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Devin McCourty explains why Patriots made the right decision not starting Drake Maye
"You got the Bengals, Seahawks, the Jets and 49ers the first four games. That would be intense to put a rookie quarterback out there."
Drake Maye will open his rookie season in the NFL on the sideline.
Jerod Mayo announced last week that the Patriots will roll with veteran Jacoby Brissett as the team’s starting QB in Week 1 against the Bengals, with Maye getting extra time to marinate as the team’s primary backup.
While Maye narrowed the gap between him and Brissett this preseason with a pair of encouraging performances against the Eagles and Commanders, Mayo’s decision to start Brissett over Maye didn’t come as a surprise.
Be it New England’s woeful offensive line, the reality that the Patriots are staring at a multi-year rebuild, or the track record of star QBs like Patrick Mahomes and Jordan Love thriving after “redshirt” rookie years, putting Maye in bubble wrap this fall might be prudent.
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Count former Patriots safety and NBC football analyst Devin McCourty among those who think keeping Maye away from the gridiron is the right decision.
“You go into a preseason game and he looks great, plays well, then you go into a third preseason game, he plays well again. And I think everyone’s like, ‘Oh my goodness, he needs to be out there,'” McCourty said on the latest episode of NBC Sports Boston’s Patriots Talk Podcast. “And in a real game setting, there were four illegal formations (vs. Washington).
“Jacoby got absolutely killed on the first drive of the game. When you look at that, you’re now this young quarterback — he would have to overcome some things that happened in the game without him doing anything wrong, not making any rookie mistakes.
“I think you’ve got to be careful of telling a quarterback, ‘Hey, we know you’re young, but we need you to save the day every single play. You need to make sure you can put us in the perfect play, i.e. Tom Brady put us in a perfect play. Get us out of a bad play, get us into a good play. Hey, see the adjustments. Hey, understand the coverage. We need you to do that every single time.”
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Maye’s arm strength and athleticism when it comes to escaping pressure in the pocket likely gives New England’s offense a higher ceiling this year when compared to Brissett.
But after New England’s last first-round QB in Mac Jones unraveled last season amid major pass-protection woes, McCourty stressed that the Patriots don’t want a similar scenario playing out this fall — even if it might impact the record of this 2024 team.
“You’re definitely going to have a difference of opinions,” McCourty said. “But I think the main thing is as a team, as a defense, overall, you have to believe whatever the decision is that’s made, and then continue to go out there and do your job, do whatever your role is on the team.
“You don’t want to ever have it turn into kind of what they’ve had over the last few years with Mac (Jones), and then (Bailey) Zappe’s coming in, and then it’s like back and forth, ‘Oh man, maybe they should just put Will Grier in there, let Will Grier be the quarterback.’
“You don’t want to create that. So I think that’s what they’re going to have to balance through the season. I looked at the first four games this year — you got the Bengals, Seahawks, the Jets and 49ers the first four games. That would be intense to put a rookie quarterback out there.”
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