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Patriots choose Jacoby Brissett as Week 1 starting QB over rookie Drake Maye

frank schwab
Senior writer

New England Patriots fans will have to wait to see Drake Maye start games.

Maye, the third overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, will sit and watch Jacoby Brissett, at least to start the season. In a team meeting Thursday morning, head coach Jerod Mayo named Brissett the Week 1 starter, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. The team announced the news a short time later. New England starts the season at the Cincinnati Bengals.

The decision was more complicated than picking the best quarterback. Patriots coach Jerod Mayo admitted Maye outplayed Brissett in the preseason. New England has resisted elevating Maye to QB1, likely because of a poor situation around the quarterback.

Brissett, the veteran, gets to start the season while Maye waits.

If it was a true competition, Maye might have won it. He was clearly the better player in the preseason.

Maye completed 21-of-32 passes in the preseason for 192 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions and a 86.9 passer rating. Brissett went 5-of-14 for 36 yards, no touchdowns, one interception and a 14.6 passer rating.

The Patriots' plan since the NFL Draft was seemingly to start Brissett and protect Maye from being thrown right into the lineup, but the gap between them over the preseason was impossible to ignore.

"What I will say, this is a true competition, and I would say at this current point, Drake has outplayed Jacoby," Mayo told WEEI one day after the final preseason game.

But the Patriots had to keep the big picture in mind. The Patriots have one of the NFL's worst offensive lines. They don't have a great receiving corps, though they did draft a couple of exciting young receivers. Many good quarterback prospects have been ruined by being thrown into bad situations. The Patriots obviously want to be careful with Maye's development.

Brissett is entering his ninth season and has started 48 games. He's not the permanent answer at quarterback, but New England hopes he will look better than he has in the preseason.

The good news for the Patriots is Maye had some exciting moments in the preseason. He showed off his playmaking ability, as a passer and a runner.

The Patriots got offers to trade down from the third overall pick and resisted, grabbing Maye and hopefully solving a quarterback issue they've had since moving on from Tom Brady. They shouldn't have any regrets about taking Maye.

They're just not ready to start him from the first game on. The Patriots are expected to have a poor season and have a tough schedule, so if Brissett continues to struggle like he did in the preseason, New England will have to consider when to make the change to Maye. His long-term development will be the priority.

For now, Brissett gets the call. It's not exciting, but it's the prudent move.