To the surprise of probably nobody, it’s been nearly confirmed that Jacoby Brissett is going to be the New England Patriots starting quarterback when the 2024 season begins. For those that aren’t aware of the Patriot’s situation, they were one of the six teams that drafted a quarterback in the top 12 overall selections of the NFL draft.
For New England, they took Drake Maye at the number three overall selection in the first round. Maye has genuine potential to be a franchise quarterback (we’ll get to his potential later) but the team has already suffered through a missed quarterback choice before. They took a risk on Mac Jones and started him under center straight away. After a seemingly strong rookie year, Jones fell apart from that point onwards and isn’t even on the roster anymore, joining the Jacksonville Jaguars. New England also parted ways with arguably the greatest coach of all time, Bill Belichick. It’s safe to say that the franchise wants to redeem itself from recent failures and will be taking on the quarterback position in a far different way than they have in the past.
Many were hoping that Maye wasn’t given the green light to start under center straight away to avoid ruining his confidence and in turn, the rest of his career. It was then that the team announced that he’d compete with veteran Jacoby Brissett. For those who don’t know Brissett, he’s been a solid quarterback in the league for a long time. He started his career with the Patriots and played three solid games there, then he traveled to play for the Indianapolis Colts for four years, then the Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns, and the Washington Commanders for individual seasons afterward. He had two separate seasons with the Colts where he threw for over 2,900 yards and a total of 31 touchdowns. With the Dolphins, he started 11 games and threw for another 1,300 yards. With the Browns, he started an entire season and threw for 2,600 yards and 12 more touchdowns. Most recently, he appeared in three games for the Commanders and threw three touchdowns and no interceptions.
The point that I want to make is that Brissett is an NFL-caliber quarterback who’s been doing this for many years. Sure, he isn’t a guy like Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, or Josh Allen, but many aren’t those guys. Brissett has been given the starting job on five different teams throughout his career already, so he’s doing things on the field that teams like. You won’t see anything flashy or insane, but he won’t lose your games. In New England, that’s the perfect person to drop in as the starting quarterback while the rookie Drake Maye gets adjusted to everything and learns underneath him.
To directly quote their new head coach Jerrod Mayo on the quarterback situation, “But I sit here and tell you coming out of the spring, Jacoby looks like the starting quarterback. Now, with that being said, he’ll have competition. Let’s not forget about Joe Milton. Let’s not forget about Bailey Zappe. All those guys will have opportunities to go out there and be the starting quarterback in Week 1.”
The Patriots want to save Maye from the starting job straightaway and are likely to send out Brissett to keep the ship steady as they evaluate their younger options. It’s hard to believe that Zappe will win the job after getting multiple starting opportunities last season and not exactly performing consistently. As for Milton, he was a later-round selection in the recent NFL draft, but there were concerns regarding accuracy. Although Milton does have an incredible arm on him. That might not be enough to win him the starting job, but his youth will at least make him an intriguing option for the Patriots roster.
With all of that out of the way, let’s get into Drake Maye now. Maye played three seasons at the University of North Carolina and played in a total of 28 games. His 2022 season was the best, with him appearing in 14 games and throwing for 4,321 yards, 38 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. His final year in college watched him throw for 3,608 yards, 24 touchdowns, and nine interceptions. It was a little less exciting than his previous campaign, but still a very solid season, nonetheless. Maye looks to have strong potential at the NFL level, at least on the surface. The problem is that people still remember the last big-name UNC quarterback who was drafted early, Mitchell Trubisky. Hopefully, these two don’t end up the same way.
If you’re a betting man, there are a few things that you can take from this information. The most important is that Maye won’t be starting immediately and will take his time to learn the offense first. The second is that Brissett being listed as the starting quarterback will make the Patriots at least competitive in their first few games. Remember, New England wasn’t a good team in 2023, yet they remained competitive in quite a few contests against teams that should have destroyed them on paper. Throw in a capable veteran signal-caller in Brissett, and the Patriots might cover the spread quite a bit throughout the season. The final thing that you should note is that there might even be wagers regarding when Maye gets thrown into action as the starter, or even which quarterback might emerge as the starter despite Mayo claiming that Brissett has already likely got the job.
There’s a lot that you can take from this small bit of information, and I believe that Brissett changes the Patriot’s season a good amount. He won’t be explosive like Maye might be, but he won’t be potentially bad like Maye might be if he isn’t ready to start at the NFL level straight away. I foresee Brissett keeping the Patriots competitive in each game he starts in, and that is something worth knowing for the spread each week and when you’re betting on a winner straight-up.
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