Five hours before the Patriots drafted Drake Maye last April, Eliot Wolf took a phone call.

The Giants were on the other end, offering the sixth overall pick, another selection and their 2025 first-rounder in exchange for the Patriots’ pick at No. 3.

Wolf said no. He had his man. It was Maye, a player the Patriots’ front office had scouted months before Wolf took over as executive vice president of player personnel and came to covet last spring.

This was the quarterback they wanted, the quarterback they needed; a player Wolf clung to despite receiving multiple offers, like the Giants’, which could have made the Patriots draft-rich beyond reason. He believed in Maye.

That belief, the Patriots’ belief, has now thrust the 22-year-old gunslinger into the worst quarterback situation in the NFL.

On Sunday, Maye will make his starting debut behind an offensive line allowing the highest pressure rate in the league. He will take snaps from a backup with the worst pass-blocking grade at Pro Football Focus among centers. He will throw to a receiving corps that ranks bottom 10 in separation, per Next Gen Stats.

And Maye will face a snarling Texans defense flanked by two explosive edge rushers. Good luck, kid. Thoughts and prayers.

It all feels too soon. Too short-sighted.

Waiting just a week for the toothless Jaguars, whose bottom-5 defense consists of human yellow lights, would have been a minimal ask. Maybe until the Jets visit in two weekends, a team Maye has already faced. Or, hell, maybe whenever the Patriots just stop fielding the worst pass protection in the NFL.

But the Patriots seem blinded by their love of Maye. They think he can withstand the pressure that left Jacoby Brissett absorbing 49 hits in five games. They believe the growing pains he will endure won’t break him like other quarterbacks left on the side of the road that runs from the top of the draft to a starting job at the bottom of the league.

That feels more like hope than a plan, especially in light of what Wolf told me last month: “We just feel like the worst thing that could happen is you put a guy in before he’s ready, and then you have to take him out. And whether that’s (Maye) or somebody in another position, for a young player to not be ready and be put in that position, it can be counterproductive to their career.”

The last time we saw him, Maye took two sacks and went 4-of-8 for 22 yards over 16 snaps of garbage time against the Jets. Before that drive, Maye had out-performed Brissett over the final two weeks of training camp and the team’s preseason games.

According to team sources, Maye has since continued to ascend in practice. His arrival was inevitable, something one offensive teammate thought might have come last weekend.

Once Maye demonstrated appreciable improvement with his footwork, playbook mastery and processing, pressure rose on Brissett. The confidence and comfort Maye demonstrated in the pocket showed the coaching staff what they wanted to see all along.

However, one veteran player cautioned against that performance automatically translating into games, especially given the state of the Patriots’ offensive line. Another texted saying he believes Maye will make the offense more aggressive, which shouldn’t be difficult considering the Pats had completed one pass longer than 20 yards prior to their final last-ditch drive versus Miami.

New England Patriots Drake Maye and Jacoby Brissett during practice at Gillette Stadium. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)

One outside front-office executive questioned the timing of the decision, saying the Patriots must have felt outside pressure to play Maye. A second executive, who once crossed paths with offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, sensed the decision didn’t feel like something he would do.

Two team sources pushed back strongly against those notions, and this one: had rookie receiver Ja’Lynn Polk dragged a second foot in the end zone against Miami and the Patriots won last weekend, Brissett would have kept this job.

No. The Patriots were too frustrated by their inability to pass, ranking dead last at 119 passing yards per game. Brissett had been slow to trigger in recent games and showing signs of cracking under the unprecedented pressure. One offensive teammate noted Brissett’s conservative approach, backed by the fact the average length of his completions covered just 4.1 yards, third-shortest in the league.

Brissett’s decline, in concert with Maye’s development, appears to have expedited the team’s decision to make the switch. Mayo and Van Pelt met with the quarterbacks Tuesday, per sources, and Van Pelt will now begin to tweak the offense around Maye’s skill set.

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Sometime later, the rest of the Patriots’ roster found out when the news broke on social media. When it did, I found myself in the same position Maye will often inhabit as the Patriots’ new starter: running.

I stopped.

Why now? What’s the rush?

To be clear, I am a Maye believer, and have been since first sitting down to study him as a prospect last February. He possesses every skill a modern quarterback requires, the playmaking, the arm talent, the anticipation, the toughness, everything. But quarterback is both the most powerful and dependent position in American sports.

Right now, the Patriots are depending on Maye as much as he will lean on them.

Even if he’s ready to stand and deliver, are they?