They've got a plan and they’re sticking to it. Your results may vary, but I give the Patriots credit for that. If the Patriots go to Drake Maye, more things will go wrong than will go right.
And while he may -- MAY -- give a sugar-rush of excitement, the temporary hit has the potential for long-term damage that will need undoing. Plainly, . The beating Jacoby Brissett’s absorbing is merciless.
Blitz-averse defenses for the Jets and 49ers gave themselves a hall pass and just went after Brissett. The tsunami of pressure is practically a taunt. Faced with that reality, the temptation to do something -- ANYTHING -- to make it stop has to be powerful.
Or not even make it "stop," but just make it look different. Maye might make it look different. Escape some blitzes.
Scurry for some big gains. Launch a one-footed 56-yarder across his body that comes down like a javelin in the chest of Tyquan Thornton. But he’d be just as prone to take an 18-yard sack trying to retreat and escape.
Or get strip-sacked because he wasn’t aware that (take your pick of practice-squad castoffs currently manning starting spots on the offensive line) whiffed on his block. Or whip it into a team meeting because panic set in. Or -- after a few weeks of being used as a crash-test dummy -- start abandoning all the teaching and fundamentals the Patriots spent the last six months putting into him.
Mac Jones actually took the physical beating pretty well in his first two seasons (pitiful grimace after the .
