The competition for the job of starting quarterback for the New England Patriots is still active, which is why Sunday’s final preseason duel against the Washington Commanders will be a decisive duel.
“It’s still a competition, and Jacoby (Brissett) is still QB1,” head coach Jerod Mayo told reporters after practice Wednesday. “It’s a competition between all the guys on the field, including the quarterback position. Hopefully that makes sense to you guys, but he’s still QB1.”
Competition for the No. 1 position has heated up recently, especially after rookie Drake Maye put up a pretty good performance in last Thursday’s preseason loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Maye has played well in subsequent practices as well.
“I think everyone can see Drake’s confidence growing and everyone can see Jacoby going out here and doing a good job overall,” Mayo said. “We’ll see how it goes.”
What timetable are the Patriots working with in deciding who will start at quarterback in Week 1?
“I would say by Monday night we should know who the quarterback is,” Mayo said. “Sunday night games, it’s always pretty difficult to look through the film, especially on the road, but I think Monday, Monday-Tuesday, we probably need to know who it is. That doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you on Monday or Tuesday.”
It will be interesting to see how much playing time Maye gets on Sunday. After playing just one series in the season opener against the Carolina Panthers, Maye got four drives — more than a quarter of the game’s time in total — to lead the offense against the Eagles. The Patriots scored 10 of their 13 points in the game on those drives, including a rushing touchdown by Maye.
There are many pros and cons to having a rookie start in Week 1 of the season. The Patriots have a tough schedule the first six weeks, so it probably makes more sense to use Brissett as the starter. But there’s no doubt that Maye has made this QB competition much more interesting over the last week.
