The Patriots’ plan to sit Drake Maye and start Jacoby Brissett to begin the 2024 season won’t do much to increase merchandise sales. And if their approach lasts too long into the season, attendance numbers might dwindle, as well.

But according to most NFL evaluators the Boston Herald polled across the league, the Patriots are making the responsible decision to keep their 2024 third overall pick on ice until they feel like he and the team are ready for him to start. They believe the offense lacks talent and if the option to play it conservatively with a rookie quarterback is available, there’s no downside.

Not everyone we spoke to agrees with the Patriots’ plan, however. There’s no empirical proof that sitting a rookie quarterback helps, one person said. Another believes that if the Patriots plan to play Maye at all this season, they might as well bite the bullet and do it now.

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Let’s dive deeper into the decision.

One talent evaluator on the team believes that with how well Maye played and practiced from mid-August until the start of the regular season, it’s only a matter of “when,” not “if” Maye will take over this season.

So, why not just start him now? One theory within the building is that developing young players, not winning, should be the Patriots’ primary goal this season. And if playing Maye too early with the rest of the offense unsettled could hinder his development, then it’s not worth it.

An AFC assistant general manager agreed.

“For me, its like any investment,” he said. “If you gamble and try to make a quick buck when you don’t have to, that’s a recipe for disaster.”

An AFC West veteran scout gave a brutal evaluation of the Patriots’ offense, saying, “the offensive line sucks, and the wide receivers aren’t very good either.”

The Patriots hoped to decide on a starting offensive line by their third and final preseason game, but an injury to left tackle Vederian Lowe got in the way of that plan, forcing the team to shuffle the offensive line against the Commanders. Further complicating issues, left guard Sidy Sow also suffered an injury in that game, leaving the group with even more questions and uncertainty than they faced by the end of training camp.

The Patriots know David Andrews will start at center. Every other position remains in flux, and most of their options, outside of Onwenu, are barely starting-caliber.

“I see zero reason for them to start Drake,” a senior personnel executive said. “They’re not going to be good, and the O-line is bad. I personally would be in the camp of starting Brissett and evaluating where Maye is at, and where the team is at the halfway point of season. There is more bad than good that can happen by putting a guy out there to get hit a bunch, not play well and lose confidence.”

The Patriots currently lack dependable high-end wide receiver talent, but they do have more upside at that position than on the offensive line. DeMario Douglas had a promising rookie campaign out of the slot, and 2024 second-round pick Ja’Lynn Polk is a candidate to start at one of the outside spots to start the season.

But Kendrick Bourne, the Patriots’ most proven wide receiver, will miss at least the first four weeks of the season on the PUP list.

“They need to solidify that O-line before Maye takes over cause he can develop bad habits if they’re still shuffling guys around and struggling in protection,” an NFC South scout said. “So hopefully by the time Bourne is back the O-line is settled and they can then see what they have with Maye.”

The Patriots simply do not know what their offense will look like when the season starts in Week 1, because too much remains up in the air.

“If you don’t have the pieces around a young QB, then you’re not setting them up for success,” an AFC East scout said.

There’s also a matter of intangibles that Maye can continue to develop while sitting on the bench. And while it might not be necessary to sit and learn them, there’s little downside other than putting a less exciting product on the field for a team that knows being competitive is not the priority this season.

One feeling inside the building is that it can be valuable for Maye to learn the rhythm of a weekly NFL regular season schedule before he starts. And that can also allow him to sit back and watch how much more complex opposing defenses get while he waits.

“Just to sit for a little while and watch a pro like Jacoby go through all the right motions each week, see how he handles successes and failures, how he interacts with teammates, etc. during real game weeks is incredibly beneficial,” an AFC North scout agreed. “Physical and mental talent is the starting point, but there’s so much that a quarterback is responsible for every week that doesn’t always get a light shined on it, but can ultimately make or break a guy.”

Brissett has started 48 NFL games throughout his eight-year career. Maye started just 26 at the college level. An NFC assistant director of college scouting believes the Patriots’ approach is a good blueprint if only because starting right away can be detrimental to a player’s growth, mentally.

“I always lean patience,” the AFC assistant GM agreed. “Playing the position is hard not only because of the physical demands but the rest of it: being able to prepare, know how to prepare, how to lead, how to stay even-keeled.”

But there are dissenters to the Patriots’ strategy. Two analytics executives – one from the AFC and one from the NFC – disagreed about the usefulness of sitting a rookie quarterback.

One analytics executive said there’s no evidence that sitting a rookie quarterback helps his development. Another analytics executive pointed out that the Patriots face off against stout defensive lines in two of their first four games against the Jets and 49ers, and perhaps Mayo is trying to avoid Maye getting off to an “abysmal” start.

That same AFC West scout who had a brutal assessment about the offensive line and wide receivers ultimately believes that if the Patriots plan on starting Maye anyway, they might as well do it from Day 1.

“If they are gonna play him, (expletive) it, throw him in,” he said.

He added that if the Patriots don’t start Maye right away, it’s his opinion that it’s a way for the front office to delay ownership from getting impatient from a lack of immediate results and “ending the honeymoon phase” with Mayo and executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf.

One would hope that ownership is aligned with Mayo and Wolf in the realization that no matter what, the Patriots are most likely not going to have immediate success in the interim.

And ultimately, as fun as it would be to watch Maye start all season, the coaching staff shouldn’t be taking unneccessary risks with their future franchise.