Tom Brady #12 and Julian Edelman #11 of the New England Patriots (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
New England Patriots great Julian Edelman doesn't have a prediction on when Drake Maye will be named the starter.
The No. 3 overall draft pick entered the 2024 season as the backup to veteran Jacoby Brissett after first-year head coach Jerod Mayo went with the latter over the rookie as the starting quarterback for the Patriots. New England has drastically struggled in the passing game through the first three games of the season, ranking dead last in the NFL with 102.0 passing yards per game. It doesn't help that New England's offensive line is also a mess, allowing a pressure rate of 48.5% — the highest in the NFL.
Despite heightened calls from fans for the Patriots to go with the rookie, Mayo has yet to commit to when New England will exactly go with the rookie quarterback.
"I don't know when he's going to be the starter," says Edelman in a one-on-one interview with RG on behalf of his partnership with Tostitos. "That's for them to make the decision. He needs to be able to show that in practice. He needs to show that in meetings, he needs to show that with his demeanor. If you're going to be the starting quarterback for the Patriots, that's gotta to be seen consistently before you just throw him in and into the fire."
The Super Bowl LIII MVP agrees with the notion that the Patriots may be hesitant to start Maye due to the woeful offensive line situation.
"I think that's a large reason why Jacoby Brissett is not getting any production," says Edelman of the Patriots' offensive line struggles. "He gets on his fifth step and he's got a guy down his throat now. They're depleted there and to give a fair assessment for Jacoby, he can't play his game unless he's protected. Why put someone that has absolutely zero experience on how to execute an NFL offense behind something like that? I think they have a lot of things to work on. They have to work on those things and just try to keep improving to get themselves in the best situation they can moving forward."
Maye made his NFL debut in the Patriots' Week 3 blowout loss to the New York Jets. While seeing action in mop-up duty, the 22-year-old quarterback completed 4-of-8 passes for 22 passing yards and 12 rushing yards while leading New England into the red zone for the first time all game.
While there were obviously positives and negatives from Maye's debut — he almost threw an interception that was dropped on his first pass — Edelman isn't going to make a big deal out of the rookie's debut drive considering it was in garbage time.
"It's garbage time," says Edelman of Maye's debut against the Jets.
"It was good to see him be able to communicate a play, get to the line of scrimmage, execute a play. But that's like evaluating a quarterback in preseason. That's kind of what he got to see at the end of garbage time in that game. They're not going to show them anything. They know they have to play them (Jets) again. That's a very hard sample size to evaluate."
While the jury is out on when Maye will be named the starter, Edelman's former Patriots running mates — Tom Brady and Bill Belichick — are already off and running in their broadcasting careers. Brady currently serves as the lead analyst for FOX games while Belichick is playing the role of analyst for a number of television gigs, including on Inside the NFL, the ManningCast and the Pat McAfee Show.
Although Brady has seen some criticism from observers for his vanilla analysis, Edelman thinks his former quarterback is doing a good job in his debut season as a television analyst.
"I think he's doing great," says Edelman of Brady's work in the broadcast booth. "He hasn't had the opportunity to call any great games. You can tell he's gotten more comfortable. It's not easy — it's kind of like a rookie quarterback going in and having to identify. You have to take the personnel group in your play, break the huddle, go to the line of scrimmage, identify their front, you identify the safeties. He's learning that in the booth now. It's tough.
I'll be a lot more excited when he gets into a close game and you get to hear the quarterback's mindset when he's down a certain amount of points or a fourth quarter drive.That's probably his forte, you know? I'm excited and he's been killing it."
One Patriots legend who hasn't received such criticism is Belichick. The greatest football coach ever has brought over his X's and O's knowledge from 50 years of coaching to TV screens and has absolutely excelled in the role.
Edelman says that while he hasn't had contact with Belichick, he believes his former head coach will make a return to coaching next season. Belichick is 15 wins away (333) from surpassing Miami Dolphins legend, Don Shula (347), for the most victories ever by a head coach.
"I've had no contact with him, I think he's scared of me," says Edelman while laughing. “I'm scared of him, I don't have any insight, but he's definitely coming back. Coach is back — he's coming back. He might have a good team too. That's what he was born to do. He's too good at coaching to stay away from it. As a football historian, you don't think he wants to be the best coach of all time with the most wins ever?”
DJ Siddiqi
