With the 2024 season in the books, MassLive will look at each position group on the Patriots, analyzing how the team performed and where it might be heading in the future. This is an important offseason for new Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and owner Robert Kraft. This series starts with quarterbacks.
Maye and Milton enter the second year of their rookie contracts. Maye, 22, has a cap hit of $8.327 million in 2025. That includes a base salary of $960,000 and a roster bonus of $1.5 million. His contract gradually rises. His cap hits go up to $9.992 million and then $11.658 million in 2027. The Patriots will have a fifth-year option for Maye in 2028.
The Patriots formulated a development plan for Maye. In the offseason, Brissett took the majority of first-team reps. Even when the rookie outperformed him in training camp, Brissett started the season.
Brissett started the first five games. The highlight was in Week 1 when the Patriots upset the Cincinnati Bengals. Brissett was under attack due to a porous Patriots offensive line. He was sacked 18 times in five starts. The Patriots offense looked stagnant with Brissett, averaging 12.4 points per game.
That led to Jerod Mayo starting Drake Maye in Week 6. The No. 3 overall pick was the youngest starting quarterback in the NFL last season, but he didn’t look like it. In 12 starts, Maye finished with 2,276 yards with 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He added 421 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns.
Maye had several highlights, including a wild touchdown throw against Tennessee that took nearly 12 seconds to complete. He became the 14th rookie quarterback in NFL history to throw for at least three touchdowns in his first start.
Do the Patriots want a veteran backup with this group? It makes sense to add one and enter the offseason with at least three quarterbacks on the depth chart. Would Brissett even want to return? He was Maye’s mentor but didn’t seem to love how things played out in Foxborough.
Other free-agent veteran options include Joshua Dobbs, Joe Flacco, Andy Dalton, Marcus Mariota, and Taylor Heinicke. If McDaniels wanted a familiar quarterback, he could look at Jimmy Garoppolo, Jarrett Stidham, or Mac Jones.
All three former Patriots will be unrestricted free agents. Someone with experience in McDaniels system could help Maye and Milton this offseason. Dobbs has a connection with Vrabel as he was the Titans backup in 2022.
