What New England Patriots OC Said on QB Battle Before Final Preseason Game

The New England Patriots still have a major decision to make before the season gets started less than two weeks from now.

Jacoby Brissett , especially when he was initially brought in, was seen as the quarterback to start in 2024 for the team. This seemed even more apparent early in camp when unsurprisingly, rookie No. 3 overall selection Drake Maye looked like, well, a rookie. But as things have gone on and the team drew to the end of camp, Maye was showing demonstrated improvement in practice to the point where local media was noticing it. The hype train surrounding the young gunslinger reached a fever pitch on Sunday night when Maye had by far his best performance of the preseason and looked like the best quarterback in the room.

Naturally, the next question to be asked was whether or not Maye could start to begin the season. However, going into Sunday night's matchup against Washington, the team seemed pretty certain of what the plan was going to be. Late last week, offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt praised the ability of the veteran to overcome the issues that the offense may have in 2024.

“Jacoby right now is more suited with the skill set and his toolbox to be able to handle a lot of the issues that come up and Drake is still learning that," Van Pelt told Yahoo Sports on Friday . "You don't want to put a guy out there when he doesn’t know exactly how to protect himself from certain looks…I think at some point, if and when that does happen, then it will be obvious to everybody. But right now, (we’re) very comfortable with what Jacoby can do.”

How much, if at all, Maye's performance on Sunday changes things with regards to that mindset will be interesting to see. Given the issues that the offensive line clearly has, Van Pelt may very much stick to the thought that a veteran who knows how to protect himself will be best for this team, at least for now.