My take from the start has been that this year is about next and years following, with the #1 priority being the development /evaluation of Drake Maye. I personally do not care how many wins they have this year. Wins can "teach a team to win," I suppose, but they also drop you down the draft order, and given that this is at least a two-years-to-go rebuild, this team needs draft picks.
Would or could it accelerate Maye's development to start, giving him "live bullets" experience? Sure, but the problem is just that: those live bullets in the form of aggressive defenses (and any defense will be aggressive playing a rookie QB). With this O-line - unspeakably bad and if this game is any indication, poorly coached - Maye will get hurt. I doubt, given his temperament, that he will suffer the sort of PTSD psychological ruination Mac suffered, but the likelihood of physical injury is obviously high.
Mayo pays lip service to the "best player plays" ethos, but Mayo says all sorts of thing, usually followed up with a comment to the contrary )"at the same time..."), so I pay little attention to what he says. (Bill didn't give us much, but when he said something. at least he meant it.) In this case, "playing the best player" - Maye at his point - would be the wrong thing to do, would be in contradiction with what I take to be the higher priority: seeing to Maye's health and development.
If Brisset is in fact injured, i still would not start Maye. Because I don't really care about this year's record, I frankly don't much care who starts in that circumstance. The fanboy will yammer like precitable klaxons, of course, if they trot the Zapster out there. Milton is farrrrr from ready, and seems worrisomely content with his limitations. Maybe they would yank some out-of-work QB nullity off his couch. Whatever: it doesn't really matter.
Maye has demonstrated his potential, his value. If we are to realize that potential and capitalize in the medium and long term on that value, he has to sit.
Who is the villain in all this? First, there are the failures of late-career Bill Belichick, particularly his failures as GM, but also his foolish dereliction re Mac. Second (and more currently) there is the failure of the new regime to do a better job providing an O-line with at least
minimal competence. That they have failed to do. The QB conundrum is a direct result of that failure, and is the reason Drake Maye's development will have to be backburnered for the time being.
