As organized team activities have progressed in New England, it’s looking more and more like Jacoby Brissett may be the team’s starter under center in Week 1. Naturally, some have asked if that makes No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye the primary backup at the position or an emergency option to stash for development purposes.
According to Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald, Maye likely won’t need to sit and develop. In fact, Kyed reports that some in the building viewed Maye as a prospect ready to start right away as a rookie during the draft cycle. Even though Brissett is taking the lion’s share of first-team reps in OTAs so far, there’s plenty of time until training camp and the regular season for Maye to potentially take over the starting gig.
And, should Maye not beat out Brissett for the job, this also means that Maye likely won’t be stashed to sit and develop but, instead, will be the team’s primary backup behind Brissett. Kyed also notes that it makes more sense for the Patriots to stash and develop rookie sixth-round pick Joe Milton than it does to hold on to Bailey Zappe as an emergency third option. The team has seen what Zappe can provide up to this point, and while he won’t garner outstanding trade value, he should return something as an upgrade to many backup situations around the league.
Here are a few other rumors coming out of New England:
- The Patriots’ wide receivers room is currently packed, while only six or seven players will likely end up on the 53-man roster to start the season. Kyed lists rookies Javon Baker and Ja’Lynn Polk as locks to make the team alongside Kendrick Bourne, Demario Douglas, and K.J. Osborn, leaving only one or two spots left for the rest of the group. That leaves a number of intriguing names in a precarious position including former Pro Bowler JuJu Smith-Schuster, former first-round pick Jalen Reagor, recent second-round pick Tyquan Thornton, and last year’s sixth-round pick Kayshon Boutte. As of right now, none of those four players are viewed as locks to make the roster in 2024.
- New head coach Jerod Mayo and leading personnel executive Eliot Wolf are heading a new-look team in New England this offseason. One of the ways in which Mayo is attempting to bring the team into this new era is by appealing to the shorter attention spans of younger players. According to Jeff Howe of The Athletic, Mayo has tossed the old method of marathon meeting sessions, instead favoring a new philosophy of “25-minute mental sprints” before taking short breaks. It reportedly heightens the pace of meetings while allowing for appropriate rest time in between.
- Since leaving the NFL in 2021, former Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower has enjoyed retirement. While he still shared a love and knowledge for the game, he had little interest in leaving the life he was living behind. In an interview, Hightower claimed that his former college coach Nick Saban and Mayo were the only two names that could’ve drawn him out of retirement onto the sideline, per Howe. It just so happened that his close friend and former teammate became the head coach of their old team and offered him Mayo’s old job of inside linebackers coach. It was one of the very few offers Hightower wouldn’t say “no” to.
Zappe is terrible, thinking he is worth a draft pick is delusional. Every team in TBE league could have had him for free last year and passed. He hasn’t done anything to change that.
4-4 as a starter… is not as terrible as Mac “noodle arm” Jones. The only one delusional is you and your ignorant comment. If a team is stupid enough to trade for Jones, there will be another that will trade for Zappe.
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if they drafted Milton to be the back up and keep Maye as a project to be 100% ready for next year as the starter because right now I don’t want Maye starting or playing in any games (unless they have no choice) with the offensive line they have right now and knows the play book to a T
I’m right there with ya!
…appealing to the shorter attention spans of younger players”.
Hmmm…I would certainly be interested in seeing the data that supports that premise. To my thinking the veteran players have probably been subjected to more brain trauma and therefore likely to have the shorter attention spans.
LOL, not as terrible as Jones is the best you can say about Zappe? That means he sucks. You might want to look at things like completion percentage and interception percentage, last year Zappe was worse than Jones which is pretty impressive. But I guess if win-loss is as deep as you can go than maybe Zapped looks good to you.
Saw Ja’Lynn Polk this morning. He says hi.