The Patriots Offensive Line is Making the QB1 Decision for Them
You're going to have to forgive Patriots fans if we see us walking around in a sort of semi-catatonic state of dementia right now. And you wouldn't be wrong to take our car keys away, hand us a piece of paper and ask us to draw a clock, or just call Visiting Angels. Because we're living in a ball of confusion these days. A world where Drake Maye can both be the second best quarterback on the roster and playing the best. Where he's able to run a huddle and not able to run a huddle:
So we've got Schroedinger's Quarterback. He's simultaneously the QB1 and the QB2.
I mean, you know it's an odd situation when you've got pundits from California nostalgic for "We'll do whatever's in the best interest of the football team" press conferences:
And while I'm loathe to agree with the artist formerly known as Boston Sports Guy and who's spent the last 20 years or so talking about the LA Clippers and '90s movies, the conclusion I reached Sunday night was that this is not the time to be putting a (barely) 22 year old rookie under center. Not after this:
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Which was caused by this:
Pause that at the 0:03 mark and you'll see how KJ Henry came in so unblocked he was adhering to 2020 social distancing guidelines. The line was blocking down, with Sidy Sow pulling from the backside for the kickout block. But he was beaten over the head with the body of rookie Layden Robinson, three full yards behind the line:
Which was just one symptom of a much larger illness that is infecting this entire team. On the night, the mistakes on the line included, Left to Right:
- Chuks Okorafor: 2 illegal formations
- Sow: Holding
- Nick Leverett: 2 mishandled snaps
- Robinson: False start, holding
- Michael Onwenu: Illegal formation
Just as a reminder in case you need it, this isn't OTAs. This is the result of months spent presumably addressing the offensive line, which every Masshole understood was the No. 2 priority for this franchise after quarterback. And while I'm a total believer that they've found the solution to the No. 1 priority, fat lot of good that does us if he's coming off the field grimacing like Jacoby Brissett did. This I tell you brother, you can't have one without the other.
Like I said the morning after the Washington game:
We're now five-plus months after Eliot Wolf decided not to make offensive tackle a priority in free agency. And four months since he more or less ignored the position in the draft. (Pundits consider Caeden Wallace more of an OG/OT 'tweener.) Yet with less than two weeks to go before kickoff, The Wolf is still shuffling his cards trying to find a winning hand….
And I can't wrap my feeble brain around the fact they're still experimenting with moving Michael Onwenu back to RT after putting him at RG for most of camp. Strap in and prepare yourself to be watching them all season long struggle to find a combination that works. Hint: This wasn't it.
With 24 hours to dwell on the topic, I'm only more convinced you can't start the season with a rookie quarterback lined up behind this Dysfunctional Family Circus.
I'm on Team Maye all the way. I love the way he's begun realizing his potential right before our eyes. Over the last three weeks or so, whatever switch flips in your brain as you start to make sense of some difficult concept has toggled up in his. His learning curve has flattened. And like I also said, when the competition is more or less real, as it is in these preseason games, you get a much better sense of how athletically superior he is than most of the people around him. But all that progress will be squandered until Alex Van Pelt and Scott Peters finally come up with a combination that can do a decent impression of an professional offensive line. An NFL O-line tribute band.
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With that, I go back to a premise I've settled on over the last 10 days or so. Until I can get my Marketing Department to workshop a better name, I'm calling it "Maye in October." (Submit your ideas in the comments below.) I say again, around here September has traditionally been an extension of training camp. Just look at how many times this team had Super Bowl years that started out 2-2. "We're onto Cincinnati" being the most memorable example. By the time we hit Week 5, Cole Strange could be back. Perhaps a veteran will shake loose because he's holding out for money, which the Patriots have:
And if no other change happens, at the very least the offensive staff can finally, at long last, settle on a starting five, let them coalesce around David Andrews and knock off the constant experimentation that's gotten them nowhere. The outside zone scheme Van Pelt and Peters brought with them from Cleveland requires a lot of time and constant repetition to get the choreography right. By October, we'll all be a month older, but hopefully four games closer to finally fixing this problem. And with three home games, plus a neutral site game, you'd be putting the future of your franchise in a much more advantageous position than if you throw him overboard and tell him to swim now.
Yes, it's a raw deal for Brissett. Not at all unlike being one of the guys the Germans sent into the booby traps to find the Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But that's what he signed on for. It's right in the job description when you advertise for A Bridge Quarterback on LinkedIn. And the best option available at the moment.
Now that we've got this cleared up, maybe the coaching staff can work on messaging. Because evasive non-answers would be preferable to what we've been getting. Please and thank you.