First-year New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo declaring on Wednesday that adding a journeyman to the club’s quarterback room was “not in our plans at this current time” caused some to assume rookie Drake Maye will soon replace Jacoby Brissett as the team’s QB1.
During a Thursday appearance on Boston radio station 98.5 The Sports Hub, Patriots insider Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston touched upon how Maye has grown while receiving roughly 30% of the first-team reps during practices.
“What I’ve been told is he looks pretty good (in practice),” Perry said about Maye, as shared by Nick Goss of NBC Sports Boston. “This is beyond what Jerod Mayo told us at the podium (Wednesday) when I asked him about it. But I went around and talked to a bunch of players (Wednesday), and I’ve been talking to people over the course of the last several weeks — he looks good in practice. He’s smooth. He’s going through his reads.”
Some fans called for Mayo to make the move to Maye after Brissett and the New England offense produced a dud in last Thursday’s 24-3 loss at the New York Jets, a loss that dropped the Patriots to 1-2 on the season. As shown by Pro Football Reference, Brissett began Thursday ranked 31st in the NFL among qualified players with an average of 122.7 passing yards per game and 23rd with a 41.0% passing success rate for the season. The Patriots are last in the NFL with an average of 13.0 points scored per contest.
With all that said, Chris Mason of MassLive noted on Thursday that the Patriots are “currently allowing pressure on 44.8% of drop backs,” good for the second-worst mark in the league for that category. In short, it’s understandable that Mayo and others within the organization don’t want Maye, the third overall pick of this year’s draft, to take beatings while playing behind a bad offensive line.
“Even when he’s the scout team guy,” Perry added about Maye, “…he’s not out there BS’ing around, which, I guess, happens in other cities across the league where the scout team person kind of takes it upon themselves to make the scout team stuff their show. He’s not doing that. He’s going through and playing on time and in rhythm. This is some of the stuff they want him to do whenever he plays.”
Maye will remain a spectator through at least the beginning of this Sunday’s matchup at the 1-2 San Francisco 49ers. Should Brissett suffer a third straight loss, as many expect will be the case, Maye could potentially receive the starting nod for the team’s Week 5 home game against the Miami Dolphins (1-2) on Oct. 6.
