Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and senior NFL writers Jori Epstein and Frank Schwab discuss the Patriots starting Drake Maye at quarterback and whether starting him now is going to set him up to fail. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

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Video Transcript

In the short term at the beginning of the season, the Patriots believed that Jacoby Brissett was the quarterback who is most going to help them win.

Now, the problem is five weeks later and four straight losses later, Jacoby is no longer having that edge in terms of likelihood to win this week.

And so then the Patriots have this situation where in the short term no longer, is it best for Jacoby Brissett to start?

The problem with that is that in the long term, I have talked to so many coaches and general managers around the league who believe that you can ruin a quarterback by starting him too early and by too early, I don't only mean too early relative to the quarterback's development, to the pro level, physically and mentally and understanding the playbook, but also putting him in when he is not set up to succeed.

If you are drafting a guy, particularly with a third overall pick, you want him to succeed in the end NFL with your franchise and putting him in with this offensive line is not a successful recipe for that.

So I crunched some of the numbers on this and I went to all sorts of sites and next gen stats and all the things and yes, Jacoby Brissett has not been efficient.

His passer rating is like 29th.

He's, he's really low down there on a lot of passing stats.

But also almost everyone in the league is throwing to receivers with better separation than him.

When you look at his, uh, protection, no team is worse than the Patriots at pass block win rate.

No team is worse on quarterback pressures.

The Patriots have the highest quarterback pressure rate allowed and they also have the highest unblocked quarterback pressure rate allowed.

They have the worst pressure rates from the left tackle to center in their right guard positions.

And so now you are saying that, hey, Drake, good luck, everyone's gonna be coming for you.

You'll have no time to throw in your receive.

Your receivers will not have separation and rather, and waiting until we play the Jacksonville Jaguars next week who also are struggling.

We are going to start you against the Houston Texans who have the fourth best pass rush win rate and, oh, by the way, Daniel Hunter is leading the league in pressures and will Anderson is not far behind him.

So I'm not saying that Drake's athleticism won't allow him to create some more plays and increase their chance of winning right now.

But do I worry about the long term effects for Drake and the organization who wants Drake to succeed with them.

Absolutely.

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