There have been a lot of mixed messages over the last couple of weeks for New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo, and he finally put to rest some uncertainty on Thursday ahead of the club’s Week 1 match-up against Cincinnati.
Mayo came out for a brief press conference that lasted under two minutes on Thursday morning, with Mayo announcing that Jacoby Brissett will indeed be the team’s starter to begin the 2024 season.
“Just like I told you guys a few days ago, it’s a process as far as selecting who the starting quarterback is,” said Mayo. “We have decided, or I have decided, that Jacoby Brissett will be our starting quarterback this season.”
“Now, in saying that, as an organization, we’re 100% behind Jacoby. There is no, ‘You got a guy right here, you got a guy right there.’ We’re 100% behind Jacoby. I had an opportunity to talk to Drake. I had an opportunity to talk to Jacoby separately and also together. I feel like we’re all on the same page from an organizational perspective.”
Mayo went on to add that there were many things that went into the decision, with the feeling that he had to take some things into consideration in terms of the long-term health of his football team.
While sending Drake Maye out there to start the season is something some fans believe should be done to allow him to learn through experience, Mayo believes that Brissett is the better option and his time in the NFL gives the club its best chance to win football games.
“There are a lot of factors that led to this choice,” said Mayo. “I think the hard part is thinking in the short term and the long term at the same time. As an organization, though, we feel like Jacoby gives us our best chance to win right now.”
It’s been a strange couple of weeks for Mayo, who has sent mixed messages on this front in recent weeks. At the start of the preseason, Mayo talked about the fact Brissett was their starter and that Maye’s job was to learn and build a foundation.
Following their performance against Philadelphia, which saw Brissett throw an ill-advised end zone interception, things felt like they changed. A strong first-half by Drake Maye, which saw the rookie complete 5-of-7 for 47 yards, including a rushing touchdown, got the conversation started and it carried over into the finale against Washington.
Maye finished that game 13-of-20 for 126 yards and a touchdown, overcoming a tough showing by the offensive line while building off his performance from the previous week.
In that game, Brissett also took a shot early in the game and appeared to suffer a shoulder injury, leaving the game after just one series.
Overall, he finished the preseason completing just 5-of-14 (35.7%) for 36 yards and an INT, while Maye completed 21-of-34 (61.8%) for 192 yards and a TD.
Mayo told WEEI on Monday that he felt Maye had outplayed the veteran, but did say at the time there was more that needed to be taken into account before making a decision on the starter for 2024.
“I would say at this current point, Drake has outplayed Jacoby,” said Mayo. “Now, in saying that, we have to take in the full body of work, going all the way back to the spring and the beginning of training camp, and we’ll see where we end up. But those are the conversations that will happen here over the next couple of days.”
Given the rhetoric, it’s hard not to wonder if it was lip service to the media and that behind the scenes, this situation was already decided. Brissett had said earlier in the week that he believed he was the club’s top signal-caller, whereas Mayo told the media otherwise.
“I think all the players, not just quarterbacks, they have to have that confidence that they should be starters,” said Mayo on Wednesday. “I’m not going to dig too far into that. That’s his opinion, and we all have one.”
For now, it’s a moot point and the decision has finally been made. How long Brissett remains under center is now the big question, which will make how he plays in the coming weeks something everyone will be watching with Maye now sitting on the sideline behind him to begin the season.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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The summer game stats are so small a percentage of the puzzle relative to the controlled practice snaps, that reporting the so call competition as such, is part of the problem here. But it makes for articles and storys. That’s what the topic is really about. A story has life as such and persists. Is the team and Mayo culpible and part of letting it fester as it brought attention and intrigue for the team, is a good question in my view.