FOXBORO, Mass. — Still wondering if veteran Jacoby Brissett or rookie Drake Maye will start at quarterback in the New England Patriots’ season opener on Sept. 8 in Cincinnati? While every other team in the NFL has already named a starting quarterback, the Patriots were content to hold a press conference Wednesday afternoon to announce who decide who their starting quarterback will be.
And according to new head coach Jerod Mayo, the person who will make the decision will be new head coach Jerod Mayo.
“Ultimately, it’s my decision,” Mayo said.
In case there were people in the back of the room who couldn’t hear what was being said, Mayo made it plenty clear.
“I’m sure they all have an opinion about who they think should be the starting quarterback,” Mayo said of his own players, “but I don’t think I have to explain that to anyone. It’s my decision, and if it doesn’t work out, blame me. Blame me.”
But what about Vice President of Player Personnel Eliot Wolf?
“He definitely has his opinion, but I would say again, it’s my decision,” Mayo said. “And a lot of people have opinions and their own take on things, and I’ve lost quite a bit of sleep trying to think about those things, too. Ultimately, I would leave it up to myself.”
LIVE: Jerod Mayo press conference, August 28: https://t.co/YSQpYR7a2B
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) 28 August 2024
And so it continued during this first press conference of Mayo’s tenure as coach in New England, which was described as, oh, let’s call it, interesting. The session wasn’t as over-the-top as the time Bill Parcells accused the owners of not letting him go grocery shopping, or as head-scratching as back in the good old days of Deflategate when Bill Belichick quoted Mona Lisa Vito from “My Cousin Vinnie.” But it’s definitely something Pats fans will be talking about for a while.
So who should be the Patriots’ quarterback? If the Patriots choose Maye, it’s for an obvious reason: He was the No. 3 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and performed better than Brissett in the preseason. If the Patriots choose Brissett, it’s for an obvious reason: They don’t want to risk Maye getting injured by putting him behind offensive linemen who play with the precision you’d expect from the little plastic players in those old Electric Football games.
Early Wednesday afternoon, the media room at Gillette Stadium was a crowded, bustling place, awaiting Mayo to pull back a curtain and reveal either Brissett or Maye. Early on, before training camp even began, there were indications that the Patriots would choose the oddball (Brissett) over the boy (Maye). But then the Patriots started playing actual preseason football, and that’s when Mayo started talking about a “competition” for quarterbacks. Where are we now? Since Wednesday, the decision has been made as to who will make the decision, that’s the state of things.
And yet it is newsworthy that Mayo makes it clear that it is his decision – he has said it not once, not twice, but three times — because the story before Wednesday kept suggesting that this would be a “collaborative effort” involving Mayo, Wolf and first-year offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt. Mayo talked so enthusiastically about this “collaborative effort” that after a while it sounded a little too much like “Kumbaya,” like they were selecting a quarterback while sitting around a campfire.
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For those who believe that front office employees acquire Players and coaches should decide how to use them, and it was good news that Mayo raised his hand on Wednesday and spoke like, well, a head coach. It came across as a little contrived when Mayo said over and over that Brissett/Maye was his decision, but at least he’s made it official.
And so we never have to have this conversation again, let me explain why it’s so important that Mayo gets to pick his starting quarterback. One word: Belichick. When it comes to the actual coaching aspect of a head coach, he’s pretty much the best there ever was. But when it comes to selecting players? The Patriots made a deal with Greyhound this week to ship former Belichick draft-day selections out of Foxboro.
Translation: If you don’t want a coach to draft your plans, you shouldn’t have your coaching done by senior management—or by owners, for that matter, and hello, Kraft family!
If Mayo is to be believed, the Patriots have achieved that separation of powers. Patriots fans should pray that he is sincere.
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(Photo: Eric Canha / USA Today)
