• Patriots become a rookie Drake Maye: After a 1-4 start and struggles on offense, New England is sitting on the bench Jacoby Brissett in favor of the third overall pick for 2024 Drake Mayehoping for a much needed spark.

• Facing a tough debut test: Maye’s transition to the NFL will be a challenge behind a struggling offensive line and against a formidable Texans pass rush.

• Unlock your edge with a PFF+ subscription: Get full access to all of our preseason fantasy tools, including weekly rankings, WR/CB matchup charts, weekly projections, the Start-Sit Optimizer and more. Register now!

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

After a 1-4 start that saw them rank 26th in EPA per game and 31st in points scored, the New England Patriots have benched quarterback Jacoby Brissett in favor of 2024 third overall selection Drake Maye draft, hoping he’ll provide the spark this team desperately needs.

Brissett’s benching is somewhat surprising, but not in the usual sense. His performances through the first five games were mediocre enough to warrant a change. He has completed just 57.2% of his passes for 734 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception – a pick-six from Fred Warner.

His single-game high in passing yardage this season is just 177, which came last week against the Dolphins with a season-high 21 completions. He has recorded just three big throws, compared to six turnover-worthy plays, with most of those mistakes occurring in the last two weeks. All three of his big throws came in the last two games, while five of his six turnover-worthy plays came in Week 4 against the 49ers.

This has resulted in a passing grade of just 56.0, 25th out of 30 quarterbacks with at least 100 dropbacks this season.

Brissett’s benching is especially surprising because the Patriots postponed play Drake Mayewith the aim of preventing him from getting into a difficult situation before the team can improve enough to create a better environment for his development.

The Patriots offense was paper thin Hunter Hendrik led the team in receiving yards at just 180 (109 of which came in Week 2 against Seattle). Demario Douglas is next with 153 yards, but has yet to surpass 69 yards in a game. The team’s highest receiving rank belongs Kayshon Boutte at 66.7, although he has only seen four goals all season. Kendrick Bournewho missed the start of the season, returned against the Dolphins and contributed just one catch for 6 yards.

And then there’s the offensive line, perhaps the weakest in the league.

The Patriots’ team pass-blocking grade of 47.7 ranks 30th in the NFL, ahead of the Saints and Rams. Their average time to pressure of 2.39 seconds is the second-worst in the league, while only the Browns and Seahawks have allowed more total pressures than the Pats’ 84.

Through five weeks, New England’s quarterbacks have been beaten on 26.4% of their dropbacks, the second-worst rate in the league behind only the Browns. The offensive line has allowed 59 pressures in under 2.5 seconds, which ties him with the Giants for third.

Surprisingly, opposing defenses haven’t made the move much, with the Patriots facing offense on just 30.8% of dropbacks, which ranks them 22nd in the league.

Injuries have been a problem, such as Cole Strange has yet to play this season due to injury, and David Andries was recently placed on season-ending IR with a shoulder injury. Sidy Sow has also missed time due to injury, forced Michael Onwenu move along the line much more than expected.

As it stands now, this is the offensive line the Patriots are expected to use when they take on the Texans on Sunday.

While Lowe’s pass-blocking grade seems strong, it is heavily influenced by a standout game against the Dolphins last week, in which he allowed zero pressures on 41 pass-blocking snaps and posted a grade of 90.5 – the best performance out of his three-year career. Without that play, his pass-blocking grade drops to 64.7. And meLike several others on the Patriots offensive line, he has missed time this season due to injury.

Other potential contributors include Michael Jordan (75.9 pass blocking grade), Caedan Wallace (48.6) and Demontrey Jacobs (28.5). Given these struggles, it’s likely Maye will face significant pressure early against a Texans defense that ranks eighth in pass-rush productivity through five weeks.

So, how concerned should Patriots fans be about Maye’s debut against a strong Texans pass rush? Bee North Carolina Last season, Maye achieved a passing grade of 91.7 when she was kept clean. However, under pressure that figure dropped to 61.3. While this may sound low, it actually ranked 19th out of 162 qualifying quarterbacks. Maye was pressured on 29.4% of his dropbacks, placing him 52nd in the same group.

During five weeks in the NFL, Derek Carr leads all quarterbacks with a grade of 79.1 when under pressure, while only three other qualifying quarterbacks have a passing grade of at least 70.0 in those situations. If Drake Maye‘s 61.3 passing grade under college pressure translated directly to the NFL, he would be the seventh-best passer in such scenarios.

However, expecting that level of performance is a tall order. Last season’s best college quarterback was under pressure, Bo Nixachieved a passing grade of 91.2 in those situations. Yet Nix has posted a passing grade of just 31.3 when pressured in five NFL games, ranking 27th among 34 quarterbacks with at least 20 pressure dropbacks. This shows that success under pressure in college doesn’t always translate seamlessly to the NFL.

Maye’s performance when blitzed was even stronger, with a passing grade of 81.3 when facing five or more rushers, which ranked him 20th in the nation last season. If this figure were to carry over to the NFL, he would be the only one C.J. Stroud in five games this season.

The ability of this statistic to translate to the NFL is mixed for Maye’s fellow rookies. Last season, Bo Nix And Jayden Daniels were the nation’s top quarterbacks when they were blitzed, with Nix earning a 90.6 passing grade and Daniels a 90.1. However, through five NFL games, Nix has only posted a 53.6 rating when blitzed (27th among 32 quarterbacks with at least 20 such dropbacks), while Daniels has seen more success at 65.6 (10th).

Caleb Williamswho earned an 83.5 grade against the blitz in college (13th), has also struggled to maintain that performance in the pros, with a grade of 52.4 (28th). Notably, each of these quarterbacks had higher blitz numbers in college than Maye, yet they have still encountered challenges adapting to NFL defenses.

Given the Patriots’ offensive struggles, it’s understandable to wonder if it’s too early to start doing that Drake Mayeespecially against a defense like the Texans. While Maye has shown success in handling pressure in college, the performances of his fellow rookies indicate that translating that success to the NFL is far from guaranteed.