Jerod Mayo won't commit to playing Drake Maye in 2024

“He’ll continue to grow. He’ll do the scout team. He’ll get some first-team reps as well.”

Drake Maye impressed in the preseason, but will open the 2024 season on the bench. (AP Photo/Daniel Kucin Jr.)

Drake Maye will open the 2024 season on the bench, but the question of whether he’ll play at all in the regular season remains unanswered.

Jerod Mayo still doesn’t seem to be sure if the rookie quarterback will play at all in 2024, either. In the most recent episode of “Patriots All Access,” the Patriots coach wouldn’t commit to playing Maye this season when asked if he has to play at all in order for the 2024 season to be considered a success.

“That’s the hard balance,” Mayo answered. “The struggle that [Patriots executive vice president of player personnel] Eliot [Wolf] and I have is we wanna win now and also build this roster for the foreseeable future. It’s definitely tough.”

However, Mayo also acknowledged the reality that Maye needs reps in order to get better.

“It’s very important to the organization that Drake gets some experience, learn how to deal with the game plan element of things, and continue to develop because he is the future,” Mayo said. “I don’t think it’s a secret.”

Wolf made a similar comment to the Boston Herald‘s Andrew Callahan earlier this week, telling him they won’t let Maye “collect dust for the year.”

As for what the Patriots’ development plan for Maye entails while he sits behind Jacoby Brissett, Mayo said that they’ll be putting the rookie to work in practice. He also shared with Zolak what his message to Maye was following the decision to make Brissett the starter.

“We still have that developmental plan that we talked about over the last few weeks,” Mayo said. “He’ll continue to grow. He’ll do the scout team. He’ll get some first-team reps as well. I told him to prepare like he’s the starter each and every week. He’s done that here as of late.”

Brissett took the vast majority of the reps with the Patriots’ starting offensive unit during training camp and the preseason. But Maye saw some increased workload with the top unit in the final week of camp, getting several reps with the projected starters in practice and in their preseason finale against the Commanders.

With Maye getting the opportunity to work with the starting unit, Mayo recently told reporters that “it’s competition each and every week.” Mayo wouldn’t say what it would take for Maye to become the starter, though.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Mayo said on Monday. “But once again, I don’t want Jacoby to feel like someone’s nipping at his heels. He’ll get the majority of the reps while at the same time continuing to develop Drake in other ways.”

Even though Maye won’t be the Patriots’ starting quarterback to open the season, when he’ll play might end up being the top storyline for the team in 2024. For now, Mayo is focused on the task ahead with the Patriots taking on the Bengals in Week 1. He’s also liked the growth the team has shown since the start of training camp.

“We got better each and every day,” Mayo told Zolak. “Excited for the regular season to come up, but I thought the first preseason went well.”