The ugly, unstated reality of the Patriots’ free-agent take care of Jacoby Brissett final March was the crew would pay him $10 million to each play quarterback and be a piñata.
For as a lot has been written about Brissett mentoring rookie Drake Maye, as a well-traveled, well-respected journeyman, Brissett is right here to guard him. His job is to guide the offense and take in the inevitable, accompanying punishment till the Patriots imagine Maye can defend himself.
On Sunday evening, it took the Commanders’ backups six performs to seek out the piñata.
Washington defensive finish Okay.J. Henry fired unblocked off the precise edge and crushed Brissett, dropping him on his proper shoulder for a sack. Brissett winced in ache as he regathered the huddle after his third dropback. Three snaps later, he was performed for the evening.
That sack spoke to a different nasty reality: the Patriots’ offensive line proper now could be an abject catastrophe.
A whole mess.
They took 10 penalties total. Within the first half alone, middle Nick Leverett was concerned in two botched snaps. Offensive tackles Chukwuma Okorafor and Mike Onwenu mixed for 4 unlawful formation penalties. Subsequent to Okorafor, left guard Sidy Sow received flagged for holding and later left with an ankle harm. Sow’s alternative, Michael Jordan, was referred to as for holding virtually as quickly as he took the sector.
In the meantime, rookie proper guard Layden Robinson – a uncommon, rising vivid spot for this line – false-started, received penalized as soon as for holding and precipitated the sack in opposition to Brissett. On the play, Robinson was immediately pushed again into Sow, who had pulled round to dam Henry. That collision lower Henry free.
Then Maye took over and promptly led an 11-play scoring drive, flashing the mobility and playmaking now tickling the soccer creativeness of a area.
May he begin Week 1?
Is Maye already the longer term?
Did the Patriots lastly discover Tom Brady’s rightful successor?!
Not so quick.
Maye ought to sit Week 1. Scratch that. He should.
The Patriots can’t drop the way forward for their franchise behind an offensive line that may’t line up appropriately.
Even when they did begin Maye in two weeks, what’s the purpose?
Ideas on each participant on Patriots’ 90-man roster earlier than cuts
Upset the Bengals, then throw him into the fireplace of dealing with two of one of the best defenses in soccer – the Jets and 49ers – over the subsequent three weeks with no safety and water weapons for weapons? Cool.
Quinnen Williams would love the chance to interrupt Maye – and by extension the Patriots – earlier than Columbus Day. Nick Bosa, too.
Once more, Washington sat its starters Sunday evening. The defensive backups for a crew that picked No. 2 total in April simply whooped 4 of the Patriots’ finest offensive linemen. Anybody itching for Maye to begin ASAP is lacking that element and the larger image.
That is Yr 1 of a full-on rebuild; the primary season post-Tom Brady the place the Patriots’ chief goal is to not win.
It is to develop gamers like Maye, Robinson and different rookies. However Maye won’t ever develop and thrive if he is by no means allowed first to survive.
No quarterback can win behind a leaky line like that versus an actual, scheming NFL protection. A second-string Commanders outfit working primary coverages and fronts doesn’t depend.
After struggling free rushers for therefore lengthy, quarterbacks start to see ghosts. Subsequent, they cannot distinguish ghosts from actual hazard. Ask Mac Jones.
The excellent news is new offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt hardly sounds inclined to thrust Maye into the center of such a large number.
In a latest interview with Yahoo Sports activities, Van Pelt described Brissett as being “far more outfitted to deal with opening day.” Van Pelt additionally stated this: “Jacoby proper now could be extra suited with the ability set and his toolbox to have the ability to deal with a whole lot of the problems that come up and Drake remains to be studying that. You do not need to put a man on the market when he doesn’t know precisely how one can defend himself from sure appears.
“In order that’s the entire course of proper now. And I feel sooner or later, if and when that does occur, then it will likely be apparent to all people.”
In the meantime, Jerod Mayo has repeatedly insisted the Patriots are holding a respectable quarterback competitors, one which was allegedly unresolved as late as Sunday evening. That insistence, held in opposition to the very fact the Patriots began Brissett in all three preseason video games and handed him just about the entire beginning reps in coaching camp, by no means made any sense.
Besides should you bear in mind why Brissett is right here within the first place: to play and take the hits till the protection or Maye forces him off the sector.
Identical to Sunday evening.
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