Why the Drake Maye-Jacoby Brissett Competition Won’t Be Like Mac Jones vs. Cam Newton – NBC Sports Boston

FOXBORO – Did the early season competition between Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye take a turn on Tuesday?

Many claim that, I don’t.

I heard every word of head coach Jerod Mayo’s response to my question about whether he could imagine Maye getting the job.

If not, here it is:

“If he comes in here and he lights it up — again, it’s all about the quality of the reps. It absolutely could happen. … After the spring, Jacoby looks like the starting quarterback. Now, that being said, he’s going to have competition. Let’s not even forget Joe Milton; let’s not forget (Bailey) Zappe. All those guys have a chance to go out there and be the starting quarterback in Week 1.

So no predetermined protective bubble for Drake? No mandatory apprenticeship?

“No, not at all,” Mayo said. “I mean, you’ve seen that work in the past, right? You look at other quarterbacks, Green Bay quarterbacks, who had a lot of time. You look at those situations, and they were able to sit back. There’s also been situations where a guy comes right in, and he goes nuts. We’ll see what happens when we get out there on the field.

What should Maye do? What is the evaluation?

“For me, it comes down to the same word, and that’s competition,” Mayo said. “It’s not about everybody. It’s about ‘Is this guy going to go out there and outperform Jacoby?’ It doesn’t matter who we’re talking about.”

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Mayo used the word “competition” 10 times in his press conference. The message is clear. Last year we were 4-13. Nobody is guaranteed anything. Every job is up for grabs. Go for it.

Let’s be realistic. Kyle Dugger doesn’t get beat. Jabrill Peppers doesn’t get beat. And while Brissett’s situation is different, because he’s on a one-year deal with the third overall pick, he’s unlikely to get beat because what the Patriots need early in 2024 is competence.

As Mayo said earlier in his press conference: “I don’t think there’s any doubt that Jacoby is the starting quarterback right now. We can look at these other quarterbacks on the roster, but at the same time, it’s about competition. When we get on the field this summer, with the pads on, we’ll see how it all plays out. After the spring, I think it’s clear that Jacoby is the most pro-ready guy we have. He’s played a lot of football.”

Brissett is the hand-picked pilot for offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt’s offense. He’s been there. He gets it. He’s played 79 NFL games and made 48 starts in eight seasons.

Maye made 26 starts in his college career, playing in 30 games. His final season at North Carolina was clouded by a change at the coordinator, and the offense Van Pelt employs, which relies on timing and all sorts of footwork nuances, is new to him.

Maye has made great strides in a month this spring. But he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know (as he would probably admit) and he won’t know everything by the first week of September.

Maye and all the other players trying to pass the guy in front of him, holding the carrot in front of them, is what happens in late July. Why wouldn’t you want the 21-year-old to feel the urgency to accelerate his progress and take over? Look at the quarterback prices around the league. Do you want a redshirt year for a guy on his rookie deal and only get three years of modestly priced playing time out of him? Of course not.

But Maye chasing Brissett isn’t the same as Mac Jones chasing Cam Newton. When that happened, the Patriots were still a relatively well-resourced team on offense. The 2021 offense pivoted from the Newton-centric offense of 2020 to one that emphasized quick decisions and accuracy.

There was little difference between Jones and Newton in that regard, and Jones outperformed Newton that summer. Jones was a more finished product, albeit with a much lower physical ceiling.

Brissett has much more experience with this plan than Maye, and while Maye is bigger, stronger, and faster, that’s not much.

Starting Wednesday, we’ll see how serious the Patriots are about giving Maye every chance to win the job by seeing how many reps he gets with the starters. If, as happened with Jones, the reps start coming fast and furious, that will be a sign.

Do the Patriots have the time to develop Maye in this camp and simultaneously get ready for the Bengals in less than two months? That is the question.