The New England Patriots are giving the future a kickstart by choosing to start Drake Maye in Week 6 against the Houston Texans. Veteran Jacoby Brissett held the reigns for the opening weeks of the season, as was the team's stated plan upon selecting Maye. However, after Brissett struggled to produce behind a poor offensive line and the Patriots lost four of their last five games, the organization decided to replace him ahead of schedule.
On Wednesday, Maye and coach Jerod Mayo met with media for the first time to speak about the change. For his part, Mayo had a pretty simple explanation as to why he made the call: The young gun gives the team a better shot to win each week.
"Going forward, I think now, Drake gives us the best chance to win now and going forward," Mayo said per MassLive. "He’s been getting better every single week. As I said before, at the end of training camp, he was actually trending at a very high rate. That has continued through the early part of the season. It was solely my decision to make this choice. ... We’re all on board."
In five starts, Brissett threw for 696 yards and only two passing touchdowns with one interception. The Pats scored fewer than 20 points in all but one of those games. So the bar isn't exactly high for Maye to clear as an operator of the offense. However, the unit as a whole has failed more often than not and how much of that falls on Brissett is not very clear.
Either way, Maye got his shot, even if perhaps a touch earlier than expected.
More of the Latest Around the NFL
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jerod Mayo Had Simple Explanation Why Patriots Benched Jacoby Brissett for Drake Maye.