Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo came out of the gate firing on Monday morning, starting his day off with bread crumbs on The Greg Hill Show about the possibility of rookie quarterback Drake Maye starting in Week 6 against the Houston Texans.
“Look, we’re still going through the, you know, the film from yesterday. We’ll see how it goes,” Mayo told WEEI’s Courtney Cox when asked when he would make a decision on Maye’s possible debut as starting quarterback for Sunday.
Immediately following his “Patriots Monday” interview with WEEI, he met with the media via Webex for his regular Monday morning press conference.
While he was happy to continue adding more fuel to the starting QB fire, he abruptly shut down any notion of change as it pertains to offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt.
“While understanding the struggles of the offense aren’t on just one person, is making a change at offensive play caller during the season something you’d ever consider?” asked Dakota Randall of Pro Football Network.
“That’s not under consideration,” Mayo said flatly.
The head coach of the offense, as Mayo has dubbed him on numerous occasions, retains his duties moving forward (for now).
The notion of making a change to who calls the plays on offense while also having the offensive coordinator or head coach remain in their position, while rare, is not foreign. This is something that teams have done over the years as a last-ditch effort during seasons of turmoil as a way to save public face.
Without doing a deep dive, I cannot think of one instance where that type of mid-season change turned a season around.
With that said, this was a completely valid question from Randall given the current state of the offense.
There’s all sorts of advanced metrics you can point to showing why Van Pelt’s offense is among the worst in the NFL. But there’s a couple simple numbers that I feel resonate most with Patriots fans, and they relate back to the Matt Patricia offense of 2022.
When bad offenses are discussed in these parts, Patricia’s season coaching Mac Jones with Joe Judge as his right-hand man is almost always immediately invoked. And with good reason, by the way, as that was the beginning of the end for the 2021 first-round pick in New England.
Through the first five weeks of the 2022 season, the 2-3 Patriots averaged 20.6 points per game, and 345.8 yards of total offense.
Through the first five weeks of the 2024 season, the 1-4 Patriots are averaging 12.4 points per game, and 250.8 yards of total offense.
There’s no need for a Pro Football Focus subscription. It’s right there in black and white.
Matt Patricia’s offense with Mac Jones at the helm was better through five games than what we’ve seen from Van Pelt with Brissett.
So, again - completely fair question by Randall.
With that said, it’s clearly not a change Mayo is willing to entertain at the moment.
A mid-season change we see every year in the NFL with varying levels of success is at the starting quarterback position. And if you’re reading the tea leaves, you can see that Mayo is more-than-open to moving on from nine-year veteran Jacoby Brissett to his third overall pick in Maye, who has only seen the field for one offensive series this season.
He carried his QB-change sentiments from the interview with WEEI directly into his press conference on Webex.
Mayo was asked by Mike Giardi of Boston Sports Journal why his tune on Brissett as the unquestioned starting quarterback had changed during his interview with Greg Hill.
“You know, I think I’ve been pretty consistent in my messaging,” said Mayo. “Every single week - I should say every single day, we’re all being evaluated, and it’s no different now. That’s kind of how I see it.”
“When you meet with your coaches today, do you anticipate talking about the potential of starting Drake Maye, and making a change at quarterback?” asked Mark Daniels from MassLive.
“When I meet with the coaches today, it's about - we're in a solution-driven business, and we aren't playing good football,” said Mayo. “We have to look at every single unit and every single player and figure out how we use this roster to go out there and win games.”
When asked what he thought specifically of Brissett’s performance during the 15-10 loss to the Dolphins, Mayo said it “just wasn’t good enough.”
“I thought we played well enough defensively and on special teams to win the football game,” said Mayo. “Look, as the quarterback, and he understands this, he touches the ball on every single play and we didn't win the game, or score enough points to win the game. I think he would echo that same sentiment that it wasn't good enough.”
It sure sounds like a change at QB is coming, and it sounds like it’s happening as soon as this week.
And when you have a guy like Adam Schefter sending out a quote tweet like the one he did shortly after Mayo’s press conference on Monday morning, that’s only more of an indication of what’s to come for New England’s QB room.
If Maye is made the starter for Week 6, it’ll be against a 4-1 Houston Texans team who football fans and media alike were slating as a sexy Super Bowl pick before the season started.
The Patriots are currently a 7-point home underdog for Sunday’s game at both BetMGM and FanDuel.