The Patriots are not ready to let Drake Maye play – and he is not ready either

FOXBORO – There are two good reasons to bench an NFL quarterback after a drive in a preseason game.

Reason #1: You know what you have.

Say, an All-Pro starter or a rising star who needs to be protected from the dangers of meaningless football.

Or a lifelong journeyman whose career has stalled and who no longer has to prove himself in the 9th, 10th or 11th grade.

A journeyman like Jacoby Brissett.

Brissett started the Patriots’ opener on Thursday night but sat out after a single series. He’s a nine-year veteran who has played in eight different offensive systems and ranks between the 25th and 35th best quarterback in the league each year. Brissett is who he is.

Then there’s reason number 2: you don’t know what you have and you’re in no hurry to find out.

Like an inexperienced first-round rookie who is expected to one day become the franchise’s flagship player, but who currently barely grows a beard. A rookie like Drake Maye.

The supremely talented Maye lasted six plays Thursday night after following Brissett on the Patriots’ second drive, attempting three passes, completing a block and a checkdown around an incomplete pass that sailed a little too high and too late for Jalen Reagor down the deep middle.

For those who haven’t been tracking or following Maye’s every rep through the 11 training camps, this series has summed up his summer so far pretty well.

Maye has followed Brissett every day. He was reticent and mostly ineffective when throwing deep. Maye admitted after the game that he should have taken a chance by targeting one of his four available curl routes to the first-down marker.

Maye has also protected the ball and played solid but unspectacular snaps day in and day out. Oh, and his offensive line often doesn’t do him any favors.

Right tackle Chukwuma Okorafor had a false start during his only series. The O-line was also unable to generate much pressure on two runs that totaled one yard, forcing Maye back into consecutive third-and-longs. The Patriots’ offensive line is a disaster at the offensive tackle position and has no proven backup center.

Even if Maye plays with the regular players – which he did for the first time on Thursday – it is not enough.

To this point, offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt may call plays for the first time since 2009, but he’s no fool. He called a block on Maye’s first pass attempt and then wrote a swing route into a deep all-curls play on third-and-eleven. Maye went into the huddle, hit the swing route and left the field unscathed.

That was all part of the plan, as was Bailey using Zappe as a punching bag for the next two quarters. Zappe, as much as a player can do in a preseason game, confirmed our suspicions about who he is.

Patriots preseason: 7 things we learned from the 17-3 win over the Panthers

He’s a backup player fighting for a backup’s job, a mediocre passer and expendable player who’s here to take the hits for Maye, just like Brissett will do in the regular season until the rookie is ready to take over.

Zappe averaged four yards per dropback against a Carolina defense loaded with substitutes. That’s not enough, but it was entirely predictable, which made Mayo’s insistence on using Zappe for most of the game all the more odd.

“That became the Zappe Show and the Joe Show,” Mayo said. “And that was the plan.”

Joe means Joe Milton, human fuel for talk radio scandalmongers and media rabble-rousers covering the Patriots. Milton completed 4 of 6 passes for 54 yards and a late touchdown. The touchdown was certainly beautiful; a 38-yard touchdown that he threw in a way that no quarterback in New England has managed since the years of Tom Brady’s heyday.

Milton looked good. You have to give him that.

And yes, there is competition for the quarterback spot in Foxboro. But no, it’s not about the starting spot. It’s about the third quarterback, a job that Milton hasn’t gotten yet after the training sessions so far.

As far as the starting spot goes, Maye remains well behind Brissett. He’s just not ready.

Maye came into the league as the No. 3 overall pick and an untested prospect with rare talent, impressive college production and obvious, fundamental weaknesses. It was a steep learning curve, as most who studied the draft closely expected the first year to make it, given his background.