FOXBORO – Will Jacoby Brissett or Drake Maye start for the Patriots in Week 1 of the regular season? The veteran Brissett is obviously a little biased, but as of Tuesday he believes he is still the team’s best quarterback.
“In my mind, that’s me,” Brissett said in a radio interview with WEEI. “I haven’t heard anything different. So I have to assume that.”
Brissett started all three of New England’s preseason games and was considered the team’s best quarterback for most of the summer, but Maye’s impressive performance against the Eagles and Commanders in the final two preseason games – the rookie completed 19 of his 31 passes for 173 yards and a touchdown, along with a rushing score – made things much more exciting in New England.
Brissett was 5-for-14 for 36 yards and an interception in his preseason action. The Patriots didn’t score any points on his attacks under center.
Head coach Jerod Mayo didn’t exactly make things better on Monday. Just hours after saying after Sunday’s preseason game that Maye was the second-best quarterback on the roster, he wavered Monday morning and said Maye had surpassed Brissett.
“I would say that Drake has surpassed Jacoby at this point,” Mayo said Monday on WEEI, stoking the battle for the quarterback title. “When we say that, we have to take into account all the work that went back to the spring and the start of training camp, and we’ll see where we land. But those are the conversations we’re going to have here over the next few days.”
Mayo said the decision on quarterback would be made after the team finalizes its 53-man roster on Tuesday, so we may know who gets the nod in Week 1 against the Bengals in Cincinnati when the Patriots return to the practice field on Wednesday. Mayo will speak to reporters before that practice, so we’ll see if he makes an announcement at that time.
While Maye has looked good against backups in very boring defensive systems, there is great concern about the rookie playing his first real NFL snaps behind New England’s terrible offensive line. A veteran like Brissett with eight years of NFL experience, should be able to better deal with the opposing defenses that New England will face at the start of the season.
Brissett suffered a shoulder injury in a hard hit during Sunday night’s season finale, but said Tuesday that he was feeling “100 percent good.”
“I think it was more of a precautionary measure,” he said of Sunday’s preseason loss to the Commanders, who he left after just one series. “I hadn’t been hit in eight months, so it surprised me more than anything.”
