Jacoby Brissett Continues To Be Valuable Mentor For Drake Maye

Drake Maye had multiple people to lean on during his rookie season, but a New England Patriots teammate proved to be the most valuable.

Maye dished out credit to offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt for his development. Head coach Jerod Mayo obviously stands at the top. And quarterbacks coach T.C. McCartney and senior offensive assistant Ben McAdoo also have been credited for guiding the 22-year-old.

However, when Jacoby Brissett stated he would still be an active part of the team after he was benched, he proved to be the ideal mentor for the Maye.

“I think Jacoby’s still a big-time leader on this football team. Especially, he’s in my ear, and I don’t know if you all see him on the sidelines, but it’s basically like he’s playing the game over there,” Maye told reporters Wednesday, per a team-provided transcript. “He’s yelling, yelling at me, yelling at the refs on the sidelines. So, he’s very animated, and that’s his personality. I think everybody respects him on this football team and has a lot of respect. See what he did in the Jets game, I think that even just raised the bar of him coming in after me being the starter, him coming in and getting a big time win at home. I think those guys just respect him. He’s meant a lot to me as just a mentor, and just trying to learn everything I can. He’s probably tired of me asking questions, but I think he enjoys it, and we enjoy being in the same room together.”

Brissett coming on in relief for Maye and earning the win over New York helped galvanize the Patriots, and the rookie’s shown qualities of being a leader that’s energized the team. One of Mayo’s goals when he announced Brissett as the starter at the start of the season was for Maye to learn from the veteran. And it’s clear he’s done that and is still learning what he can heading into the second half of the season.