Jerod Mayo had a plan.
Its principles were clear even if its timetable was not.
The New England Patriots’ first-year head coach would allow veteran journeyman Jacoby Brissett and rookie Drake Maye to battle through 2024 for the starting quarterback job.
As long as Brissett held the advantage, he would start. When it was no longer obvious, Maye was the guy.
“If he beats Jacoby, I mean, there’s nothing else to say – and I hope he continues to improve,” Mayo told Yahoo Sports during a camp visit training in August. “When I talk about competition, it’s not just in training camp. It happens on a daily basis throughout the season, in the meeting room, during guided tours and on the field. So you always have to have that sense of urgency that someone takes your job.
“We talk about competition all the time. »
With frustration growing and the oft-mentioned bumps in the road becoming steeper, the Patriots opted to promote Maye to the starter this week against the Houston Texans, a person with knowledge of the decision confirmed to Yahoo Sports on Tuesday after -noon.
The decision makes sense in the scheme of the Patriots who want to win and win soon. But it raises several questions about how best to set up the third overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft for a long and successful career.
Mayo acknowledged this tension Monday, on the eve of the transition. The coach no longer confirmed that Brissett was his surefire starter. Instead, he began to explain his dilemma.
“It’s natural for fans and media to say, ‘Well, we also have a good quarterback waiting in the wings,'” Mayo said. “At the same time, our mentality is: ‘How can we develop it?’ How can we get the guys on the field around him to develop and move forward from there? »
That sentiment echoed Mayo’s proclamation before the season when he announced Brissett as the starter, highlighting the difficulty between establishing a future foundation and impending victories.
“The hardest thing is to think short-term and long-term at the same time,” Mayo said Aug. 29. “As an organization, however, we believe Jacoby gives us our best chance to win at this time.”
Five games later, the Patriots no longer believe Brissett now gives them their best chance to win. This is not their best option in the short or long term.
But as Maye begins, fans have to wonder: Is this defensible short-term decision also the Patriots’ best long-term decision?
How has Jacoby Brissett performed so far as Patriots quarterback?
Performance metrics don’t reflect Brissett well.
The Patriots’ 2016 third-round pick landed the job with 79 games of experience, including 48 starts. He knew the offense run by coordinator Alex Van Pelt and had a mental bank of professional defenses he could draw on.
Talent could only come into play, Patriots coaches believed early in the season, when an offensive structure was established.
“Jacoby is better equipped right now with his skills and his toolbox to be able to handle a lot of the issues that come up,” Van Pelt told Yahoo Sports during training camp. “Drake is still learning that.”
But Brissett’s experience wasn’t enough to overcome the combination of his own skills and a rare cache of offensive talent.
In five games, he completed 58.5% of passes for two touchdowns and one interception, his passer rating of 74.2 ranking 29th in the league.
As a result, the Patriots offense ranked 31st in points scored (12.4) and total yardage (250.8 per game).
Only the Miami Dolphins, whose quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is on the injured list with a concussion, scored fewer than New England.
“We’re in a solution-driven industry and we’re not playing good football,” Mayo said. “We have to look at every unit and every player and figure out how to use this roster to go out there and win games.”
Mayo added that Brissett’s performance in the loss to the Dolphins this week “just wasn’t good enough…I think he would echo the same sentiment that it wasn’t good enough.”
Few defend Brissett’s results.
The problem with the Patriots’ logic is whether shaking up the quarterback position is enough to overcome the myriad of other issues present on the roster.
Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr.? Don’t expect a soft landing for Maye
Only two quarterbacks have been sacked more often than Brissett’s 17 times and no quarterback has faced a higher pressure rate than Brissett’s 50 percent, according to Next Gen Stats, which defines the metric as “the percentage of dropbacks on which at least one passer affects the quarterback before the pass is thrown, resulting in a rush, hit, or sack.
Brissett’s average throw time of 2.9 seconds is the ninth slowest in the league. But throwing quickly often requires open targets, and Brissett’s targets generated less separation (3.2 yards per throw) than 27 quarterbacks in the league. As a result, even with extended pocket time, Brissett threw tight windows on 16.3 percent of his throws, ninth in the league.
Expect Maye to face similar pressure.
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With veteran center David Andrews on injured reserve, veteran left tackle Chukwuma Okorafor leaving the team in the first month of the season and other injuries, a rotating cast of offensive linemen has helped not only rate of quarterback pressure highest (48.3%), but also the highest. unblocked pressure rate (13.5%) this season, according to Next Gen Stats.
The Patriots allowed the highest pressure rate from left tackle, center guard and right guard, each. Unsurprisingly, the Patriots rank last in pass win rate, according to ESPN’s metric for gauging how much protection a quarterback receives.
Maye’s first start comes against the Texans, who rank fourth in winning rate with Danielle Hunter leading the league in pressures and Will Anderson Jr. ranking seventh.
The Patriots hope Maye’s arm talent can force defenses to play more honestly down the field while his athleticism helps overcome some protection deficits. Consider a preseason game where an Edge Rusher didn’t bite on a bootleg and instead pressured Maye as soon as possible. The rookie changed his arm angle to throw the pass to tight end Mitchell Wilcox, avoiding a negative play.
Could he do this again?
“Everyone says, ‘Whoa, this guy has a cannon,’ or ‘This guy is so smart,’” Mayo told Yahoo Sports. “But what can he do when things aren’t going well? And how to raise your nose in the plane? Drake certainly has the ability to do it.
As the Patriots plane looks to avoid a 1-5 free fall, Maye will need it.
