Patriots' Jerod Mayo defends Week 1 Jacoby Brissett, Drake Maye decision

New England Patriots fans and even some analysts criticized first-year head coach Jerod Mayo for making veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett the club's Week 1 starter over rookie Drake Maye after Maye outperformed Brissett in preseason games.

While confirming on Wednesday that Maye will start when the 1-4 Patriots host the 4-1 Houston Texans this coming Sunday, Mayo defended his decision to open the season with Brissett atop the team's depth chart.

"I say it all the time, 'It's all about competition' at every single position," Mayo explained, as shared by Mike Reiss of ESPN. "As a coach, and I know the organization feels this way, we're trying to win every game and at the time we felt Jacoby would give us the best chance to go out and win games — protecting the football, really running the offense."

Brissett helped the Patriots earn a surprising 16-10 Week 1 win over the Cincinnati Bengals back on Sept. 8 but then lost four straight starts as the New England offense repeatedly failed its defense. Specifically, ESPN stats show the Patriots are ranked 31st in the NFL in total offense (250.8 yards gained per game), 31st in scoring (12.4 points scored per contest) and last with an average of 119.4 passing yards per game.

Despite such lackluster numbers, Mayo repeatedly insisted over the past month that Brissett gave the Patriots "the best chance" to win games. Mayo's opinion changed after New England's 15-10 Week 5 loss to a one-win Miami Dolphins team.

"Drake gives us the best chance to win, now and going forward," Mayo said about the switch to the first-year pro. "He's been getting better every single week, and as I said before, at the end of training camp he was trending at a very high rate. That has continued through the early part of the season."

It remains to be seen if Maye facing live defenses in meaningful games while playing behind what could be the NFL's worst offensive line will go as poorly for the 22-year-old as many fear. Mayo and others within the organization understandably wanted to protect Maye from taking unnecessary punishment during a losing season for as long as possible , but the Patriots seemingly had to make a change to prevent players from thinking the franchise was already tanking the remainder of the campaign.