Drake Maye replaces Jacoby Brissett at QB in 4th quarter to make NFL debut

The New England Patriots have had a rough season in 2024, and they’ve been hampered by what is clearly one of the worst offensive lines in the league. On Thursday Night Football against the Jets, the franchise decided to try and inject some life and enthusiasm into their offense by rolling out their rookie quarterback Drake Maye. He replaced Jacoby Brissett in the fourth quarter of the game. It’s officially the regular season debut for the rookie.

It’s certainly not ideal to roll out any quarterback behind an offensive line as bad as the Patriots’, let alone a rookie. But the franchise will have to hope the experience can somehow serve him well in the future. Many experts on social media were begging for New England to not play Maye behind their offensive line in its current state, such as Matt Miller, an ESPN NFL Draft analyst.

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The Jets whipped the Patriots 24-3, and it’s expected to be yet another rough year for the New England franchise. In his brief amount of time in the game, Maye completed four of his eight passing attempts for 22 yards. He had a rough regular season debut, but it’s early and clearly the Patriots have to fix their offensive line, which is a concern of the highest priority.

The Jets defense allowed just 40 yards to the Patriots in the first half, and they had a number of plays where several defenders met at the quarterback, blasting starter Jacoby Brissett. The Patriots only gained 139 total yards of offense on 48 plays for the entire game on Thursday night.

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Drake Maye put up impressive numbers at North Carolina

Despite lacking sufficient talent around him in the 2023 campaign at UNC, Maye tallied 3,608 passing yards, 24 passing touchdowns and another nine scores in the ground game. His 63 completions on throws at least 15 yards downfield ranked second in the FBS.

For his efforts, he was named an All-ACC Second Team member and a Manning Award finalist. Maye’s redshirt freshman season was even more impressive. Maye exploded onto the scene with 4,321 passing yards and 38 touchdowns, while rushing for 698 yards and seven TDs.

Maye ultimately opted to redshirt his true freshman season after only appearing in four games. Maye finished his collegiate career with 618 completions for 8,018 yards, 63 touchdowns and 18 interceptions while completing 65% of his pass attempts.

Drake Maye played high school football at Myers Park (NC), where he was a four-star prospect. He was the No. 45 overall recruit in the 2021 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

On3’s Grant Grubbs also contributed to this article.