Drake Maye’s time has arrived.
The Patriots plan to start the rookie quarterback this Sunday against the Texans, NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reports.
Jacoby Brissett had been the team’s starter in the first five games, in which the Patriots have gone 1-4.
There were rumblings that Maye would beat Brissett out for the starting job to open the season but head coach Jerod Mayo has held off until now, likely in large part because the Patriots’ offensive line leaves the quarterback susceptible to getting battered.
Brissett’s latest outing, in which he completed 18 of 34 pass attempts for 160 with no touchdowns, was seemingly a breaking point.
“It just wasn’t good enough,” Mayo told reporters Monday. “I thought we played well enough defensively and on special teams to win the football game. As the quarterback – and he understands this – he touches the ball on every single play, and we didn’t win the game or score enough points to win the game. I think he would echo that same sentiment that it wasn’t good enough.”
Brissett’s performance this season coupled, with how Maye has looked in the preseason plus reports out of practice, led a reporter from the Patriots’ own digital group to say that the team was approaching a “mutiny.”
“Right now they are teetering on mutiny in that locker room,” Evan Lazar said on the “Catch 22” podcast that he co-hosts on Patriots.com.
“And I don’t want to be an alarmist or [be hyperbolic]… I don’t. But I was in that locker room after the game on Sunday.”
Asked about these comments on WEEI on Monday, Brissett said, “[That is] terrible reporting on [from] someone who has no idea what they are talking about.”
Brissett has thrown for an average of under 140 passing yards per game this season.
Maye appeared in mop-up duty during the Patriots’ Sep. 19 loss to the Jets, completing four of his eight pass attempts for 22 yards.
