Patriots tab Jacoby Brissett, not Drake Maye, as team’s starter for now: Why that’s not surprising

New England Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt referred to Jacoby Brissett — not Drake Maye — as the team’s starting quarterback Tuesday during the team’s mandatory minicamp.

Maye, the No. 3 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, took second-team reps Tuesday.

The former North Carolina standout acknowledged in a Tuesday news conference that “Jacoby is getting the first (reps) and then from there, playing it by ear.”

While it’s certainly interesting that the Patriots admitted this in early June, it’s not a surprise that Brissett is being termed as the team’s starting quarterback rather than Maye.

Even before the Pats drafted Maye, coach Jerod Mayo acknowledged that while they were enamored by how high Maye’s ceiling was, they wondered how low his floor is. Essentially, they recognized that Maye, who was the second youngest quarterback drafted at 21 years old, is a bit raw. So if they need to wait to start Maye, they’re perfectly content to enter the season with Brissett at quarterback.

“You have to take that as it comes,” Van Pelt said. “It’ll be a combination of a couple things when those decisions are made and they’ll be made together as a group with (vice president of player personnel) Eliot (Wolf) and coach Mayo. But when that time comes, we’ll see. There is no timetable on when that time comes. Jacoby, again, is our starter. He’s playing excellent football for us in the spring. And Drake is coming on. Until that changes, we’re going to stick with what we’ve got.”

Brissett has familiarity in this offense being run by Van Pelt thanks to their time together in Cleveland. Plus, the Patriots realize that their supporting cast isn’t great or super helpful to a rookie, so perhaps a little extra time as the backup could help Maye.

It is noteworthy, though, that Maye seems to be climbing the depth chart. At the first two organized team activities open to reporters, Maye was the No. 3 quarterback behind Brissett and Bailey Zappe. But at Tuesday’s session, Maye took the No. 2 reps. (It didn’t go great as he threw two interceptions during a practice focused on red-zone work, but that was the case for all of the Patriots quarterbacks on a day the defense dominated.)

Mayo acknowledged that Maye is “headed in the right direction.”

“A lot of times people think it’s this longitudinal, just straight line up to the top, and realistically, it’s up and down, up and down, up and down. But hopefully, you end up still — from left to right — going in the right direction,” he said.

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(Photo: Matt Stone / MediaNews Group / Boston Herald via Getty Images)