, hit a total of 25, and on an uncountable number of occasions, with a concerning grimace on his face, has had to take his time getting up off of the turf he was just plastered on.

“I mean, I’m big man, I can take it,” the QB said on Thursday following the loss. “I’m always going to get back up. You know, that’s one thing about me. I’m always going to get back up…it’s football. I’m supposed to get hit, you know? I didn’t sign up for this sport to not get hit, so I don’t really pay attention to that.”

While this is true of the quarterback position, there’s also a fair argument to be made that it wouldn’t be wise to subject your rookie quarterback in Maye to this type of inconsistent protection up front.

And no… the hesitancy to do so isn’t a fear of him being too small/fragile and getting hurt (he’s 6-foot-4 225+ pounds), it’s a fear that the lines inability to protect him and keep him up-right will in turn speed up his internal clock, hindering his long-term development.

Just look at the careers of Bryce Young (Panthers), Zach Wilson (Jets), and the most familiar one of Mac Jones (Patriots). Three quarterbacks who weren’t surrounded with the proper supporting cast and as a result, saw their stints with the teams that drafted them slip away, in some cases, after as little as one season.

In these specific examples, there’s an argument to be made that the signal caller was better off starting on the bench, developing behind the scenes, and taking the field when the situation around him was more conducive to success.

Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt was asked on Friday for his take on the best course of action at this point for Maye’s development: learning by watching, or by playing:

“I still think it’s by watching,” the OC explained. “I think there’s a lot to be learned yet, and that’s where I’ll stand on that. I think Jacoby is our starter, like coach [Mayo] said, and until that changes I think we’ve gotta do everything we can to get the starter ready to win a game on Sunday.”

Long story short: there’s two ways to skin a cat here, and there’s examples of both instances succeeding and failing. Now it’s up to the Patriots to make the decision that they believe is not only best for Maye, but the franchise’s short-term and long-term future.

No pressure.

---

Thanks for reading! We’ll talk to ya next week.

Follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!