Why Patriots Schedule Release Could Be Bad News For New QB Drake Maye

We don’t know if Drake Maye will be the New England Patriots’ starting quarterback to begin the 2024 NFL season.

Heck, we don’t know whether he’ll play at all this year. New England could roll with veteran QB Jacoby Brissett to open the campaign and see how it goes while Maye, the No. 3 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, develops off to the side before eventually grabbing the baton.

That said, there’s no denying New England’s long-term success, or lack thereof, is directly tied to Maye. The Patriots have been searching for an answer at quarterback since Tom Brady’s 2020 departure, and Maye is the franchise’s highest draft pick of the Robert Kraft era.

Talk about pressure.

Potentially making matters even more complicated for Maye in his rookie season? The Patriots’ schedule, which was released Wednesday night.

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It’s often noted that quarterbacks don’t face other quarterbacks. They face opposing defenses. So, perhaps we overrate head-to-head QB matchups.

But it’s a quarterback-driven league, as you know. They make the big bucks. They receive most of the credit or most of the blame. And we’re constantly creating hypothetical hierarchies as part of our daily sports discourse.

Thus, it’s only natural to fixate on which QBs Maye could go toe-to-toe with in his first season in Foxboro. NFL insider Jeff Howe even went so far as to include “Drake Maye’s spotlight” as part of the “Losers” section of a schedule release column published Thursday on The Athletic.

“But the fact is this,” Howe wrote. “They’re scheduled for two tilts each against Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers and Tua Tagovailoa. They’ll visit Caleb Williams and the Bears. They’ll host 2023 first-rounders C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson. They’ll also greet Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Matthew Stafford, Trevor Lawrence, Brock Purdy and Kyler Murray.

“Injuries will likely erase some of those matchups, but those QBs currently are the Patriots’ adversaries in 15 of their 17 games.”

Again, it remains to be seen if/when the Patriots will insert Maye into the starting lineup this year. And as Howe notes, so much can change over the course of a season that the matchups might be viewed much differently when they actually come to pass.

Maybe Rodgers doesn’t look the same upon returning from injury. Maybe Williams, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, endures growing pains. Maybe Richardson, who played in just four games before his 2023 rookie season was cut short due to shoulder surgery, actually stinks.

Nevertheless, the point still stands: If Maye is thrown into the fire in 2024, all eyes will be on the Patriots’ new QB to see if he’s capable of extinguishing the flames.