What Patriots’ rivals would say about the team’s QB decision

After weeks of speculation, Jerod Mayo announced last week that veteran QB Jacoby Brissett would be the Patriots’ starter this season – with rookie Drake Maye serving as the team’s backup for the time being.

While Maye’s encouraging play during the preseason narrowed the gap between him and Brissett, Mayo’s announcement didn’t necessarily come as a huge surprise — especially given the lack of talent in the rest of New England’s depth chart.

That same sentiment regarding Mayo’s decision to bench Maye in favor of Brissett appears to be shared by the rest of the NFL, according to Athletics Jeff Howe.

“There’s curiosity among rival teams about how head coach Jerod Mayo has publicly handled the quarterback battle between Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye,” Howe wrote Monday of the Patriots’ lineup choices. “But despite all that, no one really had a strong feeling about who should have started in Week 1 because the offensive line is shaping up to be a potentially insurmountable problem.”

While Brissett is expected to get the nod to start the season, Howe noted that Maye “will almost certainly take over as the starter at some point this season,” especially if New England’s patchwork offensive line can find some semblance of cohesion as the year progresses.

Brissett is expected to get the nod for Week 1 against the Bengals on Sept. 8, but Mayo stressed Monday that New England has full confidence in Maye to step in and lead the Patriots’ offense in the event Brissett is injured — a scenario Mayo dodged when asked about after the team’s final preseason game against the Commanders on Aug. 25.

“When you talk about developing a guy like Drake, it’s an ongoing process,” Mayo said of Maye. “If Jacoby were to get hurt in Week 1, 1,000 percent, Drake would be the next guy to step into the No. 2 quarterback spot on our roster.”

As Mayo and his staff moved on to planning for the team’s season opener against the Bengals, the Patriots head coach added that he has no regrets about how the team handled its quarterback competition this preseason — with Brissett ultimately getting the nod even though Mayo admitted Maye “outplayed” the veteran signal-caller.

“I would say I think I was explicit about it in talking to you about what I thought about the process,” Mayo said. “There was a lot of pressure: ‘You have to name a quarterback; you have to name a quarterback.’ But I thought it was important to talk to the team about the decision.

“I thought it was important to talk to both of those quarterbacks individually and then both of them together. Before I came here and told you this, I just thought it was the right thing to do for the New England Patriots.”