On Thursday morning, shortly after Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo confirmed reports that Jacoby Brissett had won the starting quarterback position for Week 1 against the Bengals, two-time Super Bowl champion Rob Ninkovich joined The Greg Hill Show to defend his former teammates’ decision, as well as Mayo’s handling of the media in his first year at the helm.
“OK - you wanna put Drake Maye out there, a rookie quarterback, to get baptized and killed by an offensive line that they’re trying to figure out? No!” said Ninkovich. “You have to protect. You protect the young guy.
“You don’t throw him out there in the fire and get him killed and get him beat up and emotionally and physically and mentally killed. No, you go with the veteran. Put the veteran guy out there first. It takes the first month of September to figure out your roster, your lineup. Maybe you can claim a couple guys off of other teams and bring in a couple tackles, and you get a better offensive line in place, you feel more comfortable. And then at the right time, you put in the young guy.”
Ninkovich believes a few extra weeks will give Maye both the confidence he needs to be successful, as well as the team around him to be as good as he can be in his rookie season.
He said, “You’d have more confidence in your offense, your offensive line. He has more confidence, and things work out in a better manner than putting him out there, and you get him killed, and then the whole fan base is going crazy, like, ‘Why’d you pick him at three? Blah, blah, blah.’ Just relax.”
WEEI’s Jermaine Wiggins pushed back on Ninkovich’s support for Mayo’s plan at quarterback.
“Brissett got reps against [back-ups] in the preseason games, and was throwing interceptions. He stinks!” said Wiggy.
“Why isn’t Jayden Daniels sitting then in Washington? Why isn’t Caleb Williams sitting in Chicago? Why isn’t Bo Nix sitting in Denver? When you’re a bad team and you draft a guy that high, just like Caroline did last year with Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud, you play that guy. You don’t sit him behind a journeyman back-up.”
Immediately following this rebuttal from Wiggy, Ninkovich used his point to further support his own argument.
“Wait till we watch the Commanders and Denver in a couple weeks,” said Ninkovich. “You’re gonna, ‘Holy, this is terrible!’ I’m telling you, it’s gonna be bad.”
“I’ve said this from day one, that no matter what it looks like, you don’t put [Maye] out there right away. Especially, now especially - now this is the main reason for that - their offensive line, to me, is a work in progress, right? They need to get a few pieces in. I thought they should have tried to, instead of going after a receiver, they should have tried to trade or get a big time tackle in here, because you need a tackle, blindside guy, to protect the quarterback.”
Ninkovich believes that once the Patriots get their offensive line situated, their young mobile quarterbacks will be able to showcase the full slate of their talent.
“You got a couple young guys on this roster quarterback wise that can move and get out of some situations,” said Ninkovich, referring to both Maye and rookie third-string quarterback Joe Milton III. “They have the ability to scramble. So what I would do is try to get the offensive line solidified.
“You have more of a moving pocket, ‘Hey, OK, if this breaks down, receivers - go out, backyard football, get open.’ Quarterbacks move around in the pocket, extend the play, because that’s really hard as defenders to stop - a mobile quarterback that can move in the pocket and throw the ball down the field. That’s what I want to see out of this offense, but you can’t have a guy hitting his backfoot and getting the back of his head caved in, right? You gotta have some type of offensive line, and it especially matters on the edges.”
Ninkovich not only agrees with how Mayo is handling the quarterback position, but also supports his handling of the media so far as head coach.
“The whole Mayo, and him talking and giving everybody information - weren’t you all complaining about Bill [Belichick] and how he gave nothing to anybody for years?” said Ninkovich. “And now you have Mayo, who actually gives you something that you can talk about, right? Can you be happy about that?
“You listen to all these radio shows where people are like, ‘Why is Mayo telling everybody’ - he’s just giving you guys something to talk about. Perfect. Great.”
Ninkovich is annoyed by the media criticizing Mayo for his open-book nature after over two decades of complaining about Belichick’s famous give-you-nothing style.
He said, “I have a problem with everybody listening to interviews and saying, ‘Oh, Mayo talks, he gives you all this.’ Listen, you guys had 20-something years of a guy being like, ‘Um, yeah, get out of here. Like, get away from me you media guy.’ Now Bill’s media!”
Talking to the media is one thing, but what about the consistent contradictions in what he says to the media?
For those keeping score at home this training camp - Mayo called Brissett the starting quarterback, then said the battle for QB was an open competition, then told The Greg Hill Show that Maye had outplayed Brissett throughout the preseason, then ultimately named Brissett the official starter for Week 1.
All of that is an objectively confusing way to handle a quarterback situation.
Ninkovich chalks it up to using the media to send a positive message to the rookie quarterback.
“Maybe it’s a psychological thing,” said Ninkovich. “He’s boosting up the kid. Maybe, ‘Hey, you had a great camp. You outperformed the veteran. But guess what? We’re not gonna throw you out there to the wolves. We’re gonna protect you. Keep doing what you’re doing. Keep balling. It’s gonna be yours one day. You’re gonna get the keys. But not today.’”
Ninkovich is buying everything Mayo is selling right now.
It’s important to note that Ninkovich and Mayo spent seven seasons together as Patriots teammates, from Nikovich’s arrival in New England in 2009 during Mayo’s second season, all the way through the end of Mayo’s playing career after the 2015 season.
