Scouting Reports Be Damned — It’s Drake Maye Time.

When NFL teams, especially quarterback-needy ones, banged the drum during the lead-up to the 2024 NFL Draft, the working theory on Drake Maye suggested something like this: “He’ll be good, but he’ll probably need a year to watch and learn. He’s a redshirt.”

Scouting Reports Be Damned — It’s Drake Maye Time.

It turns out Maye might’ve needed about one month — also known as an expedited timetable for a rookie NFL quarterback to start.

Of course, Maye has a long way to go before folks realize if he’s an effective starter. But the story goes like this — he wasn’t supposed to be ready for QB1 duties yet. According to his head coach, Jerod Mayo, though, Maye is knocking on the door.

“What I will say is that this is a true competition. It wasn’t fluff or anything like that. It’s true competition and I would say at this current point, Drake has outplayed Jacoby,” Mayo told reporters on Monday, one day before roster trimdowns and 13 days before the start of the regular season.

Maye may have already lapped the veteran Jacoby Brissett, with Mayo’s verbiage seeming like a segue to the announcement.

Mayo added, “Now, in saying that, we have to take in the full body of work. Going back to the spring and beginning of training camp, and we’ll see where we end up, but those are the kind of conversations that will happen here over the next couple of days.”

The caveat from Mayo is to be expected. He will examine the entire body of work from each during the summer, not just the latest preseason game. In that regard, Mayo could step up the microphone later this week and anoint Brissett as the starter. Still, Maye has narrowed the gap at breakneck pace. If he’s already receiving QB1 nibbles — he is — in the form of “Maye has outplayed Brissett,” well, it’s just a matter of time before the formal takeover. It’s coming.

In fact, it doesn’t really matter if Mayo names Brissett the starter. Maye exceeded expectations this summer — and then some. This is his job. It was on April 25th when New England used the third overall pick on the Tarheel. It was when the summer began. The timing was the central question, and Maye shortened his QB1 ascension already by a year.

He is no longer a redshirt. His head coach claims he outperformed his rather experienced competition. Brissett could still start against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1, but Patriots football is just a steady march to Maye. His recent showing in the preseason bumped up the inevitable.

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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His NFL obsession dates back to 1989. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL. 

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