Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo leaves QB competition open
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye finally got a real opportunity to show his talent off on Thursday night, during Week 2 of the NFL preseason, in a 14-13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Maye went 6-for-11 for 47 yards and ran in for a 4-yard touchdown. The rookie nearly completed a 53-yard pass, but wide receiver Javon Baker was unable to haul in a perfect throw. The game was certainly a step in the right direction for his development as Maye showed poise in the pocket and extended a few plays with his legs.
The expectation all training camp is that veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett will be the Week 1 starter. Brissett has consistently worked with the starters in practice while Maye got reps in with the backups.
The 31-year old, Brissett, did himself no favors against the Eagles as he made an awful throwing decision that resulted in an interception in the end zone. Maye was the better quarterback for one night and head coach Jerod Mayo has left the door open for a quarterback competition.
“If he’s (Maye) is better than Jacoby, then he’ll play; he’ll start.” Mayo on Thursday night following the Patriots loss.
The question now becomes will New England give Maye a real look at practice next week. The offensive line for the Patriots was a glaring need this offseason and for the most part not addressed. Mayo admitted last night that there is a drop-off between the first offensive line unit and the second, but yet Maye has primarily only practiced behind the second unit.
Leading to the belief that Brissett is the only quarterback getting a real look. Friday morning, Mayo was asked about the possibility that Maye could get reps behind the first unit.
“We'll see. We'll have a staff meeting later today and that decision will be made. I think he definitely showed improvement yesterday. We'll see going forward.”
Unless, the practice reps do in fact change it is impossible to see a scenario where Brissett is not the week one starter. If this has truly been an open competition, then it has been poorly exectuted. Maye should have split first team reps during all of training camp instead of maybe over the next two weeks.
Patriots will have a longer week of practice as they take on the Washington Commanders in a prime time game on Sunday, August 25th. Mayo acknowledged Friday morning that the “entire” offense needs to play in the final game.
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I'm not sure this is the best thing.
You're correct that if they're being truthful of this being a real competition, it's been very badly botched. This is no Mac Jones (whose rookie offseason was handled very well to make him the starter without guaranteeing it outright). Since playing in the rookie season has no definitive positive effect on QB development, the focus should be on this season, and this one only. Whoever is the better player today should play, and I have a hard time accepting that a rookie in his first start is giving the Patriots their best chance to win.
Even if Drake has played better than Jacoby all offseason (an intentional overkill of an assertion), so what? Vets get outplayed in the offseason all the time. Jacoby Brissett is a better NFL QB today than Drake Maye, simply because rookies always underperform. Always.
This does not change if Jacoby plays badly. However bad he may play for the first half of the season, I'm close to certain Drake will play worse, and there's no guarantee that Jacoby will play badly. The last time we saw Jacoby on an NFL field he was singlehandedly turning around a very bad Washington offence that'd been sitting him all season only because they were trying to lose on purpose, and the last time before that he was looking really good for a Cleveland offence that's looked really bad ever since he left.
I'm not watching Pats' training camp, but either Jacoby has gotten precipitously worse, or he's better than Drake Maye. These things can't both be true at once.