When the New England Patriots signed Jacoby Brissett to a one-year contract in March, their plan for the veteran quarterback was clear.
With Mac Jones traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Brissett was brought in to bridge the gap to the next franchise QB. The Patriots hope that signal-caller will be their third overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Drake Maye.
Although head coach Jerod Mayo entertained the idea of Maye starting Week 1, Brissett gives the Patriots the luxury of easing their prized rookie into action.
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“I don’t think there’s any doubt Jacoby is the starting quarterback at this point in time,” Mayo said on Tuesday. “We can look at these other quarterbacks on the roster, at the same time, it’s about competition. When we get out on the field this summer, with the pads on, we’ll see how it all plays out. Coming out of the spring, I think it’s clear that Jacoby is the most pro-ready guy we have. He’s played a lot of football.”
So, what will Brissett bring to the table for New England this season? Mike Giardi of Boston Sports Journal joined NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran on Tuesday’s Early Edition to discuss.
“One of the things that stood out from today is David Andrews calling him ‘tough as crap.’ He has that ability to stand in there and take hits and, quite frankly, he’s probably gonna have to take some hits until they get the offensive line situation settled,” Giardi said. “But he’ll drive the ball down the field. He’s smart. He’s obviously a good leader. … Players are drawn to him. I think you can kind of see that already during the course of the spring when we got to watch him play.
“But there’s a limitation of what he is. I think he tends to — the longer he’s exposed to it, the more you realize there’s a reason why it only went to a certain point with him and didn’t get to this next level that maybe the Colts thought they were gonna get to at one point when they signed him to that nice bridge contract.”
Curran believes Brissett will bring something the Patriots haven’t had since the Tom Brady era.
“I think he can bring stability,” he said. “And that’s something the Patriots maybe had the apparition of actually having the illusion of having at the end of 2021, but it really wasn’t stable. I mean, we saw Mac Jones kind of nosedive toward the end of that year. He had a good playoff game, but 2022 was a disaster and there wasn’t stability there last year. It was probably the worst quarterback room in the NFL by a fair amount with all the guys who passed through. It wasn’t really stable in 2020 either.
“So to me, stability is five years removed for this team. I think the guys on the offensive line can turn around and look and say, ‘He knows what he’s supposed to do and he’s not gonna pee down his leg.'”
The Patriots originally selected Brissett in the third round of the 2016 draft. The 31-year-old spent one year in New England before being traded to the Indianapolis Colts, where he spent four seasons. His last three years have been spent with the Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns, and Washington Commanders.
Curran doesn’t believe the Maye vs. Brissett competition will be like Jones vs. Cam Newton was in 2021, but there will be a competition nonetheless. It’ll begin Wednesday when the Patriots take the fields behind Gillette Stadium for their first training practice.