After five weeks of watching the offense struggle, the New England Patriots finally decided to make a change at quarterback. Heading into their Week 6 game against the Houston Texans, the Patriots have decided to send Jacoby Brissett o the bench in favor of Drake Maye.
Former Patriots star Devin McCourty, who spent his entire 13-year career in New England, has no problem with the team turning to the rookie, but he does have a problem with the timing of the announcement.
Patriots coach Jerod Mayo announced the QB decision on Wednesday, but that’s not what McCourty would have done. Instead, the two-time Pro Bowler would have used the QB situation to play mind games with the Texans.
“Wish they would have made Houston figure this out on gameday,” McCourty wrote on X.
Basically, if McCourty was the head coach, he simply wouldn’t have made any announcement. If the Patriots had gone that route, it would have forced the Texans to prepare for both Brissett and Maye, who have two very different skillsets. When a team is trying to decide between two starting quarterbacks, it’s not unusual to see them implement McCourty’s strategy by not announcing who will actually be playing. The news usually leaks out before the game — because someone has to take the majority of the first-team reps in practice — but it’s still a strategy that’s regularly used around the NFL.
The Steelers used this exact strategy to start the season. Although Russell Wilson was named the starter out of training camp, it wasn’t clear if he would be able to play in Week 1 due to his calf injury. No one knew for sure that Justin Fields was going to start until Sept. 8, which was the day of their first game. In hindsight, it’s pretty clear that the Steelers knew all along that Wilson wouldn’t be playing in Week 1 against Atlanta, but they kept the Falcons guessing by not announcing their QB.
When he takes the field on…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/former-patriots-star-questions-the-timing-of-teams-decision-to-announce-drake-maye-as-starting-quarterback/
Author : John Breech
Publish date : 2024-10-11 16:56:32
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