The ugly, unspoken truth of the Patriots’ free-agent deal with Jacoby Brissett last March was the team would pay him $10 million to both play quarterback and be a piñata.

For as much has been written about Brissett mentoring rookie Drake Maye, as a well-traveled, well-respected journeyman, Brissett is here to protect him. His job is to lead the offense and absorb the inevitable, accompanying punishment until the Patriots believe Maye can protect himself.

On Sunday night, it took the Commanders’ backups six plays to find the piñata.

Washington defensive end K.J. Henry fired unblocked off the right edge and crushed Brissett, dropping him on his right shoulder for a sack. Brissett winced in pain as he regathered the huddle after his third dropback. Three snaps later, he was done for the night.

That sack spoke to another nasty truth: the Patriots’ offensive line right now is an abject disaster.

A complete mess.

They took 10 penalties overall. In the first half alone, center Nick Leverett was involved in two botched snaps. Offensive tackles Chukwuma Okorafor and Mike Onwenu combined for four illegal formation penalties. Next to Okorafor, left guard Sidy Sow got flagged for holding and later left with an ankle injury. Sow’s replacement, Michael Jordan, was called for holding almost as soon as he took the field.

Meanwhile, rookie right guard Layden Robinson – a rare, rising bright spot for this line – false-started, got penalized once for holding and caused the sack against Brissett. On the play, Robinson was instantly driven back into Sow, who had pulled around to block Henry. That collision cut Henry free.

Then Maye took over and promptly led an 11-play scoring drive, flashing the mobility and playmaking now tickling the football imagination of a region.

Could he start Week 1? 

Is Maye already the future?

Did the Patriots finally find Tom Brady’s rightful successor?!

Not so fast.

Maye should sit Week 1. Scratch that. He must.

The Patriots cannot drop the future of their franchise behind an offensive line that can’t line up correctly.

Even if they did start Maye in two weeks, what’s the point?

Thoughts on every player on Patriots’ 90-man roster before cuts

Upset the Bengals, then throw him into the fire of facing two of the best defenses in football – the Jets and 49ers – over the next three weeks with no protection and water guns for weapons? Cool.

Quinnen Williams would love the opportunity to break Maye – and by extension the Patriots – before Columbus Day. Nick Bosa, too.

Again, Washington sat its starters Sunday night. The defensive backups for a team that picked No. 2 overall in April just whooped four of the Patriots’ best offensive linemen. Anyone itching for Maye to start ASAP is missing that detail and the bigger picture.

This is Year 1 of a full-on rebuild; the first season post-Tom Brady where the Patriots’ chief objective is not to win.

It’s to develop players like Maye, Robinson and other rookies. But Maye will never develop and thrive if he’s never allowed first to survive.

No quarterback can win behind a leaky line like that versus a real, scheming NFL defense. A second-string Commanders outfit running basic coverages and fronts does not count.

After suffering free rushers for so long, quarterbacks begin to see ghosts. Next, they can’t distinguish ghosts from real danger. Ask Mac Jones.

The good news is new offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt hardly sounds inclined to thrust Maye into the middle of such a mess.

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In a recent interview with Yahoo Sports, Van Pelt described Brissett as being “way more equipped to handle opening day.” Van Pelt also said this: “Jacoby right now is more suited with the skill set and his toolbox to be able to handle a lot of the issues that come up and Drake is still learning that. You don’t want to put a guy out there when he doesn’t know exactly how to protect himself from certain looks.

“So that’s the whole process right now. And I think at some point, if and when that does happen, then it will be obvious to everybody.”

Meanwhile, Jerod Mayo has time and again insisted the Patriots are holding a legitimate quarterback competition, one that was allegedly unresolved as late as Sunday night. That insistence, held against the fact the Patriots started Brissett in all three preseason games and handed him virtually all of the starting reps in training camp, never made any sense.

Except if you remember why Brissett is here in the first place: to play and take the hits until the defense or Maye forces him off the field.

Just like Sunday night.