Former QBs share how Patriots' Drake Maye should handle backup role

Despite protests from some members of the New England Patriots' fan base, first-year head coach Jerod Mayo unsurprisingly named veteran Jacoby Brissett his starting quarterback over rookie Drake Maye ahead of the club's Week 1 game at the Cincinnati Bengals this coming Sunday. 

NFL analyst Matt Hasselbeck is among retired quarterbacks who know what it's like to develop as a young backup signal-caller and who offered some advice to Maye during recent chats with Mike Reiss of ESPN. 

"(Current Dallas Cowboys head coach) Mike McCarthy was the quarterbacks coach and he wore me out mentally every day," Hasselbeck said about featuring for the Green Bay Packers during the 1999 season. "The night before games, I would run the quarterback meeting and go over the game plan with Brett Favre to hold Brett's attention and develop me in case I had to play because I wasn't getting reps during the week. It was, 'You're going to be the teacher here. Get up in front of the class and install X Dagger Y Shallow Cross to Brett Favre.' I can't say it enough how much that benefited me."

While Maye largely outperformed Brissett during preseason games, multiple analysts and reporters said throughout August that the "smart move" would be for Mayo to start Brissett because, as Jeff Howe of The Athletic put it for a piece published Monday, New England's "offensive line is shaping up to be a potentially insurmountable problem."

Additionally, Patriots and NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated mentioned last week that Maye still needed to "grow into an NFL body" regarding aspects of his game such as his footwork. 

Before Kurt Warner became a Pro Football Hall of Famer, he spent the 1998 season learning behind Trent Green.

"The biggest thing you do when you're in that position is you try to get as many mental reps as you can," Warner told Reiss. "For me, any time Trent did something in the offense, I was asking him, 'Why?' I was fortunate he was very open with me. I was watching through the play as Trent was running it, and saying, 'OK, this is what I would have done.'"

Outside of a possible injury to Brissett, it's unclear when Mayo could turn to Maye this fall. The Patriots' bye doesn't arrive until Week 14 in December, but New England faces the New York Jets in Week 3 on Thursday, Sept. 19. Mayo theoretically could use a few extra days of work to get Maye ready to start at the San Francisco 49ers in Week 4 on Sept. 29. 

"The best thing for him is to prepare his fanny off and the coaches will be able to assess how much of the game plan he is absorbing," former Patriots backup quarterback and current SiriusXM NFL Radio host Jim Miller said about Maye. "They're going to see that out on the field with how he practices — 'All right, he understands this concept, he understands this.' Then I think at some point in the season, the math is going to dictate the young man is ready to go and, 'Let's put him in there.'" 

As of Monday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Patriots at +160 betting odds to win over 5.5 games this season. If New England is viewed as a laughingstock by the end of this month, Mayo may feel pressure to play Maye ahead of schedule to prevent veterans in the locker room from essentially checking out on what could quickly become a lost season.