Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo joined The Greg Hill Show on Monday morning for his weekly “Mayo Monday” appearance, and broke down his team’s brutal Week 3 loss on Thursday Night Football to the Jets, losing at MetLife Stadium 24-3.
On the final drive of Thursday’s loss, rookie quarterback Drake Maye made his regular season debut for the Patriots. Despite being sacked twice on the 16 play drive, Maye was able to move the ball 46 yards on the way to a trip to the red zone - something starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett struggled to do all game long.
The drive lasted almost four and a half minutes, which is notable considering the Patriots’ offense only possessed the ball a total of 19:56 the entire game.
Yes, it was garbage time. But the offense moved the ball, and that’s something that can’t be taken for granted by any stretch when it comes to this team.
Despite Maye’s offense making a late push on Thursday night, Mayo told WEEI that Jacoby Brissett will remain the starting quarterback heading into their Week 4 game in San Francisco.
“I couldn’t sleep, so I watched all the film - all three phases through the wee hours of the morning,” said Mayo of his Thursday night after the loss. “And after watching the film, I still feel Jacoby gives us the best chance to win football games, and we’re 100% behind that decision.”
Even though Mayo is going to continue running with Brissett at QB1, he did come out of Thursday night liking some of what he saw from his rookie QB during his one series of action.
“I would say first, you know, the one thing I liked was just his toughness,” said Mayo of Maye. “You know, he took a couple hits when he was in there. He also made some plays with his feet, which I thought was very encouraging.”
Mayo also made a point to mention some of the things Maye could improve on coming out of Thursday night.
“On the other side, just like any other rookie quarterback, or quarterback without a lot of experience, there were times you see him looking at the rush,” said Mayo. “And that’s a natural thing, and he just has to get over that hump. And that comes with more playing time.”
More playing time is the antidote, but that’s hard to come by when you’re relegated to the back-up role - even on a team that will likely have plenty of opportunities for garbage time in-game reps.
Mayo made a point to continue emphasizing the practice reps Maye will be getting moving forward, and said that those reps will be enough to continue evaluating the rookie QB.
“Look, Jacoby’s our quarterback - I don’t want to really deal with the hypotheticals,” said Mayo. “But I will say every position is a competition. And once again, I just think Jacoby gives us our best chance.
“And that’s the balance. And the next question you’re gonna ask, ‘Can you have a true evaluation of Drake if he’s not getting the, let’s say 50/50 split?’ And, I think we can. And, once again, because he’s not out there all the time with the ones, he is getting a lot of reps out there on the field. And we’ll evaluate those reps.”
So “The Jacoby Show” rolls along into San Francisco, as the Patriots currently sit as 10.5-point underdogs at BetMGM - the largest underdogs on the board for Week 4.
Let’s see if Sunday brings us more garbage time reps for Maye.