Monday marked Jerod Mayo’s first weekly appearance on The Greg Hill Show as a part of WEEI’s Patriots Monday coverage, and the first-year head coach did not shy away from discussing the current state of the QB room at 1 Patriot Place.
Mayo told the show that there “100%” is a chance rookie quarterback Drake Maye could win the starting job ahead of Week 1 in Cincinnati, depending on how he looks in comparison to veteran Jacoby Brissett over the next few weeks.
“100%, and we’re still in training camp,” said Mayo. “We still have, you know, our preseason game against Washington. And once again, we don’t have a starting quarterback right now. When it’s time, we’ll announce that.
“But he could absolutely be QB1, so could Jacoby. So we just got to see how it plays out.”
Mayo said the thing he most needs to see out of Maye to feel comfortable handing him the starting reigns to the offense is consistency.
“I would say, with all positions, it’s just consistency,” said Mayo. “You don’t want to ride the up and down waves, and that’s what he’s been proving here as of late, and we’ll see if this trajectory continues to go that way.”
That upwards trajectory for Maye is something Mayo said he has seen since the spring.
“He’s definitely made progress,” said Mayo. “And I would say, overall, just his command of the huddle, and, you know, his progressions have been pretty good. He still has a lot to work on.
“Let’s not forget, he is a rookie quarterback, and there are things that will show up that he hasn’t seen before. And you have to remember in the preseason games, usually the defenses and the offenses - it’s really basic. And so he’ll still continue to develop and see new things. But I like where he is.”
As things stand at the moment, Brissett has been getting almost all the starting unit reps during training camp, and has started the first two games of the preseason. Even though Mayo said “we don’t have a starting quarterback right now,” logic tells you that Brissett is number one on the depth chart and is the presumptive starter for Week 1 at the moment.
“I would say Jacoby has played in this league for a long time,” Mayo said of Brissett being in the driver’s seat for the starting job. “And he has really earned the right, and I would say earned the respect of his teammates, and also the coaches, to go out there and move the ball.
“Now in saying that, we came into this season, like right after we drafted Drake at three, with a plan. A development plan. And so sometimes I feel like - not that people are talking out of both sides of their mouths, but, you know, we talk about how he’s developed here during training camp, but also, ‘Why isn’t he playing?’
“And so, like I said, we’re going to stick to the plan. It may not be a popular plan, but we’re doing what we think is right for the organization - not only in the near term, but also the long term.”
The Patriots will get back to Maye’s development plan during their 17th practice of the training camp season on Monday, followed by an off-day on Tuesday.
They play their final preseason game on Sunday night in Washington against the Commanders in primetime on NBC and Peacock.