The Patriots’ preseason for 2024 is complete. It makes for lousy reading. Right now, they are back in last place in the AFC East. That’s no surprise. One can ask whether the team
Management has messed up the 2024 season before it even started. Mr. Kraft must be thrilled.
Patriot Nation should be in an uproar. As much as the Patriots’ media apologists have tried to sugarcoat the team’s botched offseason by covering up Eliot Wolf’s rookie mistake, it is what it is: a terribly assembled roster. A rookie with a computer and a few draft magazines could have assembled this club better.
Only one decision has the slightest chance of leading this group to anything close to a winning season, and that’s who plays quarterback. Whoever is chosen will have a tough time dealing with the desolate offensive line assembled by Wolf and his amateurish personnel team.
Regardless, only one man has stood out as deserving of the starting quarterback job. That is as clear as Cyrano de Bergerac’s face: It is rookie Drake Maye. All the excuses and so-called “justifications” for not using him are false. Here’s why.
In a dream world, football should be a meritocracy like any other business. If you’re the best, you should be treated that way. Of course, that only happens at Disney World. Whatever. We’re talking about the New England Patriots, and the only season that matters is 2024.
If you want to at least try to win (questionable with the 2024 Patriots), Drake Maye starts and plays from the first snap to the last as long as he’s healthy. That starts against Cincinnati. He earned the job through his performances in camp and the preseason, period. For anyone who can’t see, the Celtics’ quest for championship No. 19 begins in October.
Maye gives the potentially defensively-challenged Patriots the best chance to win no matter what. It’s that simple. Trying to cover up spending $8 million on backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett is no reason not to play with the best team. Nor is their abysmal offensive line. You play with the best team or you give up the season in disgrace before a ball is even kicked.
Maye can compensate for a whole range of shortcomings
Yes, the O-line is terrible. What did anyone expect when they didn’t sign or draft a left tackle, a Super Bowl contender? The guys who were supposed to make the transition (two right tackles) can’t even play right. That screams transfer. Plus, a ton of high-profile draft picks for the offensive line have flopped all across the O-line.
So why Drake Maye? Forget all the nonsense about footwork, arm angles, and so on. Maye has proven he can make any throw there is. He has shown he can get the offense moving and score. And he can run well (just learn to slide, please, Mr. Maye!). If your (N)O line stinks, you have to do it. Maye, unlike his 2024 predecessors, runs for first downs and touchdowns.
Although Tom Brady believes rookie QBs like himself should sit on the bench for a year, four other QBs drafted in the first round will either start this season or would have. They’re Chicago’s Caleb Williams, Washington’s Jayden Daniels and Denver’s Bo Nix. The injured JJ McCarthy of the Vikings won’t start, but only because he’s injured. That has to be a really terrible idea, TB12.
They’ll start like Maye should because they won the jobs like he did. Are the Pats smarter than the entire NFL, Brady’s comment notwithstanding? Not likely. And those are just a few reasons why the precocious Maye should start.
There are two main reasons for this. First, he has earned the job through his performance. There is no question about that. Second, he gives the team the best chance to win. What better reasons could there be? When it comes to covering up mistakes from the offseason, there are no reasons at all.
