Pro Football Rumors

The Patriots hoped that they had the answer to replacing franchise quarterback Tom Brady when rookie first-round pick Mac Jones made the Pro Bowl while taking New England to the playoffs only two years after Brady’s departure. Unfortunately for them, the spark Jones showed in his rookie season quickly fizzled out as he found himself relegated to the bench last year and traded to the Jaguars. Once again, the Patriots have dedicated significant draft capital to the position, but perhaps they have been scared away from depending on their drafted talent in Year 1.

According to Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald, No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye is currently running third on the depth chart in New England, behind Jacoby Brissett and Bailey Zappe. While we’re still early into the offseason, and Maye has plenty of time to work his way past Brissett and Zappe, the Patriots seem to be making him earn his role instead of gifting it to him based on his draft stock.

Technically, all four quarterbacks on the roster were drafted by New England, a feat not seen often in the NFL. Brissett, though, is returning to the team that drafted him for the first time since his rookie season. The 31-year-old veteran is the one currently taking first-team snaps in organized team activities, which makes sense, considering he has the most starting NFL experience of the youthful group.

After starting two games as a rookie, Brissett was traded to the Colts just prior to the start of his sophomore campaign. A week later, Brissett unseated Scott Tolzien as the starter filling in for an injured Andrew Luck and took over as full-time starter once again two years later after Luck announced his retirement two weeks before the 2019 season. Since then, Brissett has served mostly backup duty, starting five games in Miami for an injured Tua Tagovailoa in 2021 and starting the first 11 games of the Browns’ 2022 campaign as Cleveland waited out Deshaun Watson‘s suspension for sexual misconduct.

As a starter, Brissett is 18-30 in his career. Despite failing to consistently stay in the win column, the veteran has been efficient, completing 61.3 percent of the passes over his career for 51 touchdowns and 23 interceptions. Not once has Brissett thrown more picks than touchdowns despite a career reputation as a backup. Now, returning to New England as a Patriot for the first time in eight years, Brissett seems to have been handed the reins and will attempt to hold off Maye as the offseason moves on.

Zappe has an intriguing case for the job, as well. New England took a flyer on Zappe as a fourth-round pick out of Western Kentucky two years ago. Filling in for an injured Jones and Brian Hoyer, Zappe showed promise after two starts, both of which were wins and one of which saw him throw for 309 yards and two touchdowns. Last year, despite starting the season on the practice squad, Zappe ended up taking the starting job from Jones down the stretch of the season as Jones’ struggles peaked. The 25-year-old has made the last six starts for the team under center, but his final two outings saw him throw zero touchdowns and five interceptions while failing to breach the 100-yard mark in Week 17 despite 30 pass attempts.

Zappe’s struggles led to the offseason acquisition of Brissett, thanks to the veteran’s known ability to start during bridge seasons when a starter is only needed for about one year. They also led to the team drafting two quarterbacks in this year’s draft: Maye and Tennessee-product Joe Milton. Milton spent the first three seasons of his collegiate career in Ann Arbor, serving as a backup for two years at Michigan before starting five games of the team’s COVID-19-shortened, six-game season in 2020. Going 2-3, completing only 56.7 percent of his passes, and only throwing four touchdowns to four interceptions, Milton progressively lost playing time to Cade McNamara at Michigan and eventually transferred to Tennessee.

Initially entering the 2021 season as the starter for the Volunteers, an injury opened the door for Hendon Hooker, who took over as starter until tearing his ACL 11 games into the 2022 season. Finally, in 2023, Milton got his opportunity to start for a full-season and didn’t disappoint. As Tennessee went 9-4 with Milton, the collegiate veteran completed 64.7 percent of his passes for 20 touchdowns to only five interceptions, adding seven more scores on the ground.

While one should never say never concerning Milton’s chances of earning the Patriots’ starting job as a rookie, the real draw of the 2024 draft class is the third-overall pick out of North Carolina, Maye. After redshirting in 2021 behind Sam Howell, Maye exploded onto the scene as a redshirt freshman in Chapel Hill, completing 66.2 percent of his passes for 4,321 yards, 38 touchdowns, and only seven interceptions, adding 698 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground.

Last year, the Tar Heels were expected to make a large leap alongside Maye, who many considered to be the top option to go second-overall after Caleb Williams, but the team remained stagnant in their success as Maye failed to come anywhere near his numbers from 2022. In two fewer games, Maye completed 63.3 percent of his passes for 3,608 yards, 24 touchdowns, and nine interceptions. He rushed for 449 yards and nine additional scores last year, as well. While Maye’s status as a consensus first-round pick never quite waned, his stock fell quite a bit until a bidding war for passers forced many of the draft’s quarterbacks into the top 12 picks.

Maye clearly has the highest ceiling of the quarterbacks on the roster. The 21-year-old is the youngest arm on the roster by three years, and despite failing to improve in his second year as a starter, he’s shown a lot of pro-ready traits that prove the stage isn’t too big for him this early. The failure to get better also points to the possibility of a low floor for the rookie. If the Patriots are looking for the highest floor, Brissett is the likely pick to start under center.

Realistically, getting Maye’s feet wet and starting his professional development as an NFL starter is more important than avoiding a bad rookie season. The Patriots are a longshot to go from fourth in the AFC East to a division-title contender in 2024, so they likely won’t be in a win-now mindset.

While he has yet to earn the role just yet, expect Maye to be taking first-team reps in New England by training camp. Brissett provides an upgrade as an emergency starter in the worst-case scenario, and Zappe has proven he can be effective in small doses as a backup. Meanwhile, Milton will likely find his well to a practice squad where he can serve as an effective scout team quarterback. The team recently stated their plan to narrow the field of competition to three guys by the end of spring, so Zappe or Milton will likely find themselves off the roster or on the practice squad come September.