Outside of the Patriots snapping a 12-month home losing streak on Sunday, the biggest news coming out of their 25-22 win over the Jets was starting quarterback Drake Maye exiting the game in the second quarter with a concussion.
On the second-to-last play of the first quarter, the rookie took a helmet-to-helmet hit from Jets linebacker Jamien Sherwood while sliding after an 18-yard scramble. No penalty was called, and Maye played the rest of the drive.
Between possessions, Maye was evaluated in the blue medical tent, and from there exited down the tunnel. Initially, the Patriots announced he had a head injury and was questionable to return. Minutes later, the team downgraded him to “out” with a concussion.
“Drake is in the [concussion] protocol,” head coach Jerod Mayo told the media before practice on Wednesday. “He’s in the protocol, and he will be a limited participant today in practice. So in saying that, yeah, he will throw the ball at times in practice today, but he will be limited.”
When it comes to how-or-when Maye will be cleared for Sunday’s Week 9 game against the Tennessee Titans (1-6), Mayo steered away from giving any sort of timeline. He went on to say that he wasn’t sure of which step Maye was on within the protocol.
“There are people a lot smarter than me as far as clearing people with concussions,” said Mayo. “We’ll lean on our medical professionals, and also the NFL league policy, as far as getting him ready to play.”
With that said, Mayo made it clear that if-and-when Maye is cleared to return, he’ll be ready to “operate” in his role under center.
He said, “I do have confidence that, you know, as soon as - if the league says he’s ready to play, that he will be able to go out there and operate. And in saying that, I feel very comfortable putting Jacoby [Brissett] in there, as he is a professional and always stays ready, as you can see from the last game.
“So however that plays out, we’ll see.”
Brissett, who started the first five games of the season for New England with a 1-4 record, entered the game in Week 8 in relief of Maye, and was able to engineer a game-winning drive in the waning moments of the fourth quarter to secure the team’s second win of the year.
Overall, he was 15 of 24 passing for 132 yards with no touchdowns and no picks, and was only sacked one time for a loss of 11 yards. He also picked up a key first down with his legs on that game-winning drive, scrambling for 14 yards on 3rd and 9 from his team’s 43 yard line to keep the drive alive.
Even with the chance of a Maye return looming, Brissett said he’ll prepare this week like he’s the starter, which he said is no different than any other week.
“Yeah, I mean, we continue to try to build off of how we finished the game last week,” said Brissett. “It's always, ‘Prepare like you're the starter, next man up,’ and that doesn't change this week.”
Mayo did leave the door open for Brissett to be the starter, even if Maye is cleared to play on Sunday.
While that feels highly unlikely, his answer to the question is worth noting.
“If [Maye] gets cleared prior to this weekend, do you anticipate him being the starter, if he is cleared?” asked Sophie Weller of A to Z Sports.
“Yeah, I don’t want to get into, like, if he gets cleared,” said Mayo. “I mean, as you guys all know, like, that stuff can change in a single minute, so it’s difficult to kind of get into that.”
Maye was seen in the locker room before practice, seemingly in good spirits as he got ready for practice. WEEI’s Meghan Ottolini told me he was “walking and singing, seemed good.”
During the portion of practice open to the media, Maye was not seen on the field.
With that said, Mayo said before practice that Maye would not participate more than 30 minutes on Wednesday, so there’s a chance the rookie arrived to the field after the media session had ended.
Stay locked in to WEEI and WEEI.com throughout the week as we continue to monitor Maye’s recovery-and-return.