Patriots unorthodox QB approach foreshadows Drake Maye inevitably usurping Jacoby Brissett

When the New England Patriots selected quarterback Drake Maye with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, they knew the North Carolina product needed time to develop.

The Patriots signed veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett in free agency, but it was always clear that he was only meant to serve as a stopgap starter and mentor for Maye.

The Patriots opened the season with a 16-10 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, but Brissett threw for just 121 passing yards and only led one drive that resulted in a touchdown. If the Patriots' offense continues to struggle, the impatient chants for Maye will begin to grow louder.

Before Week 1, NBC Sports Boston's Patriots insider Phil Perry reported that Maye was receiving an unusual amount of snaps with the starting offense in practice. 

Drake Maye Is receiving practice snaps with starting offense

Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo confirmed on Friday that Brissett and Maye are splitting snaps with the starting unit in practice, per Nick Goss of NBC Sports Boston. Brissett is receiving 70 percent of the starting snaps, while Maye is taking the other 30 percent.

“It's not a secret,” Mayo told reporters. “We have a quarterback in the wings that needs to continue to develop. Normally, I would say the starter gets, let's say, 95 percent of the reps and the backup doesn't. With this, it's a little bit different. We had a conversation, how do we — I guess the struggle is, how do you get your starting quarterback prepared for the game and also continue to develop the guy in the background, which is Drake. So, it is like a 70-30 split.”

Former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick faced a similar conundrum when he was deciding whether to start Drew Bledsoe or Tom Brady in 2001. Belichick opted to split practice reps between the two quarterbacks, but he changed his mind on that approach after the Patriots lost to the St. Louis Rams. 

Belichick believed Brady wasn’t as sharp as usual after receiving only half of the snaps in practice that week, so he decided to see how Brady would perform after a full week of practice with the starting offense. The following week, Brady led the team to victory against the New Orleans Saints. The rest is history. 

“We’re very thoughtful,” Mayo said. “When we talk about [how] we have a development plan for Drake, that's part of it. I try not to get too deep into what that plan actually looks like, but he still takes reps with the starters. He does a good job on the [scout] team as well. He's doing a good job, and you can see his confidence continuing to grow.”

It’s extremely rare for a starting quarterback to not receive nearly all of the practice snaps with the first team. The second-string quarterback typically receives just five to 10 percent of reps with the first team in practice. Former quarterback Chase Daniel posted on social media that he had “never heard or been a part of a situation where a team’s starting [quarterback] is not getting 100% of the rep[s].”

Maye is not only taking snaps from Brissett, but his scout team reps also aren’t being used to help the Patriots starting defense prepare for upcoming opponents. According to CBS Sports’ Evan Washburn, Maye’s scout team reps are used to help the rookie quarterback prepare for defensive coverages.

Only time will tell whether Mayo’s unconventional methods will produce the desired results.