When should Patriots start Drake Maye? Analysts differ

Just about everyone in the football world seemed to agree with Mayo’s decision to start Brissett in the Patriots’ Week 4 matchup against the 49ers. But after Brissett completed 12 of 18 passes for just 98 yards Thursday, the debate on when Maye should play ramped up.

Rodney Harrison didn’t mind Mayo’s decision to play Maye in garbage time of Thursday’s game. However, he’s imploring his former team to wait a bit before starting Maye, saying he doesn’t want him “overthinking about every single thing he does” and wondering if he’ll be able to go through his progressions with the state of the offensive line. 

“I don’t think the time is now,” Harrison said on “Pro Football Talk.” “For him to go in there and get a few reps, that helps build his confidence. But to put him in there behind that offensive line with those weapons, there’s no way I’m doing anything like that. I would say give it another month of the season, get through this gauntlet of games and kind of reevaluate where he’s at – his progression in practice, has he gotten better, is he a lot of smarter when it comes to blitz pickup, does he feel more comfortable under center, does he feel more comfortable in the shotgun? All of those different things.

“Once they find that out, maybe in the next month or so, but I wouldn’t put him in a game right now. No way.” 

The Patriots’ poor pass protection through the first three weeks has made it difficult for Brissett to have much success in the pocket. They’ve allowed 11 sacks through the first three weeks. Thursday’s game was their worst performance, though. In addition to allowing seven sacks, Brissett faced a pressure rate of 56.5 percent, the highest pressure rate he’s dealt with in a single game since 2018, per Next Gen Stats. 

It wasn’t better when Maye played. He was sacked twice and was delivered a hard hit when he took off for a short scramble. 

While the Patriots’ offensive line hasn’t been great, they’re a bit more banged up right now, too. Guards Sidy Sow and Michael Jordan were out for Thursday’s game, along with offensive tackle Vedarian Lowe. 

With the Patriots dealing with those injuries, NFL Network’s Rich Eisen questioned the move to play Maye on Thursday.

“What’s he doing in the game? The offensive line is banged up,” Eisen said on “The Rich Eisen Show.” “This thing is over. The Jets are just rampaging, defensively. What’s the point? Sure enough, he gets baptized.”

It’s unclear how long Lowe, Sow, and Jordan will be out, but it doesn’t seem like their injuries are long-term issues. The Patriots are also hoping to get guard Cole Strange back at some point this season, too.

But the Patriots shouldn’t start Maye until things stabilize along the offensive line, Eisen argued. 

“I’m thinking Week 9,” Eisen said on when Maye should start, pointing to a game against the Titans. “That’s when you start thinking about turning the page. Start getting these offensive linemen healthy and firing together if that’s the way you want to play it.

“You can’t put Drake Maye behind that line right now. Brissett better have the grit or toughness.”

Patriots radio analyst Scott Zolak argued that the Patriots might have no choice but to play Maye soon. He said on his radio show, “Zolak & Bertrand,” that the clock’s started on Maye to play due to how anemic the passing game looked Thursday. 

“They can’t do that as a staff,” Zolak said on if the team should let Brissett continue to play if the games are going to be like Thursday’s. “That’s fireable. Jerod’s been around the game long enough as a high-level player and now a smart coach, you look at that film and say, ‘We’ve got to do something, we’ve got to do something on offense.’”

Zolak added that Maye’s practice load should increase as well, saying he should get 40 percent of the practice reps. 

“He’s gotta get ready, because he’s going to play,” Zolak said.

Zolak seemed alone though in believing that Maye should play soon. Former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson liked that the rookie got some playing time on Thursday, saying “there’s value to that” due to the sakes being higher. He even questioned why the Patriots didn’t call timeouts when Maye was driving them down the field.

Even as Johnson said he’s moving up the timetable for Maye to play, he still thinks the rookie’s first start shouldn’t come until the second half of the season. 

“Ideally, you wait 10 games,” Johnson said on NBC Sports Boston. “Let’s see where they’re at in 10 games. Are they close to .500? Maybe they’re 4-6, 5-5, who knows. They’ve got some [tough] teams they’re playing. Next week’s going to be a difficult one, we know that against San Francisco.

“My timetable has moved up to around Week 10. I just think he’s still at least seven weeks away.”

Maye showed some promise in his cameo on Thursday. Even though he completed just 4 of 8 passes for 22 yards, he converted two fourth-down plays into first downs. First, he rushed for an 11-yard gain on a fourth-and-8 before completing a 15-yard pass to DeMario Douglas on a fourth-and-10. 

As the Patriots took Maye with the No. 3 overall pick, he’s going to have to play at some point. NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated said that the expectation among the Patriots’ coaching staff is that Maye “is going to play at some point this season,” speculating his first start would come sometime in November or December. But he also questioned just how tenable it would be for the Patriots to play Maye while trying to protect him.

“Here’s the problem: You can’t control the score. That’s going to be an issue,” Breer said on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher and Hardy.” “You could say go and lose the games, but say you’re down 28-10 in the third quarter of a game, it’s third-and-14, and you’re running a draw to protect your young quarterback. How do you think the rest of the locker room is going to process that? How much more difficult are you making things on Jerod Mayo doing it that way?”

Whenever the Patriots decide to play Maye, the situation around him likely won’t be much better than it is now. Even as they await players returning from injuries along the offensive line, they ranked last in pass-block win rate last season and didn’t make any notable additions there. Their receiving corps ranked last in average yards per separation last season and they didn’t make any notable veteran additions there, either.

That’s why longtime Patriots insider Tom E. Curran believes they should wait until at least Week 12 or 13 to start Maye. “I think he’ll look terrible,” Curran said on what would happen if the Patriots started Maye now on the “Patriots Talk Podcast.” “I think people will say, ‘My God, what did we do this for?’ I think it’ll look that bad.”