It’s official: Patriots name Brissett as starting quarterback
The wait is over.
New England Patriots coach Jerod Mayo kept the fandom on edge an extra day on Wednesday to find out who the team’s starting QB would be going into the 2024-25 regular season, but finally announced his decision early Thursday morning.
Take the reins, Jacoby Brissett.
Brissett, Mayo announced at a very brief press conference — just over a minute — that the veteran QB would start over rookie and No. 3 overall draft pick Drake Maye when the team plays its season opener at Cincinnati on Sept. 8.
Mayo said Wednesday he had made his decision but wanted to relay it first to the two quarterbacks as well as the team in a meeting on Thursday before announcing his decision to the world.
“We have decided — or I have decided — that Jacoby Brissett will be our starting quarterback this season,” Mayo said this morning. “In saying that, as an organization we’re 100 percent behind Jacoby. There is no ‘We’ve got a guy right here, we’ve got a guy right there.’ We’re 100 percent behind Jacoby.
“I had an opportunity to talk to Drake, I had an opportunity to talk to Jacoby separately and also together, and I feel we’re all on the same page from an organizational perspective.”
Mayo was asked if there was some kind of timetable for Maye, who put on a late surge the last couple of weeks to make this a debatable issue, to eventually start. Mayo had said earlier in the week that Maye had recently outplayed the veteran.
“I don’t want to get into hypotheticals,” he said. “We can’t go into the season saying ‘He’s going to go ‘X’ amount of weeks. As long as Jacoby is going out there performing the way we all have confidence in him doing, he’ll be our quarterback this season.
“There were a lot of factors that led to this choice, I think. The hard part is thinking in the short term and the long term at the same time. As an organization, we feel that Jacoby gives us the best chance to win right now.”
At practice Wednesday, Brissett took the initial snaps in drills so some signs point to him being the choice, but that was certainly not definitive. But both the NFL Network and ESPN reported just after 8 a.m. Thursday that Mayo had told the team Brissett was the guy.
On Wednesday, Mayo said the final decision on the quarterback rests with him.
“Really, if you want to talk about the process, Alex [offensive coordinator Van Pelt], myself, we just have those conversations, but he gets input from his coaches as well,” Mayo said. “Ultimately, it’s my decision to make. … Look, if it doesn’t work, blame me. …
“I would say one thing, I think it’s important to remember what’s good for the team today may not be good for the team weeks down the line. So, I think the challenge is you want to win every single game now, but also we’re trying to build something special here in New England. So that to me, that was a challenge.”
PATS MAKE MOVES
The Patriots claimed four players off waivers: LB Curtis Jacobs off waivers from Kansas City, T Demontrey Jacobs off waivers from Denver, DT Eric Johnson off waivers from Indianapolis and T Zach Thomas off waivers from the Los Angeles Rams. To make room on the roster, the Patriots released CB Isaiah Bolden, DT Trysten Hill, G Michael Jordan and WR Jalen Reagor….
The Patriots also signed seven to the practice squad: T Liam Fornadel, RB Kevin Harris, RB Terrell Jennings, WR Matt Landers, DE Jotham Russell, DB A.J. Thomas and TE Mitchell Wilcox. All of those were with the Patriots in training camp.