On Wednesday morning, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo confirmed reports that rookie quarterback Drake Maye was being promoted to starting quarterback for his team’s Week 6 game against the Houston Texans (4-1).
Mayo opened his comments on the quarterback situation with praise for how former starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett handled the news of being benched in favor of Maye.
Good sportsmanship aside, the first-year head coach believes this is a move that will give his 1-4 team a better chance to win games moving forward.
“Going forward, I think now - you know, Drake gives us the best chance to win now, and going forward,” said Mayo. “He’s been getting better every single week.
“As I said before, at the end of training camp, he actually was trending, you know, at a very high rate. And that has continued through the early part of the season. So, this was solely my decision to make this choice.”
Towards the end of training camp, Mayo mentioned on both WEEI and in the media that Maye had outperformed Brissett to that point in the calendar, and that he had a real chance to win the starting job for Week 1 at Cincinnati. Ultimately, Mayo - in collaboration with offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf - decided Brissett, at that point, gave the Patriots the best chance to win.
But after five weeks of watching an offense rank 31st in yards per game (250.8) and points per game (12.4), along with dead last in passing yards per game (119.4) and sacks allowed (19), Mayo decided that he had seen enough.
“As the season continued to progress,” said Mayo. “We won the first game, and then the second game was a tight one. Then, obviously, you guys know what happened along the way.”
He went on to say, “Look, I don't think it's a secret. Our offense hasn't been performing the way that we all hoped it would.”
As the weeks have progressed, both fans and media have wondered if Van Pelt, given his comfortability with Brissett having run his offense in Cleveland, was the main deterrent to Maye seeing the field as the starter. With Mayo proclaiming Van Pelt as the “head coach of the offense” on numerous occasions, there was a feeling that his background with the nine-year veteran would lead to a prolonged stretch of 2024 with Brissett under center.
Mayo made it clear on Wednesday that this decision was ultimately his to make, and that he and Van Pelt are aligned.
“We had the conversation,” said Mayo. “He agreed with the move. You know, it's hard. It's a hard move. One thing I have learned about quarterbacks is it’s a little different than any other position. So, what I would say is, we had the conversation, and both agreed that this was the right way.”
So the head coach of the team and the head coach of the offense are both on the same page - it’s time for the kid to get a shot at this.
“It was solely my decision to make this choice,” said Mayo. “I had a conversation one-on-one with Jacoby. I had a conversation with Drake. We're all on board. I would also say Jacoby is a warrior, and he took the news very well, like a professional, like you would expect from a guy like that.”
Surprisingly, this announcement at quarterback for New England has not moved the spread whatsoever, with the Patriots still listed as 7-point home underdogs at both BetMGM and FanDuel.
Typically when a rookie quarterback is making their first career start, that will swing things heavily towards the other team. But it appears Vegas either already knew this change was coming and this was already baked in (likely), or they see no difference between a struggling veteran QB and a player making his first career start.
Mayo clearly disagrees with the latter, and Maye will get the chance to prove him right on Sunday at Gillette Stadium.