Patriots' Drake Maye Has 'No Regrets' from QB Battle With Jacoby Brissett

New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo made the long-expected decision to go with Jacoby Brissett over Drake Maye as the team's starting quarterback to open the 2024 regular season.

Speaking to reporters after the move was announced, Maye said he has "no regrets" over how the competition played out during training camp and preseason.

Brissett did praise Maye for how much he has improved since being selected with the No. 3 overall pick by the Patriots in the 2024 NFL draft.

Even though Brissett seemed to have the advantage for the starting job, there were some indications that Maye was at least closing the gap to make it a real battle between the two.

The biggest indicator was Mayo publicly acknowledging that Maye had outplayed Brissett in the preseason, but there were other factors being considered when naming a starter:

"What I will say is this is a true competition and I would say at this current point, Drake has outplayed Jacoby. Now, in saying that, we have to take in the full body of work going all the way back to the spring and beginning of training camp. And we'll see where we end up, but those are the conversations that will happen here over the next couple days."

Brissett also suffered a shoulder injury during New England's final preseason game against the Washington Commanders on Sunday. Mayo said afterward Brissett could have continued to play if the plan was for him to stay in for more than one drive.

The hit Brissett took put a spotlight on another issue that may be keeping Maye on the bench for the time being: New England's offensive line looks like a mess going into the regular season.

Patriots quarterbacks were sacked six times in three preseason games. There were also stories about how the offensive line was getting destroyed in a joint practice against the Philadelphia Eagles on Aug. 13.

Even though sacks aren't officially tallied in practice sessions, Brian Hines and Bernd Buchmasser of Pats Pulpit tracked at least 10 plays that would have ended in sacks. They were also flagged for penalties on "multiple occasions" and "seemed to have issues with line games in a 2-on-2 blocking drill."

Brissett isn't the type of quarterback who can help a leaky offensive line because he's not a scrambler. He's more of a traditional stand-in-the-pocket quarterback.

Maye may have more physical talent than Brissett and is capable of making plays out of structure, but the knocks against him leading up to the draft were a tendency to make busted plays worse and reading defenses post-snap.

There are obvious reasons to go with either quarterback to open the season. Mayo went with the one that will allow the rookie more time to develop behind the scenes, but it would be a surprise if Maye isn't on the field for multiple starts at some point in 2024.

Brissett will lead the Patriots against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1 on Sept. 8.