Patriots don’t have the luxury of diverting from Drake Maye plan

Patriots don’t have the luxury of diverting from Drake Maye plan originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

They’ve got a plan and they’re sticking to it. Your results may vary, but I give the Patriots credit for that.

If the Patriots go to Drake Maye, more things will go wrong than will go right. And while he may — MAY — give a sugar-rush of excitement, the temporary hit has the potential for long-term damage that will need undoing.

Plainly, the last eight quarters of offensive football have been unwatchable. The beating Jacoby Brissett’s absorbing is merciless. Blitz-averse defenses for the Jets and 49ers gave themselves a hall pass and just went after Brissett. The tsunami of pressure is practically a taunt.

“You can’t stop us … we both know that … so we’ll make an exception and blitz the snot out of you … here we come … TOLD YA!!!”

Faced with that reality, the temptation to do something — ANYTHING — to make it stop has to be powerful. Or not even make it “stop,” but just make it look different.

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Maye might make it look different. Escape some blitzes. Scurry for some big gains. Launch a one-footed 56-yarder across his body that comes down like a javelin in the chest of Tyquan Thornton.

But he’d be just as prone to take an 18-yard sack trying to retreat and escape. Or get strip-sacked because he wasn’t aware that (take your pick of practice-squad castoffs currently manning starting spots on the offensive line) whiffed on his block. Or whip it into a team meeting because panic set in.

Or — after a few weeks of being used as a crash-test dummy — start abandoning all the teaching and fundamentals the Patriots spent the last six months putting into him.

Mac Jones actually took the physical beating pretty well in his first two seasons (pitiful grimace after the 2022 high ankle sprain notwithstanding). But by Week 4 of last year, he lost it against the Cowboys and it never came back.

In announcing Monday that Brissett would carry on as starter, head coach Jerod Mayo said, “He’s done a good job doing what we’ve asked. Are there a lot of plays that we could do a better job with? Absolutely. But I would never question his toughness, dependability, his leadership style for this team, and that’s what we need right now.”

Notice Mayo didn’t mention production, playmaking ability or the ability to push the ball down the field?

Because that stuff is secondary to having someone willing to take a pummeling every week, then standing up afterward and saying, “Didn’t hurt. I can take it.”

Reflect on the offensive line.

Four left tackles in four games. Chukwuma Okorafor, the free agent they signed to play that spot — who’d never played there in the NFL — quit. And now they’ve cycled through three guys who were practice squad-level players when they were brought in. That’s at LEFT TACKLE!!!

Cole Strange, the 2022 first-round pick they drafted to play left guard, has been hurt since offseason surgery. He’s been OK at best when available. Sidy Sow was hurt for weeks. He played his first game Sunday. Center David Andrews went out with a shoulder injury Sunday and was replaced by a fella named Nick Leverett, who is not terrific.

There’s a rookie at right guard, Layden Robinson, and he’s going THROUGH it as teams tee off with extra rushers. Mike Onwenu is at right tackle and, well, when the other four fingers aren’t working right, does it matter what the thumb is doing?

If you have a guy who’s willing to play behind an offensive line that’s as overmatched as this and take the accompanying beating, you do it.

Back at the NFL owners’ meeting in March, Robert Kraft said, “I hope we don’t struggle…”

Well, they’re struggling. Badly. You’ll recall that they were even worse offensively last season when they failed six times to score even 10 points. There was resignation to the sucking then, though, because there was no perceived “knight in shining armor” sitting on the bench just waiting to put his cape on and Superman this thing.

The fact is, there’s no Superman over there now, either. Young Drake isn’t ready for the poopstorm. And the Patriots are resisting any impulses to shove him out there.

“What we’re doing is what we think is best,” Mayo explained. “What I’m doing is what I think is best for the Patriots today and also in the future. And that’s how I have to look at these things. (Media) looks at these on a week-to-week basis. I think there’s a combination of multiple things that I have to deal with.”

Brissett took six sacks Sunday. He took five against the Jets. The hits are mounting. He somehow looks even MORE hesitant to release throws despite the fact he knows he’s about to get smushed. He doesn’t look good.

On the surface, going to Maye now makes sense just because Brissett’s getting worse. But the counter to that is that Maye won’t make it better.

When the line stabilizes a little — when the time between snap and pocket collapse is more than two seconds (it’s 1.6 for Brissett right now) — then trot Maye out there. But going to him now is setting him up to fail.

The No. 1 killer of first-round quarterbacks is early exposure to chaos. Wanna be right back at the top of the draft in 2028 picking some kid who’s 17 right now to lead the Patriots into the 2030s? Then let Maye play.

Want to give Maye the best shot at success? Leave him where he is.