Patriots Legend Reflects on Jacoby Brissett’s ‘Tom Brady Role’ to Protect Drake Maye

“He had Aaron Rodgers to watch. That’s the best type of training, in my opinion.” What Tom Brady said about Jordan Love, who sat behind Aaron Rodgers and soaked everything like a sponge. No wonder why he set the NFL ablaze with his game. The point is, mentorship plays a huge role in a rookie’s development and that’s the action that Drake Maye might have to capitalize on soon.

The league is impatient now and they waste no time hurling a rookie quarterback into a fast-paced professional game. Now that the Patriots are trying to reinvent the wheel post-Brady and Belichick era, they might want to slow down a bit and focus on Maye’s development. This is one of the reasons they hired Jacoby Brissett as QB1. He was lucky to have Tom Brady as a mentor in his rookie year. Now Brissett is going to return the favor to Maye. Is Brissett the right man for the job? 3x Super Bowl champion Devin McCourty thinks so.

McCourty took to The Rich Eisen Show and shared his thoughts about what he had seen from the Patriots so far. “I think the organization just feels like Jacoby is the guy they brought in for a reason. They signed him, they expected him to go out there and play and I think they feel like they don’t just have a guy that can play right now but they have a great mentor a leader in the locker room,” said Devin McCourty.

The former NFL safety then added, “So, I think they want Drake Maye to come in and not feel that pressure, just to learn from Jacoby. Jacoby’s obviously come to New England and played under Brady and learned from him. So, it’s cool to see those roles where he can now play the mentor.”

In his rookie year, a young Jacoby Brissett got Tom Brady as his mentor. Brady’s efforts worked out for good. Brissett was an upbeat guy who liked to have fun in the locker room. One fine day, he messed up in practice but was joking around in the locker room. Brady didn’t like it and gave him a little pep talk.

“He walked into the locker room and was like, ‘What are you doing? Didn’t you just mess this up in practice? Then you shouldn’t be playing,’” Brissett recalled. “Ever since then, I never played games in the locker room anymore. That was when I really saw full Tom. I thought it was pretty cool.”

Remember the “Deflategate” conspiracy? Brady was suspended for four games and Brissett took his place. He started two games for the Patriots and played 3 games in his entire New England career. Jacoby Brissett has a 2-1 record with the Patriots. He won against Miami and Houston but lost to the Buffalo Bills. Let’s talk about that game against Houston Texans. Brady served a four-game suspension because of “Deflategate” and Garoppolo was out because of a shoulder injury. So, Brissett had to step up, and he led the Patriots to a 27-0 win. That’s how important Brady’s mentorship was to his protégé.

Brissett marveled at TB12 when he said, “Just watching him [Brady] and seeing his level of professionalism, his love for the game, his attention to detail,” and that, “Everything that he brought to being a quarterback and setting a standard of being a quarterback. I think just watching that so young in my career, it’s just something that you try to emulate in your own fashion. I think he was very beneficial and still is.”

Still not convinced that Drake Maye needs mentorship for a couple of years?

What does Drake Maye’s future hold?

Before we talk about Maye’s future, let’s touch upon the importance of mentorship some more. The 7x Super Bowl winner recently spoke to Colin Cowherd about how crucial Drew Bledsoe had been to him. “I could not have been the player I was without people like that impacting my career. My first year, I had Drew Bledsoe to look up to. He took all the reps. I got to sit there from behind and watch him every single day. I had a real mentor to look up to in Drew.”  In his second year as a starter, Brady won the Super Bowl!

Let’s focus on Patrick Mahomes and Alex Smith. Smith’s career was booming when he joined KC. Just like Brissett, Mahomes was lucky to sit behind Alex Smith and learn the ropes of being an NFL quarterback. He played 1 game in his rookie season and then exploded in the scene, putting a 5,000 yard season as a starting quarterback. That’s precisely why Drake Maye has to take a backseat this season.

“I mean, Alex Smith is the prime example. He was playing great football at [a] top level — and he was teaching me at the same time.” said Mahomes in an interview a few years back. Even though Mahomes was coming in hot from his last season at Red Raiders, but still he had to sit behind Smith in his rookie season. The Kansas City Chiefs might have taken a chance and put Mahomes on the front lines in his rookie year, but they didn’t. Again, that’s something that might help Drake Maye going forward. Just like Mahomes, Maye is also a rookie hotshot, but it doesn’t mean he’ll do great in his rookie year as a starter.

Drake Maye is not the only person that the Patriots have to focus on this year. It’s also Jerod Mayo, who will be a rookie head coach, just like how Drake Maye will be a rookie quarterback. The whole thing is just as new for Jerod Mayo as it is for Drake Maye. Both are rookies at their job! The only difference is that Jerod Mayo has worked with Bill Belichick and has learned from him. Mayo learned a lot under Belichick for eight years as a linebacker and team captain on the Patriots, and then during the last five seasons as a coach on the New England defense. But who knows what Drake Maye will do when given a chance?

Right now, the Patriots have a bad receiver core, an ok defense and the whole roster doesn’t look very convincing. In the midst of all this chaos, Drake Maye might get overwhelmed. So, throwing him in the mix prematurely might backfire on him and his team. A new head coach, offensive coordinator, a new quarterback and a stale skill position roster is embarking on a journey to revive the New England Patriots. But out of all these people, Drake Maye has a head start already.

Recently, Brady and Jay-Z invited the young draft picks to hang out with them. Drake Maye was one of those individuals. It would be wrong to have a lot of expectations from Maye from the get-go. However, he’s learnt a lot from that one meeting with the Patriots legend. He intends to be “Drake Maye” knowing that he cannot be “Tom Brady.” Even Tom Brady said that Maye has a bright future in the league!

“Tom Brady’s the G.O.A.T.,” Maye said shortly after being drafted. “It’s easy to say that. He’s the best that ever played this game. I’m not going to be Tom Brady. So, I’m just going to try to be Drake Maye, and from there, I’m just trying to learn from him, hopefully get to know him a little bit. Other than that, just try to soak it up, be a sponge and try to learn all I can from him. He’s the man of that town.”

According to GOAT, “Maybe a little bit of a misnomer with the draft is that these players can come in and all of the sudden become this great professional player before they’ve really had the training and the development.” The future Hall of Famer continued on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, “Watch someone else do it at a very high level and then try to emulate them with your own personality.” No one can argue with the GOAT’s comment here.

A case for the importance of mentorship is indispensable. Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers to Jordan Love. Drew Bledsoe to Brady, then TB12 to Brissett and Garoppolo and many others. Now, Drake Maye has to follow the leader and in the future, there is a high possibility that he will have a great career as a starter.