Quarterback Drake Maye’s playing time in Thursday night’s preseason opener was the first topic of conversation at Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo’s Friday morning press conference.
The first-round pick played the first six snaps of New England’s home game against the Panthers before giving way to Bailey Zappe and Mayo was asked why he felt it was important to give a player with previous NFL experience more playing time than a player drafted to be the team’s quarterback of the future. Mayo didn’t answer that directly, but said it was “always in the plan to develop these guys this way” and then fielded another question about why the plan didn’t include a longer look at how the rookie managed a game.
“I mean, those things are always under consideration,” Mayo said. “I would also say during practice, he gets a lot of reps, and then going into the Eagles week, this honestly is a huge week for everyone to practice against the Eagles. And then really, we’ll see how the reps kind of break down in the game. But I expect Drake to get more reps than he did in the first game against the Eagles.”
All signs continue to point toward Jacoby Brissett opening the season as the team’s starting quarterback, so there’s time for Maye to continue to develop before being thrown into the fire and this week should provide a chance for him to do a bit more of that in the public eye.
