FOXBORO — After giving Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye one series apiece, Jerod Mayo said he wanted to turn Thursday night’s preseason opener into “the Zappe show and then the Joe show.”

Bailey Zappe saw the bulk of the reps for the Patriots, playing seven of the 12 series in their 17-3 exhibition win over the Carolina Panthers at Gillette Stadium. But Joe Milton III brought the show.

After entering late in the third quarter, the sixth-round draft pick evaded two would-be sacks on a 12-yard coast-to-coast scramble, tucked and ran again for 13 yards, and then tossed a 38-yard touchdown pass to fellow rookie JaQuae Jackson that exhilarated the New England sideline.

Multiple teammates, including Brissett, ran onto the field to celebrate with Milton. His head coach liked what he saw, too.

Asked after the game if any players exceeded his expectations, Mayo noted that he needed to watch the film, then added: “The easy answer would be Joe.”

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen a quarterback here run around as much as he did and still was able to get the ball down the field,” Mayo said. “He’s one of those guys, though. It was good.”

Milton, who boasts a tremendously strong arm but lacked touch and nuance in his college stops at Michigan and Tennessee, finished 4-for-6 for 54 yards and a touchdown. The Patriots scored on his first two drives (field goal, touchdown) and his third was a series of kneeldowns, after which Milton launched into one of his signature standing backflips.

Patriots fans should know not to place too much stock in preseason performances – remember Malik Cunningham’s electric debut just last summer? – and this promising first impression wasn’t without flaws. New England had to burn a timeout with the play clock expiring after Milton’s first scramble, and he threw one pass to Kayshon Boutte on an out-breaking route that was nearly intercepted.

Still, it’s bound to stir up a firestorm of talk-radio takes, especially with Maye not yet performing like a top-three pick at this early stage of his career.

Milton, though, downplayed his highlights during a confident postgame news conference.

“Hearing that from the head coach, thanks to him,” Milton said when asked about Mayo’s compliment. “But I feel like I’ve got a lot more work to do. There’s a lot of things in the offense that I need to learn, and I need to learn fast. Just being hard on myself — the only way I’ve got this far is being hard on myself.”