Drake Maye has ‘outplayed’ Jacoby Brissett this preseason, Jerod Mayo says
"It's true competition and I would say at this current point, Drake has outplayed Jacoby."
The stats show it, and now Jerod Mayo has said it.
Drake Maye has performed better that Jacoby Brissett during the Patriots’ three preseason games, Mayo said during an interview on WEEI’s Greg Hill Show Monday morning.
“What I will say is that this is a true competition,” Mayo said. “It wasn’t fluff or anything like that. It’s 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,” Mayo added. “Going back to the spring and beginning of training camp and we’ll see where we end up but those are the kind of conversations that will happen here over the next couple of days.”
Mayo said after Sunday night’s preseason finale that Maye was the second-best quarterback on the roster. He was asked Monday morning why Brissett has been considered the starter in recently while Maye had outperformed him.
“I would say it’s a combination of Drake becoming more comfortable and he’s climbing the ranks and Jacoby having a better overall command of the operation. And who knows? It may change,” Mayo said. “We figured all along that we have a 1A and 1B. It’s a competition and that’s definitely a huge conversation here over the next couple of days on how we want to approach it.”
Mayo said the Patriots came into the preseason with a plan for Maye and still feel confident in that plan while there is growing pressure to start Maye right away.
“It’s a developmental plan,” Mayo said. “The reason we were excited to get Jacoby here is he has a good understanding of the offense and he’s a great leader, great mentor. He could mentor a guy like Drake and teach him some of the playbook and some of the reads and things like that.”
“We’ve all seen the horror stories of sometimes rookie quarterbacks just getting thrown to the wolves and they fall apart and we didn’t want that to happen. Now, I’m not saying that would happen with Drake at all because he is a mentally tough person and shows resilience and control of the ball.”
Maye’s development has gone the way the Patriots have hoped, Mayo said.
Mayo said he plans on addressing the team before publicly revealing who the starter is. Brissett was named the starter heading into camp, but Maye has closed the gap over the last few weeks, Mayo said.
The offensive line play has remained an issue, but Mayo said that won’t determine whether or not Maye will start.
“You can’t take insurance out on players, and look, once Drake is ready to go or however we kind of evaluate the quarterback position he’ll go out there and play. You can’t go out there and say the o-line this, the o-line that. If Drake wins the competition he’ll be the starting quarterback, and this is the hard part: We have to go back and see what that looks like going forward.”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com