FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Patriots coach Jerod Mayo has selected Jacoby Brissett as the starting quarterback for New England’s season opener at Cincinnati.
Brissett gets the nod over rookie first-round draft pick Drake Maye, who he shared snaps with throughout training camp and the preseason.
Mayo said he spoke to Brissett and Maye separately, and then together to inform them of his decision. Mayo told the team Thursday morning during a team meeting.
“There were a lot of factors that led to this choice,” Mayo said. “I think the hard part is thinking in the short term and the long term at the same time. As an organization, though, we feel like Jacoby gives us our best chance to win.”
But Mayo made it clear that they aren’t heading into the season planning to shuffle between quarterbacks.
“As an organization we’re 100% behind Jacoby. There is no, ‘we’ve got a guy right here, we’ve got a guy right there,'” Mayo said. “As long as Jacoby is going out there and performing the way that we all have confidence in him doing, then he’ll be our quarterback this season.”
Brissett, who heading into his ninth NFL season, signed a one-year, $8 million deal with the Patriots in March. It reunited him with the team that drafted him in the third round in 2016.
After being traded to Indianapolis by the Patriots in 2017, Brissett spent four years with the Colts and had one-year stops in Miami, Cleveland and Washington.
He’s appeared in 79 games with 48 starts along the way, growing into a respected veteran in the league.
That experience was valuable to Mayo and new executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf, who wanted to have a proven veteran on the roster to help mentor Maye.
While Mayo acknowledged earlier this week that he felt Maye had outplayed Brissett this preseason, he said other factors shifted the pendulum toward Brissett, most notably his overall experience.
That will be particularly important early this season as the coaching staff continues to work out consistency issues with an offensive line that will begin the season without starting left guard Cole Strange, who will start on the physically unable to perform list with a knee issue.
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