Should New England Patriots Give Jacoby Brissett Chance to Start Week 1?

On Friday, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady announced on his Facebook page that he would "no longer proceed with the legal process" of battling his Deflategate suspension. After almost two full offseasons, the media battle between the Patriots and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is finally over.

What this means, though, is that New England will be without its starting quarterback for Weeks 1 through 4, as the four-game suspension that Goodell initially slapped Brady with was reinstated in court in April.

With the uncertainty of Brady's status now behind us, the focus on the Patriots' quarterback unit has shifted from their star passer to the pair of passers who will attempt to replace him: Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett.

Right now, Garoppolo, a third-year player, is the clear leader in the media's eyes. But Brissett, a rookie third-round pick, will get a chance to prove himself this offseason, too. According to Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald, Brissett even saw some first-team reps in organized team activities in June.

Brissett has had an odd career up to this point. Himself a super-recruit, Brissett was the third-ranked pro-style quarterback in 247Sports' 2011 class composite rankings. For reference, he was ranked ahead of 2016 draft picks Cody Kessler, Brandon Allen, Kevin Hogan, Cardale Jones, Jake Rudock and Connor Cook, and those were just the 4-star and 3-star pro-style passers in the pecking order.

Committing to the University of Florida, the team's highest-ranked offensive coach, Charlie Weis, was his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Prior to joining the Gators, Weis had spent nine seasons in the NFL as an offensive coordinator, including five in New England with Brady.

Unfortunately for Brissett, not all went according to plan. As a true freshman, he was part of a trio of young quarterbacks, alongside Jeff Driskel and Tyler Murphy, who backed up senior John Brantley. By the end of their college careers, they were all at different programs, with Brissett landing at North Carolina State, Driskel playing for Louisiana Tech and Murphy suiting up for Boston College.

Brissett spent his first two years as a backup at Florida under Weis, who would leave after one year for the University of Kansas head coaching job, and Brent Pease.

Weis was fired by Kansas four games into the 2014 season, and he is currently unemployed. Pease spent two years with Florida as an offensive coordinator before being released from his contract. He had a two-year stint as a receivers coach at the University of Washington, which he was fired from this offseason. He's now the offensive coordinator at mid-major University of Texas-El Paso in Conference USA.

In 2013, after playing in two systems under two less-than-stellar college offensive coordinators based on their recent track records, Brissett made the move to Raleigh. His offensive coordinator for all three of his years at NC State was Matt Canada, who was fired in January and is now the offensive coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh.

Based on the judgment criteria that decision-makers at Kansas, Florida, Washington and NC State laid out for Brissett's former offensive coordinators, all three of them have failed during Brissett's career. Even worse, with such limited time with each of them, Brissett never had more than a redshirt sophomore's level of experience in an offense. He was college football's Jason Campbell.

For two years, Brissett led the Wolfpack, mostly in the shotgun. In 2015—his senior season—Brissett's NC State team finished 13th in yards per completion, was the third-most sacked team in the ACC and finished with the fewest thrown interceptions in the conference. When watching his film, those seemingly all over the map numbers become normalized with context: surrounding talent.

Brissett's left tackle, Joe Thuney, was drafted by the Patriots in the third round. In 2016, the Wolfpack joined Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Stanford and Mississippi as programs that had two or more top-91 (when Brissett was drafted) selections come from the offensive side of the ball. The other five programs combined for a 58-10 record for their 2015 seasons, each earning Top Four rankings in the Associated Press poll at various points in the year.

On the other hand, NC State had a combined 6-10 conference record during Brissett's two years of ACC play. While the pair of Wolfpack prospects should help New England in the near future, they are hardly indicative of the offense's overall talent under Canada.

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Brissett had Thuney at LT, but OL is more about sum of parts than individuals. His IOL got flat backed by LB types. pic.twitter.com/b5haRj5wgb

— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq) July 17, 2016 "

The first attribute that comes up with Brissett's tape is his ability to stand strong in the pocket, take a hit and pop right back up. As we've learned with Geno Smith, a 2013 second-round pick, that's a double-edged sword. When all is well, the quarterback will be labeled patient, but when his offense goes off schedule, he's getting sacked.

When his offensive line didn't pick up a late blitzer? He got smashed. When his offensive line couldn't block for that last split-second? He got smashed. When his offensive coordinator got cute and drew up plays that purposely exposed him? He got smashed.

Every time, though, Brissett picked himself up and was ready to throw a pass while staring down the barrel of a gun. The reason for the constant onslaught on Brissett at NC State was simple: Its offense couldn't shake Cover 1 looks.

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FSU was just beating NC State up with simple Cover 1 blitzes. With the dog, it's a 6 on 6 blitz with no open WRs. pic.twitter.com/Zgo1TJM5UY

— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq) July 17, 2016"

Often, NC State only sent four skill players running routes, which meant that after a "green dog" blitz look from a linebacker, the Wolfpack were faced with six blockers on six pass-rushers. While those numbers seem fine, it demanded perfection from the team's linemen, which just wasn't the case.

As far as coverage was concerned, most teams locked up with Brissett's targets one-on-one with a single-high safety keeping the top on the defense. More times than not, though, that safety wasn't even warranted, as Brissett's potential targets couldn't manage to win consistent one-on-one matchups. Against Florida State, his receivers were blanketed with a hanging safety over them. Against Louisville, it was the same story.

In the few times that Brissett was able to throw against middle-of-the-field-open defenses, "MOFO" for short, he was able to flash a quality intermediate to deep ball. Cover 2 and Cover 0, with either split or no deep safeties, would constitute as MOFO looks, but as mentioned, NC State's pass-catchers just didn't do enough to have teams respect them with two dedicated deep-ball defenders.

Because of that, Brissett never truly developed a calibration on his deep ball down the sideline. Sometimes there were misfires, and sometimes there were just plain misjudgments. There were flashes of brilliance, such as when he was able to throw a ball into a bucket against Cover 2 man, but those opportunities came once, maybe twice a game.

Playing with lesser talents against less than ideal matchups, Brissett seldom flashed outside of constricted space, when it mattered more for him to get an accurate ball off than for his receivers to outrun cornerbacks.

Think of him as a Ben Roethlisberger type, a big, vertical quarterback who can withstand punishment and maybe scramble for a couple of yards if needed. Now imagine if Roethlisberger didn't have an Antonio Brown or a Martavis Bryant, but a roster full of practice squad pass-catchers. That's the talent disparity Brissett had to deal with in the ACC.

He's not a perfect quarterback by any means, but outside of his average trigger and his at-times Zach Mettenberger-like mechanics, there were few flaws in Brissett's film that you could completely place on the shoulders of the passer. He had to play in chaos, and that made him a hard evaluation.

He can shake a defender on rollouts, outmuscle defenders in space and is athletic enough for short-yardage speed option and quarterback draw looks. As a passer, though, his film contradicted itself. He was a vertical quarterback who played in an offense in which his pass-blockers couldn't hold up long enough for his receivers to get open deep, which might be why Canada's offenses combined for a 6-18 three-year conference record.

At Florida, Brissett never saw the field. At NC State, he was picking himself up off the field. It wasn't until the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, the offseason's premier all-star game, when the quarterback was able to flash in isolation. After Carson Wentz, the second overall pick from North Dakota State, Brissett was the highest-drafted quarterback out of the group of eight passers who threw to fellow seniors for the week.

Per Mike Reiss of ESPN.com, Phil Savage had some positive things to say about Brissett's time at the event. Savage, the former general manager of the Cleveland Browns, now runs the Senior Bowl along with serving in the media, including ESPN.

"During team drills, one of the competitive parts of practice, he was 26-of-30, and I thought that said a lot," Savage said. "Only four balls hit the ground. Of all the development-type quarterbacks, I thought he was as intriguing as anyone and a worthwhile project."

Who should start in Brady's absence depends on where the Patriots are offensively at the end of the preseason. If they believe they have enough talent to just need a baseline passer, Garoppolo, who completed 19 of 27 passes during his rookie year in 2014, should be the choice. He's the safer and more consistent player, even dating back to his college career at Eastern Illinois.

If New England feels like it needs to play above its offensive talent to win games, though, Brissett is the high-variance passer who might be a hidden gem. With better receivers and a better line, even on the relative scale of NFL talent, he's going to be a better vertical thrower.

Changing up New England's passing offense, which generally runs through slot receivers, tight ends and backfield pass-catchers, probably isn't Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels' M.O., though.

"

He took a bad sack in field goal range v GB then on Fourth-and-4....are we sure Brissett can't win this job? pic.twitter.com/mUFrpivHkE

— Cian Fahey (@Cianaf) July 13, 2016"

In the end, unless something drastic happens this preseason, Brissett should be a dropback project, like Ryan Mallett and Matt Cassel before him. Based on how he was held back in college, though, there's hope that he can become much more than Mallett or Cassel in the NFL. If everything breaks right, no one should be shocked if the 6'4", 231-pound Brissett turns into a poor man's Roethlisberger or Daunte Culpepper.

With Garoppolo coming off the books in 2018, and with Brissett and Brady presumably still under contract, it looks like Brissett could be the long-term passer to take over for the recently suspended legend.