The Patriots officially have a starting quarterback

It took 21 practices, three preseason games, and a 53-man roster cut down to make it happen, but after a long summer the Patriots officially have a starting quarterback to start the 2024 season.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, head coach Jerod Mayo informed his team on Thursday morning that Jacoby Brissett will be their Week 1 starter versus the Cincinnati Bengals.

Brissett was seemingly New England’s plan at QB1 from the start, with rookie No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye being taken a long slowly. Back in June, offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt told reporters, “Jacoby is our starter. He’s played excellent football for us in the spring and Drake [Maye] is coming along — until that changes, we’re going to stick with what we got.”

Just over a month later, as training camp began, Mayo reiterated this point, stating, “I don’t think there’s any doubt — Jacoby [Brissett] is the starting quarterback at this point in time.”

This sentiment, however, began to change over the last several weeks. On August 19, Mayo told reporters that the Patriots, “don’t have a starting QB right now. When it’s time we’ll announce that. [Drake Maye] could absolutely be QB1, so could Jacoby.”

Meanwhile, Brissett was just 5/16 for 36 yards and an INT in the preseason.

“We have decided, or I have decided, that Jacoby Brissett will be our starting quarterback this season,” Mayo told the media in a statement from Foxborough on Thursday morning. “…As an organization we’re 100% behind Jacoby.”

He continued: “I had an opportunity to talk to Drake, I had an opportunity to talk to Jacoby. Separately, and also together, and I feel like we’re all on the same page from an organizational perspective.”

In clarifying his comment about Brissett being the starter for “this season”, the head coach said, “I don’t want to get into hypotheticals. 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.”

The job will ultimately become Drake Maye’s. Whether it’s Week 2, Week 5, Week 17, or Week 1 of 2025. He was the No. 3 overall pick and has been unofficially tabbed as the future of the franchise.

For now? He sits, and continues to learn, behind a veteran starter with experience in their offensive system in Jacoby Brissett.

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