Jerod Mayo Leaves Door Open for Drake Maye to Start This Season

The New England Patriots finally announced their starting quarterback to begin the season. As expected, Jerod Mayo revealed that veteran Jacoby Brissett will start in Week 1 and the foreseeable future.

At the same time, the first-time head coach didn't shut the door entirely on the possibility of Drake Maye becoming the QB1 at some point in the season. Patriots insider Doug Kyed reported that Mayo didn't rule out Maye playing this season.

Patriots News: Jerod Mayo Doesn't Rule Out Drake Maye As QB1

Mayo didn't want to give a timeline of when Maye would start. In fact, he didn't even say that it was definitely going to happen. Reading the tea leaves throughout the offseason, however, it's not hard to deduce that Maye will get his chance at some point in the season. It's likely more about when rather than if.

"I don’t want to get into hypotheticals. We can’t go into the season saying, ‘he’s going to go X amount of weeks.’ Look, as long as Jacoby is going out there performing the way that we all have confidence in him doing, he’ll be our quarterback this season."

- Jerod Mayo

The Patriots aren't expected to be competitive this season. FanDuel Sportsbook set their over/under in win totals at 4.5. They have by far the longest odds in the NFL to make the playoffs at +980. It would be organizational malpractice to not give your No. 3 overall pick some reps as the starter in this situation.

It's fair to be concerned about the offensive line. It's understandable that the organization wants Maye to learn the traits a bit longer before throwing him into the fire. At the same time, once the losses start piling up, it will be very difficult to make the case for Maye to sit much longer.

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