The Patriots’ power structure complicates Drake Maye’s looming decision, which originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Devin McCourty said something on Sunday night that made my ears perk up.
Speaking of NBC Football night in America on Deshaun Watson’s declining play and whether the Browns should move to Jameis Winston, McCourty quoted Bill Belichick.
“Bill always told us, ‘If you don’t get the results you want in this league, changes will be made,’” McCourty said.
Gone, but certainly not forgotten, Belichick’s mantras still ring loudly in the ears of McCourty, this region and – undoubtedly – Jerod Mayo.
That’s why, when I heard McCourty say that hours after the Patriots bungled their way to a 15-10 loss to the Dolphins, I thought, “Timelines be damned… I bet they just don’t look at it.” can continue watching with Jacoby Brissett. ”
And Monday morning’s Mayo media meetings seemed to indicate a change at quarterback is imminent.
Will Jacoby Brissett get ANOTHER CHANCE this week against Houston (whose defense absolutely stripped Josh Allen for a 9-for-30-for-131-yards day on Sunday)?
Or will the Patriots pull the plug on Brissett’s noble but fruitless attempts to capably manage the Patriots’ offense until Drake Maye was ready? The Patriots hired him because he could take care of the ball, take the punch and lead Alex Van Pelt’s offense.
But at some point, guiding the team to the end zone has to fit into that equation.
The terrible protection, the injuries, the lack of competitive talent at wideout (Tyquan Thornton was mercifully benched on Sunday), the lack of precision in route running and Van Pelt’s insistence on driving the offense at 15 mph to drive with his hands on 10-and-2 by a landslide they all conspired against Brissett.
But desperate times call for desperate measures. The Patriots can’t let Jesus take the wheel. He’s working all over the planet. So, judging by Mayo’s comments on the video conference, it looks like Maye is about to come early.
“It just wasn’t good enough,” Mayo said of Brissett’s performance. “I thought we played well enough defensively and on special teams to win the football game. Look, while the quarterback – and he understands this – touches the ball on every play, and we didn’t win the game or score enough points to win the game. I think he would echo the same sentiment that it wasn’t good enough.
If the team goes to Maye this early in a 19-day freefall since the loss to the Jets (seems longer), there are obvious questions: “What’s the plan? What about the child’s development? What about the damage that can be done, the cautionary tales we’ve all seen, when a child’s support system doesn’t exist or disappears? Isn’t this a panic action? Does everyone see the situation through the same eyes (to borrow a Mayo-ism)?”
Mike Tyson and Bill Parcells say everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Furthermore, why do we know anything about the concept of a Plan B at all? Because Plan A doesn’t always work. Is it time to abandon The Plan?
Or do the Patriots, after getting punched in the mouth, panic at the first sight of blood instead of holding their water?
This is where these ‘Triangle of Authority’ setups get hairy and difficult to manage. A quick lesson in local history:
After four successful but stressful seasons under the autocratic Bill Parcells, Robert Kraft decided in 1997 that he didn’t like consolidated power. So when Parcells worked his way to the Jets, Kraft hired defensive end Pete Carroll to run the football team, Bobby Grier would run the staff, Andy Wasynczuk would run the cap and business side. Ownership would have more of a voice, but the idea was checks and balances and shared visions, etc.
The highly talented team got progressively worse over the course of three years and – of course – there was plenty of guilt and no shortage of finger-pointing.
In 2000, power was consolidated again under Bill Belichick. He took a roster that was MILES more talented than the one he left in 2024, tightened it up, installed a culture and the good times continued for a few decades.
Until they didn’t. So when Belichick was extracted in January (a year earlier than anyone had planned thanks to a terrible 2023), Kraft’s instinct was to see if the guys Bill was suppressing were good at their jobs.
Re-enter the Triangle of Authority.
Staffmen Eliot Wolf and Matt Groh were allowed to stay. Mayo was raised. Alex Van Pelt was brought in to bring stability back to an offense that was a punchline for two years. Mayo aligned himself with Van Pelt’s view of the crime, which was fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. There is a process. Don’t make it too short. You pay for it later.
Then there’s Wolf, who says how important it is to see a young quarterback like Maye develop.
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Meanwhile, the head of the football team watches his offense tackled every week. With a big, athletic, tough, gun-toting but very raw third overall pick just sitting there in all his, “Aw shucks” drawled glory, watching the chaos.
Mayo, Wolf and Van Pelt – these aren’t guys who were all created together. They’re a bit jumbled up. Sprinkle in Van Pelt’s trusted offensive line coach Scott Peters, quarterbacks coach TC McCartney and Ben McAdoo, who do whatever he does in his role.
Van Pelt was hired before Brissett came in as a free agent, but there’s no doubt that the happily ever after included Van Pelt installing his offense while the tough, smart, accurate Brissett was in charge and Maye developing slowly while the Patriots shocked the world and challenged for a Wild Card.
Five weeks later it’s sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.
Oh, and Jabrill Peppers was arrested.
Oh, and we found out the day after the Patriots — when six of their key players (David Andrews, Christian Barmore, Peppers, Kyle Dugger, Ja’Whaun Bentley) were out of the game or for the season — committed 12 penalties for 104 yards and blew away the chance for an exciting victory with a stupid mistake after a bad decision.
If you think the on-field product hasn’t been just as bad in recent years, I’ll draw your attention to (deep breath) the Bears’ loss on Monday night in 2022, the Raiders’ loss that same year, a 38-3 for the Cowboys, a 34-0 loss to the Saints (back-to-back), Germany’s loss to the Colts, a 10-6 loss to Tommy DeVito and the Giants, and a 6-0 loss to the Chargers .
So it was just as bad. Just not that unstable.
With Belichick running everything, you knew where it ended, where the blame would lie, and you could at least predict how he would try to get the team out of trouble.
Now? There is no backlog of information that tells us how someone will respond to this level of adversity.
The Patriots are adrift after five weeks. The weather starts to get rough (the small ship is tossed about).
Mayo was asked LAST week how he approached the job with everything coming his way.
“You can look around the league and look at what we would call established coaches at this point,” he said. “But there was a time early in their career when they were probably killed too. I think of Dan Campbell, I think of [Kyle] Shanahan, I think of all those guys who had to weather the storm, and that’s what we’ll do.
“It starts with me; I will weather the storm,” he added. “You can write whatever you want. That’s your job, and I understand it. I used to work in the media. I understand you have work to do. I ignore the noise and it is my responsibility to build a winning team, not just for now, but in the future.”
