Jerod Mayo explains why he made the decision to start Drake Maye

“I think now Drake gives us the best chance to win now and going forward."

FOXBOROUGH — Drake Maye is officially QB1 in New England.

Jerod Mayo confirmed with reporters on Wednesday that the rookie QB will start Sunday’s game against the Texans and will remain the team’s starting signal-caller “going forward.” He added that veteran Jacoby Brissett will now slot down the depth chart as the team’s backup.

Mayo — who stressed that the QB reshuffle was his decision and that both offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and executive vice president of player personnel were on board — explained why now was the right time to start Maye in Week 6.

“I would say as a coach, and I know the organization feels this way, we’re trying to win every game. At the time, we thought Jacoby would give us the best opportunity to go out there and win games,” Mayo said. “I think now Drake gives us the best chance to win now and going forward.

“He’s been developing, he’s been getting better every single week. As I said before, at the end of training camp, he actually was trending at a very high rate and that has continued through the early part of the season.”

Brissett was steady in New England’s Week 1 win over the Bengals last month, but things have regressed on offense since then. The Patriots are currently in the midst of a four-game losing streak — punctuated by a miserable 15-10 loss to the Dolphins on Sunday.

While New England’s porous offensive line (19 sacks allowed) has made life miserable for Brissett, a two-turnover performance against the 49ers in Week 4 and the veteran’s slow reads and inability to get the ball down the field further hindered an offense that was already flatlining.

The Patriots now rank 31st in the NFL in both points (12.4) and yards of offense (250.8) per game. Despite some positives drawn from the run game (7.9 yards per carry vs. Miami), New England is last in the league in passing yards per game at 119.4.

“I don’t think it’s a secret, our offense hasn’t been performing the way that we all hope it would,” Mayo acknowledged.

Even though Maye’s lone reps this season came in garbage time against the Jets in Week 3, Mayo stressed that the 22-year-old QB has made significant strides since the end of training camp — especially during his increased reps at practice.

“Drake’s a smart guy, and we saw that throughout the draft process,” Mayo said. “As far understanding the offense and the language and just his overall football IQ — I think that continues to improve. And I was actually pleasantly surprised. Even when he got here, it was never a question of was he smart?

“But I was pleasantly surprised with — just his work ethic is out of this world, and studying the playbook and trying to get those reps. He continues to get better each and every day. Physically — look, this guy definitely gives us a chance to get some of those off-schedule plays that you guys always see.”

The decision to start Maye does have its fair share of detractors, especially in terms of the timing of starting Maye against a stout Houston Texans defense on Sunday.

The 4-1 Texans have made life miserable for several top QBs this season, with Bills signal-caller Josh Allen completing just nine of his 30 passes on Sunday in a 23-20 Houston win.

“There’s never a perfect time to make a change. Every defense that we play, whether it’s the defensive ends or the defensive tackles, they all have the ability to rush and get after the quarterback,” Mayo said. “So I don’t think there’s ever a perfect time. … [Maye] has prepared for this defense as if he was the starter. And I just felt like this was the right time to do.”