<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/beantown-rundown-problem-with-2024-patriots');   ga('set', 'title', 'Beantown Rundown: The problem with the 2024 Patriots');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/The-problem-with-the-2024-Patriots.jpg"></figure><h1>Beantown Rundown: The problem with the 2024 Patriots</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-16T06:01:43-07:00">October 16th, 6:01am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-16T06:01:43-07:00">October 16th, 6:01am</time><address><a>Owen Crisafulli</a>Owen Crisafulli is a Senior Editor and NFL Lead at ClutchPoints. He recently received his Masters in Business Administration from Nichols College. Previously, he obtained his Bachelor's degree in Sport Management and for a while ran his own sports website. Sports are his passion, and he thoroughly enjoys writing about thoughts and opinions that are related to the game. He has been a lifelong fan of the major professional teams in Boston and loves discussing all topics surrounding those teams.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Editorials</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The New England Patriots <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-most-blame-for-week-6-loss-texans">suffered a 41-21 loss</a> to the Houston Texans in Week 6 of the 2024 NFL campaign to push their record to 1-5 on the season. Despite <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-not-accepting-moral-victories-after-loss-first-nfl-start">Drake Maye putting together an encouraging outing</a> in his first start at quarterback for the Pats, the team as a whole made a bevy of mistakes that they were never going to be able to overcome against a potential Super Bowl contender in the Texans.</p><p>The loss was New England’s fifth straight, and after a surprising victory over the Cincinnati Bengals to open the season, they have proven themselves to be what they were reasonably expected to be; one of the worst teams in the league. After trying to rebuild on the fly in the wake of Tom Brady’s departure, though, this was a necessary move for the team to make, even if it’s incredibly painful to endure.</p><p>And yet, all the narratives surrounding this team would have casual fans believing they are the biggest disappointment in the league. In reality, these struggles are what New England has to go through in order to return to the top of the mountain. But as their woes continue to drag on, the <a href="https://nesn.com/2024/10/why-patriots-made-correct-call-not-trading-for-amari-cooper/" rel="noopener">ridiculous expectations</a> for this team only seem to get more and more far-fetched.</p><h2><b>The Patriots cannot escape their past</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Drake-Maye-of-the-Patriots_dd1fc4.jpg"><figcaption>Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>New England is in the beginning stages of building themselves back up from the rubble they currently are in the wake of their long-running dynasty coming to an end. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are gone, and while Belichick struggled mightily to keep this roster in good shape after Brady’s departure, that’s neither here-nor-there. At some point in the post-Brady era, the Pats were going to have to rebuild.</p><p>They tried to put it off by keeping things together with glue and duct tape by rebuilding on the fly with Mac Jones, and well, we saw how that worked out. The team finally decided to embrace the rebuild this offseason by moving on from Belichick, dumping Jones off to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and drafting Maye to be their new quarterback of the future.</p><p>A quick look at this roster indicates a stunning lack of talent that has only been made worse by a bevy of injuries. Ja’Whaun Bentley and David Andrews, two veterans the team couldn’t really afford to lose, are out for the season already, and there’s a decent chance Christian Barmore won’t play at all this season due to blood clots. Safety Jabril Peppers time with the team could also be over after he was placed on the Commissioner Exempt List due to his recent arrest.</p><p>Jerod Mayo has inherited an unenviable situation from Belichick. That’s not a dig at the legendary coach, but rather a fact of the matter. Yes, Mayo and de facto general manager Eliot Wolf were given a full offseason to begin fixing this team, but they weren’t going to turn the scrap heap that was the 2023 Patriots into a Super Bowl contender right away. The goal was to keep the key pieces Belichick had in place around on new deals, while getting rid of the guys who didn’t fit into their future plans.</p><p>Again, those future plans were not designed for New England to be a winner right away. Calls for the team to fire Mayo or offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt after just six games are simply ridiculous. Yes, the team has struggled, but that’s precisely what they are supposed to do. This is a rebuild; success is not going to be realized after just a few games. These guys need time to put their plans into place.</p><p>That’s the issue with coming off one of the greatest dynasties in the history of sports. Patriots fans are starving for something to cheer about in the wake of the failed Jones era. That’s largely why Maye has been thrown into the fire, despite the team’s insistence that they are attempting to do what’s best for him and his development.</p><p>In his first NFL start, Maye showed reasons for excitement that simply did not exist through the first five games of the year. He threw for 243 yards and three scores, while also being the team’s leading rusher with 38 yards on five carries. He also threw a pair of interceptions and lost a fumble, which are the sorts of growing pains that are to be expected with a rookie quarterback.</p><p>I’ve <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/beantown-rundown-patriots-wrong-decision-start-drake-maye-jacoby-brissett">already discussed this at length</a>, but playing Maye in this moribound offense is not the best thing this team can do for his development, and I’m standing by that, even after his encouraging first start. There’s an argument to be made that he has both the worst offensive line and the worst group of pass catchers in the entire league supporting him.</p><p>But the narrative that Maye would somehow help make the Patriots better immediately permeated the walls of Gillette Stadium, and that led to him replacing Jacoby Brissett after just five starts. Who cares if this team is good this year, though? They aren’t supposed to be. And therein lies the major problem that is plaguing the Pats early on in the 2024 campaign.</p><p>The belief that every New England team should be a winner is directly influencing the decisions the team is making. In reality, though, rebuilds are a natural part of the ebb and flow of sports. Dynasties don’t last forever, and now it’s time to regroup so that a new one can be created.</p><p>There’s still an insistence that this team should be winning now, though, and that’s resulting in the Patriots running the risk of making the same mistakes with Maye that just made with Jones. It hasn’t bit them in the butt yet, but we are only six games into this new era. And if the desire to win immediately continues to linger around Foxboro, it’s only a matter of time until things come crumbling down around this team again.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Beantown Rundown: The problem with the 2024 Patriots

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/silverman-sacks-and-scrambles-dan-campbell-lions');   ga('set', 'title', 'Silverman’s Sacks and Scrambles: Dan Campbell’s Lions know how to overcome adversity');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Campbells-Lions-know-how-to-finish.jpg"><figcaption>10/15/24</figcaption></figure><h1>Silverman’s Sacks and Scrambles: Dan Campbell’s Lions know how to overcome adversity</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-15T13:28:28-07:00">October 15th, 1:28pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-15T13:28:28-07:00">October 15th, 1:28pm</time><address><a>Steve Silverman</a>Steve Silverman has been covering the NFL for more than 35 years, and his writing has appeared in ESPN Magazine, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, Pro Football Weekly, and Forbes.com. He has written 10 books, including "Who's Better, Who's Best in the NFL." He has won multiple awards from the Pro Football Writers of America.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Editorials</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/lions-news-lose-another-defender-aidan-hutchinson-injury">Detroit Lions suffered a brutal blow</a> Sunday when defensive end/edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson suffered a broken tibia and fibula against the Cowboys. No matter how tough the player is, a brutal injury is always around the corner in the NFL.</p><p>Hutchinson is the best defensive player on the best team in the NFC. It is going to be difficult for the Lions to endure over the long haul. But don’t think there is going to be anything short about their effort when they take on the undefeated and rested Vikings in Week 7.</p><p>Dan Campbell has shown he knows how to rally his team, and the Lions clearly have a killer instinct. Their 47-9 destruction of the Cowboys in Dallas revealed a team that was unstoppable on both sides of the ball. Jared Goff and the Lions had 492 yards on offense and took the ball away from the Cowboys five times on defense.</p><p>However, what separates the Lions from the other top teams in the NFC – and perhaps the entire NFL – is the killer instinct. They were not about to let up when they built a big lead in the first half. They came out hungry and nasty in the second half and they were on the field at AT&amp;T Stadium to punish the Cowboys right in Jerry World at AT&amp;T Stadium.</p><p>This is the result of Campbell’s coaching style and the personality he revealed when the Lions hired him prior to the 2021 season when <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng8TV6buqqM" rel="noopener">he told the world</a> that “we’re going to bite a kneecap off,” via Brad Galli.</p><h2><b>NFL has learned that Dan Campbell does not mince words</b></h2><p>The Lions have been true to Campbell’s word since then. As they have steadily improved, they have also displayed the personality of an overachiever. Nothing they’ve done to this point has satisfied them or told them they have been good enough. Each victory seems to fuel their fire and make them fight harder the following week.</p><p>The injury to Hutchinson is not going to slow the Lions down over the short haul. The next man up philosophy comes into play here as Isaac Ukwu will move to Hutcchinson’s spot on the defensive line and DC Aaron Glenn will figure out a way to deploy the talent on the Detroit roster in the best possible way.</p><p>But more than Ukwu, Josh Paschal, Levi Onwuzurike and DJ Reader – the players that will get Hutchinson’s reps – it’s about Alex Anzalone, Jack Campbell, Carlton Davis, Brian Branch, Alim McNeill, Terrion Arnold, Malcolm Rodriguez and Kerby Joseph. The other defensive starters will turn up their fire and pick up their level of play. That’s what the Lions have done under Campbell, and that’s what they will continue to do.</p><p>“There’s a difference between Campbell and nearly every other coach in this league,” said one AFC executive. “Instead of trying to piece things together and looking for a tactical solution, he is going to put it all on his players and tell them to step it up because that’s what they have to do. Other coaches might say something similar, but Campbell’s players will believe him and believe in him. They know that he has taken this franchise to a height it’s never been at before, and they can go even higher.”</p><p>The Lions came up with a maximum effort in their beatdown of the Cowboys, and the normal way of life in the NFL is the team that comes up with that type of Grade A performance is not going to do it two weeks in a row. However, the Lions were motivated by last year’s defeat at Dallas in which an official’s call wiped out a successful two-point conversion that saw Jared Goff connect with Taylor Decker on a tackle-eligible play in the end zone. Those were special circumstances. It’s back to serious business this week.</p><h2><b>Vikings are next for Lions</b></h2><p>Playing the Vikings represents a whole new level of motivation. They are the upstarts who have beaten the 49ers, Texans and Packers and take an undefeated record into the game. Nothing would mean more to Campbell and his players than beating up the Vikings on their home field and sending an even louder message to the rest of their NFC competitors on what this team is all about.</p><p>The Vikings are <a href="https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/navigation/nfl" rel="noopener">2.5-point favorites</a> in the game (per FanDuel), but Minnesota head coach Kevin O’Connell and defensive coordinator Brian Flores saw what the Lions did in Dallas, so they should know what’s coming. When they beat the Niners, San Francisco was not even close to its best. The Texans needed their own wake-up call as well. The wins over the Packers and Jets saw the Vikings hang on by their fingernails.</p><p>They are facing a completely different animal this week and it is not likely to be pretty.</p><h2><b>Sadness, NFL-style, slowly lifting in New England</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Drake-Maye-has-given-the-Patriots-a-small-dose-of-hope.jpg"><figcaption>Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>The Patriots have been on a painful downward NFL spiral since the end of the Tom Brady era with very few moments to uplift the franchise. However, there was at least a little bit of sunshine in their Week 6 game against the Houston Texans.</p><p><a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-first-td-tom-brady-replacement">Drake Maye was able to provide</a> a hint that things may be turning around. While he started very slowly in the first half, Maye was able to improve as the game went along.</p><p>It looked very similar to the Jacoby Brissett offense in the first few series of the game. The Pats went three-and-out on their first series and Maye threw an interception on the next series. Three more aborted drives followed as the Patriots could not even sniff Houston territory.</p><p>But things turned around on the final drive of the first half as Maye seemed to know what he was doing and the team responded. New England got the ball at its own 16 with 48 seconds left and seemingly had little chance of doing anything. But Maye took them 84 yards and Kayshon Boutte with a near-perfect 40-yard deep pass that resulted in a TD catch — even though cornerback Derek Stingley had excellent coverage.</p><p>The second half was also positive even though the Patriots ended up on the short end of a 41-21 score. Maye finished with 243 yards and had two more TD passes. He played with confidence throughout the final 30 minutes, throwing the ball on the run and displaying excellent athleticism in addition to accuracy and arm strength.</p><p>Now comes the hard part as he must continue to improve on an every-week basis and the NFL schedule maker appears to be cooperating. The Pats face the Jaguars, Jets and Titans over the next three weeks, and they need to be competitive in all three and win at least one of them.</p><h2><b>This and that</b></h2><p>The Bengals’ defense held a players-only meeting prior to their Sunday night 17-7 victory over the New York Giants. The NFL’s 23rd-ranked defense picked up its play considerably, holding the Giants to 205 passing yards and preventing Daniel Jones from throwing a TD pass. They held primary running back Tyrone Tracy to 50 yards and a 2.9 yards per carry average. They had been getting gashed on the ground, but a turnaround may have started in MetLife Stadium.</p><p>Former head coach Bill Belichick may not have said much during his weekly press conferences as head coach of the Patriots, but he is at his best on the Monday Night Football “Manning Cast” with Peyton and Eli Manning.</p><p>Belichick <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s7kfEt3Kgw" rel="noopener">took apart</a> the Jets ownership situation for the firing of Robert Saleh and then broke down Josh Allen’s performance and told the brothers what makes Allen unique, via the NFL.</p><p>“Man, this guy can pull the rabbit out of his hat. When he extends the play, he’s got the ability to run the ball and he’s got a tremendous arm. He can zip it as well as anybody. He’s got a lot of fastballs there, and he can thread the needle.”</p><p>After that, he provided a breakdown on what it takes to contain Allen, and that the left defensive end has the responsibility to keep him in the pocket and not let him make plays on the run. Bill Belichick is a great communicator. Who would have thought it?</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Silverman’s Sacks and Scrambles: Dan Campbell’s Lions know how to overcome adversity

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-vs-jaguars-prediction-odds-pick-for-nfl-week-7-2024');   ga('set', 'title', 'Patriots vs. Jaguars prediction, odds, pick for NFL Week 7');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Patriots-vs-Jaguars-prediction-odds-pick-for-NFL-Week-7.jpg"></figure><h1>Patriots vs. Jaguars prediction, odds, pick for NFL Week 7</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-15T11:27:21-07:00">October 15th, 11:27am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-15T11:27:21-07:00">October 15th, 11:27am</time><address><a>Jake Faigus</a>Jake Faigus graduated from the University of Arizona in 2022 and has written for several publications and websites. He has had stops at Catena Media, Playmaker, DraftKings, USA Today, Spike Up, and Spotlight Sports Group. He also writes for Sporting News and works at iHeartMedia in Phoenix when he is not writing for ClutchPoints.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Betting</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>These two teams have been struggling all season. They enter this game with only one win and are both in the middle of a lost season. It is time to continue our NFL odds <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/betting" rel="noopener">series</a> with a Patriots-Jaguars prediction and pick.</p><figure><img src="https://a.impactradius-go.com/display-ad/3065-2113640"></figure><figure><img src="https://paramountplus.qflm.net/i/492408/2113640/3065"></figure><p>The Patriots have lost five straight after starting the season with a win against the Bengals. They have lost to the Seahawks, Jets, 49ers, Dolphins, and 49ers. However, starting rookie Drake Maye as the quarterback gives the Patriots some hope. He played well in his first game and gives fans something to hope for. This season is lost, so the excitement comes from the young players getting opportunities.</p><p>The Jaguars might be the most disappointing team in the NFL this season. They are 1-5 and only have a win against the Colts. They have losses to the 49ers, Browns, Bills, Texans, and most recently, the Bears. Something has not been clicking for this team, but they get a good matchup against a struggling Patriots team in London. The Jaguars could use a win here to start returning to respectability.</p><p><i><b>Here are the Patriots-Jaguars <a href="https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/navigation/nfl" rel="noopener">NFL odds</a>, courtesy of FanDuel. </b></i></p><h2><b>NFL Odds: Patriots-Jaguars Odds</b></h2><p>New England Patriots: +5.5 (-110)</p><p>Moneyline: +205</p><p>Jacksonville Jaguars: -5.5 (-110)</p><p>Moneyline: -250</p><p>Over: 42.5 (-115)</p><p>Under: 42.5 (-105)</p><h2><b>How to Watch Patriots vs. Jaguars</b></h2><p>Time: 9:30 pm ET/6:30 pm PT</p><p>TV: NFL Network</p><p><b><i>Stream: fuboTV (<a href="https://www.fubo.tv/lp/football/?irad=356362&amp;irmp=492408" rel="noopener">Free Trial</a>)</i></b></p><h2><b>Why The Patriots Could Cover The Spread/Win</b></h2><p>The New England Patriots need some sort of rebound after five straight losses. Their offense has been a big struggle. They average 257.5 yards per game, which is third to last in the NFL. Then, they are second to last in scoring at 13.8 points per game. They are jumpstarting this offense with Drake Maye at quarterback, so things might start to look different in this game. He had 265 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, and two interceptions on a 58.5% completion percentage. Rhamondre Stevenson has been okay at best on the ground, with 77 carries for 356 rushing yards and three touchdowns. The receiving corps has been awful, with DeMario Douglas and Hunter Henry being standouts with 245 receiving yards and 221 receiving yards apiece, and both have one touchdown.</p><p>Conversely, the Patriots’ defense has struggled this season as well. They allow 358.8 total yards per game and 23.8 points per game. They have struggled against both the run and the passing game and do not have much else to like on defense from a statistical perspective. This defense has some talent as an overall unit, and Christian Gonzalez stands out in the secondary. He is great at shutting down receivers, even with the team struggling.</p><h2><b>Why The Jaguars Could Cover The Spread/Win</b></h2><p>The Jaguars have been a huge disappointment this season. They have pieces on this team but have not played well on offense. They average 319.5 yards per game and score 18.8 points per game. The offense relies on Trevor Lawrence. He has 1,334 passing yards, eight touchdowns, and three interceptions with a 60.7% completion percentage. The running game seems like it’s been turned over to Tank Bigsby over Travis Etienne. Bigsby has 297 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 41 carries. Rookie wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. is the best player out wide with 25 receptions for 424 receiving yards and three touchdowns.</p><p>The Jaguars’ defense has been awful this season. They allow 390 yards per game, which is second-worst in the NFL. They also allow 29.7 points per game, which is second-worst in the NFL. They have the worst passing defense in the NFL, allowing 276.7 passing yards through the air. The defense has talent with Josh Hines-Allen and Arik Armstead up front and then Devin Lloyd in the middle, but the secondary has been awful.</p><h2><b>Final Patriots-Jaguars Prediction &amp; Pick</b></h2><p>The Jaguars have more talent, but neither team has much to like in this game. Still, the Jaguars are more acclimated to London by staying for an extra week, and the Patriots are awful. The Jaguars should win and cover in this game and go back home to the U.S. with a 1-1 record. This is a good start to getting back to some sort of respectability.</p><p><b>Final Patriots-Jaguars Prediction &amp; Pick:</b> <b>Jacksonville Jaguars -5.5 (-110)</b></p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Patriots vs. Jaguars prediction, odds, pick for NFL Week 7

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-most-blame-for-week-6-loss-texans');   ga('set', 'title', 'Patriots most to blame for Week 6 loss to Texans');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Patriots-most-to-blame-for-Week-6-loss-to-Texans.jpg"></figure><h1>Patriots most to blame for Week 6 loss to Texans</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-15T06:11:47-07:00">October 15th, 6:11am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-15T06:11:47-07:00">October 15th, 6:11am</time><address><a>Conor Roche</a>Conor Roche is a sports journalist that has covered Boston sports for a few years and has worked on the Patriots beat since the 2022 season.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Editorials</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Rookie quarterback <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-jerod-mayo-brutally-honest-admission-drake-maye-first-start">Drake Maye’s first NFL start</a> wasn’t enough to spark the New England Patriots in Week 6, <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-not-accepting-moral-victories-after-loss-first-nfl-start">losing to the Houston Texans, 41-21</a>. As the Patriots fell to 1-5 on the season, here are the players and coaches most to blame for their latest shortcoming, starting with defensive backs Christian Gonzalez and Jonathan Jones.</p><h2><b>Christian Gonzalez and Jonathan Jones</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Christian-Gonzalez.jpg"><figcaption>Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Even though C.J. Stroud threw for just 192 yards, it was really a rough day for the Patriots’ secondary. Christian Gonzalez and Jonathan Jones each had rough moments in Sunday’s game.</p><p>Gonzalez had the duty of trying to slow down Stefon Diggs. He wasn’t able to do that, though. Diggs had four receptions on <a href="https://premium.pff.com/nfl/games/2024/6/new-england-patriots/defense-coverage-vs-receiving" rel="noopener">five targets</a> against Gonzalez for 39 yards and a touchdown, per Pro Football Focus. Those stats might not be eye-popping, but he <a href="https://x.com/Stroud4MVP/status/1845580492848112069" rel="noopener">only ran 10 routes</a> against Gonzalez, per Next Gen Stats.</p><p>Gonzalez even <a href="https://x.com/DakRandall/status/1845562332283556305" rel="noopener">admitted that he had a tough day</a> against Diggs.</p><p>“I feel like I didn’t play too well,” Gonzalez told reporters following Sunday’s game.</p><p>The touchdown that Gonzalez allowed to Diggs at the beginning of the third quarter was particularly brutal. Diggs got him on an inside move, quickly leaving the young corner in the dust.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">ONE OF ONE. </p><p>📺: <a href="https://twitter.com/NFLonCBS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NFLonCBS</a> <a href="https://t.co/9grrooJwyS">pic.twitter.com/9grrooJwyS</a></p><p>— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonTexans/status/1845536903975567393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2024</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>Following that touchdown, the Patriots played more zone defense, but it was too late as they were in a 21-7 hole.</p><p>As for the Joneses, Jonathan Jones allowed <a href="https://premium.pff.com/nfl/games/2024/6/new-england-patriots/defense-coverage-vs-receiving" rel="noopener">five receptions on five targets</a> while covering Diggs and Tank Dell, per PFF. One of the receptions he gave up to Dell was a two-yard touchdown to open the game, running a couple steps behind the Texans’ receiver.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">3️⃣ WITH HIS FIRST TD OF THE YEAR 🚀</p><p>📺: <a href="https://twitter.com/NFLonCBS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NFLonCBS</a> <a href="https://t.co/LsOxLmMlo8">pic.twitter.com/LsOxLmMlo8</a></p><p>— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonTexans/status/1845513169176870991?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2024</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>Marcus Jones was only credited for allowing two receptions on Sunday,</p><h2>Raekwon McMillan</h2><p>Following Ja’Whaun Bentley’s season-ending injury, the Patriots have gone from having arguably one of the best run-stopping linebackers in the league to one of the worst.</p><p>Houston’s run game punished New England on Sunday, going for 192 yards on the ground. It was really two plays that did the Patriots in, though. Joe Mixon rushed for a 59-yard gain on a run early in the second quarter where Raekwon McMillan took a bad angle, which allowed the running back to hit the hole cleanly before taking off the long gain.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">59-YARD RUN FROM JOE MIXON 🤯</p><p>📺: <a href="https://twitter.com/NFLonCBS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NFLonCBS</a> <a href="https://t.co/uSr4uJmoOT">pic.twitter.com/uSr4uJmoOT</a></p><p>— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonTexans/status/1845522610169565691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2024</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>In the fourth quarter, McMillan was one of the culprits for allowing Dameon Pierce’s 54-yard touchdown run. He overpursued on an outside run, allowing Pierce to cut inside and outrun the Patriots’ defense to the end zone.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">GO CRAZY DP ‼️</p><p>📺: <a href="https://twitter.com/NFLonCBS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NFLonCBS</a> <a href="https://t.co/4AcY2Fb8bf">pic.twitter.com/4AcY2Fb8bf</a></p><p>— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonTexans/status/1845552997654544489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2024</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>Those two plays show a lack of discipline from McMillan that led to major plays for the Texans. But he was also unproductive in Sunday’s game. He only recorded one tackle assist in 18 defensive run snaps in Sunday’s game. Just a brutal showing for a linebacker.</p><h2>Demontrey Jacobs</h2><p>It was another rough outing for the Patriots’ offensive line, though not everyone was bad. However, Demontrey Jacobs was clearly overmatched at right tackle in Sunday’s game. He <a href="https://premium.pff.com/nfl/games/2024/6/new-england-patriots/offense-pass-blocking" rel="noopener">allowed two sacks and four pressures</a>, per PFF.</p><p>The biggest mistake from Jacobs was the whiff of a block he had on Texans standout edge rusher Danielle Hunter on the Patriots’ first drive of the second half. As New England got the ball to open the third quarter and Gillette Stadium humming from Maye’s first touchdown pass, the energy was sapped out of the building as Anderson clearly made his way around Jacobs to get a strip-sack of Maye.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Ima need to see this Danielle Hunter strip sack in slow mo. </p><p>Looks just like the one in the Bears game where he’s a lion leaping for his prey 😱 <a href="https://t.co/aMwBEAsAR4">pic.twitter.com/aMwBEAsAR4</a></p><p>— Houston Stressans (@TexansCommenter) <a href="https://twitter.com/TexansCommenter/status/1845539845759709288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2024</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>Jacobs also allowed Will Anderson Jr. to get a quick sack of Maye on a third-down play early in the second quarter, ending a Patriots drive.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">THE TERMINATOR 🤫</p><p>📺: <a href="https://twitter.com/NFLonCBS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NFLonCBS</a> <a href="https://t.co/WfxkbCRCdI">pic.twitter.com/WfxkbCRCdI</a></p><p>— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonTexans/status/1845521643088515275?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2024</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>Just a rough day at the office for the right tackle.</p><h2>Alex Van Pelt</h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Alex-Van-Pelt.jpg"><figcaption>Eric Canha-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt’s approach to calling Sunday’s game was maddening. After the Patriots went down 7-0 on the game’s opening drive, their OC opted to dial up two run plays for their backup running back before having Maye drop back to pass on a play where the rookie didn’t have a chance for a completion.</p><p>That timid approach continued on the next drive, with Maye throwing a short pass before getting intercepted. There were a couple of other situations in the first half where Van Pelt’s play calls were uninspiring, such as a second-and-seven where Antonio Gibson ran right up the gut for a one-yard loss.</p><p>It initially looked like Van Pelt was waiving the white flag on the Patriots’ final drive of the first half. Even though the team had multiple timeouts and roughly a minute left after getting the ball at their own 16-yard line, Van Pelt called a run play as the offense wasn’t urgent to get back to the line. Luckily for Van Pelt, Maye bailed him out with a couple of strong completions before hitting Kayshon Boutte on a 40-yard touchdown pass.</p><p>The biggest crime with this Patirots’ offense, though, is that it remains boring for several stretches of the game, even with Maye in there. They rank toward the bottom of the league in motion, giving their skill position players zero advantage before the snap. That would be understandable if you were loaded at receiver and had trust in your skill position players to win one-on-one battles. But this team needs whatever edges it can get, and Van Pelt isn’t providing the offense with any sort of advantage on a weekly basis.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Patriots most to blame for Week 6 loss to Texans

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-news-jerod-mayo-scathing-jalynn-polk-review');   ga('set', 'title', 'Patriots’ Jerod Mayo drops scathing Ja’Lynn Polk review after loss to Texans');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Patriots-news-Jerod-Mayo-drops-scathing-JaLynn-Polk-review-after-loss-to-Texans.jpg"></figure><h1>Patriots’ Jerod Mayo drops scathing Ja’Lynn Polk review after loss to Texans</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-14T13:07:34-07:00">October 14th, 1:07pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-14T13:08:00-07:00">October 14th, 1:08pm</time><address><a>Matt De Lima</a>Matt De Lima is an Associate Editor for NFL and college football at ClutchPoints. He has been covering sports for over 12 years at sites like Sports Illustrated, The Game Day, and countless others. Born and raised in California, he is a graduate of Virginia Tech and a diehard Hokies fan who now resides in southern Maryland.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo, who recently said <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-jerod-mayo-take-shot-bill-belichick">the roster still has lots of holes</a>, set the bar when discussing rookie wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk. Mayo discussed the team, critiqued multiple players on a <a href="https://x.com/MikeReiss/status/1845820802622541847" rel="noopener">recent conference call</a> with the media, and had firm words for Polk, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss.</p><p>“He needs to get over this mental hump. You got to eliminate the dropped passes and be better blocking … We fully expect him to grow into a receiver that is dependable on run and pass downs.”</p><p>Despite seeing 10 targets over his last two games, Polk only caught two of them. On the season, he has just 10 catches on 23 targets for 78 yards and a touchdown.</p><h2><b>Patriots shifting into developmental coaching stage</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Patriots-JaLynn-Polk-leaving-the-field.jpg"><figcaption>© Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>By starting Drake Maye in Week 6, the Patriots are in an evaluation and developmental mode, as noted by Mayo’s most recent comments about the team’s roster, per <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3xwk292Lfk" rel="noopener">his interview</a> on WEEI.</p><p>“We had a lot of holes on the roster that we felt, coming out of the draft, that we addressed,” Mayo said. “Now, free agency, we still felt like we signed the best offensive lineman in Mike Onwenu, and re-signing some of our players, which was definitely part of it. Once again, this isn’t a one-year thing in my mind. It’s going to take time to continue to build out the roster, and that’s how it is.</p><p>“From a roster standpoint, just in general, especially with our younger players, we had to see what we have this year, no matter what the record is. When we get out of this season, we need to know exactly what we have from a talent standpoint and then fill the holes that we need to fill.”</p><p>Much of the Patriots’ roster is very young. They have the 12th-youngest average-aged roster in the league. Much of that veteran experience is on defense, so ironing out the wide receiver depth chart and putting pressure on Polk makes sense.</p><p>The 2024 second-rounder has a long, lean frame and must grow accustomed to setting the edge and working harder on the fundamentals.</p><p><a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-not-accepting-moral-victories-after-loss-first-nfl-start">Drake Maye seems to understand the assignment</a> and will grow into the leadership required of his position, given his <a href="https://x.com/Patriots/status/1845560175744430386" rel="noopener">post-game thoughts</a> after his first start, per Patriots’ X account.</p><p>“Most of my friends and family after a loss, they’ll still worry more about the loss than kind of encouraging plays,” Maye said when asked about his emotions following his first start. “That’s kind of the people I’m around. We care about winning. Just hate losing. That’s the big thing.</p><p>“I think there’s some good things to take away from it today, and I think back with Coach [Jerod] Mayo, we’ve got to play complementary football, and we haven’t done that.”</p><p>The 1-5 Patriots travel to London to play the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 7.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Patriots’ Jerod Mayo drops scathing Ja’Lynn Polk review after loss to Texans

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-news-jerod-mayo-take-shot-bill-belichick');   ga('set', 'title', 'Did Patriots’ Jerod Mayo just take a shot at Bill Belichick?');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Did-Jerod-Mayo-just-take-a-shot-at-Bill-Belichick.jpg"></figure><h1>Did Patriots’ Jerod Mayo just take a shot at Bill Belichick?</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-14T09:41:18-07:00">October 14th, 9:41am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-14T09:41:18-07:00">October 14th, 9:41am</time><address><a>Malik Brown</a>Malik Brown is a multimedia reporter based in Atlanta who covers the Hawks and Dream for ClutchPoints. Malik has worked in entertainment and sports, and he specializes in the NBA and NFL.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The New England Patriots are going through a rebuilding phase with their roster, and head coach Jerod Mayo admitted that it may take more time than usual. In those comments, one could say that he was taking shots at Bill Belichick and how he left the roster before <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-new-england-parts-ways-bill-belichick-24-seasons">parting ways with the Patriots</a>. When asked why the roster is in the shape it’s in, Mayo had a <a href="https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/jerod-mayo-patriots-had-a-lot-of-holes-on-the-roster-rebuild-isnt-a-one-year-thing" rel="noopener">short, but awkward answer</a>.</p><p>“You tell me,” Mayo said. “I’m not doing that one.”</p><p>Mayo says that the goal this year is to continue to develop and see what they need to do to fix the roster for the future.</p><p>“We had a lot of holes on the roster that we felt, coming out of the draft, that we addressed,” Mayo said. “Now, free agency, we still felt like we signed the best offensive lineman in Mike Onwenu, and re-signing some of our players, which was definitely part of it. Once again, this isn’t a one-year thing in my mind. It’s going to take time to continue to build out the roster, and that’s how it is.</p><p>“From a roster standpoint, just in general, especially with our younger players, we had to see what we have this year, no matter what the record is. When we get out of this season, we need to know exactly what we have from a talent standpoint and then fill the holes that we need to fill.”</p><h2>Jerod Mayo inherited Patriots’ roster from Bill Belichick</h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Jerod-Mayo_fd6233.jpg"><figcaption>Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>There is some truth to Jerod Mayo taking over whatever Bill Belichick left over from last season. The roster has not been the best the past two seasons, as they went 4-13. The Patriots’ offense finished last in scoring and they were shut out twice. Mac Jones was the quarterback of the team, but <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/jaguars-news-jacksonville-acquires-mac-jones-in-patriots-trade">he was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars</a> in the offseason, as the team wanted to find more stability at the position.</p><p>As of now, there still seems to be a quarterback issue, but Drake Maye, who was the team’s first-round pick in the draft, just started his first game in Week 6. The hope is that Maye develops into the quarterback of the future for the Patriots, and depending on how he plays this season, will tell a lot.</p><p>The roster needs more construction outside of the offense, and there’s no estimate on how long that could possibly take, but Mayo seems to have a plan.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Did Patriots’ Jerod Mayo just take a shot at Bill Belichick?

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-news-drake-maye-not-accepting-moral-victories-after-loss-first-nfl-start');   ga('set', 'title', 'Patriots’ Drake Maye not accepting moral victories after first start');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Drake-Maye-silence-on-replacing-Jacoby-Brissett-as-New-Englands-starting-QB.jpg"></figure><h1>Patriots’ Drake Maye not accepting moral victories after first start</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-13T21:52:28-07:00">October 13th, 9:52pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-13T22:03:17-07:00">October 13th, 10:03pm</time><address><a>Conor Roche</a>Conor Roche is a sports journalist that has covered Boston sports for a few years and has worked on the Patriots beat since the 2022 season.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Drake Maye <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-jerod-mayo-brutally-honest-admission-drake-maye-first-start">showed signs of promise</a> in his first NFL start, but <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-beats-jacoby-brissett-first-start">it wasn’t anywhere near enough</a> for the New England Patriots to get a win against the Houston Texans as they fell, 41-21.</p><p>The Patriots’ rookie quarterback seemed <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-first-td-tom-brady-replacement">to recognize some of the good things</a> that came from Sunday’s game. However, Maye <a href="https://x.com/Patriots/status/1845560175744430386" rel="noopener">was more concerned</a> with the final result than anything else when he met with reporters after the game.</p><p>“Most of my friends and family after a loss, they’ll still worry more about the loss than kind of encouraging plays,” Maye said when asked about his emotions following his first start. “That’s kind of the people I’m around. We care about winning. Just hate losing. That’s the big thing.</p><p>“I think there’s some good things to take away from it today, and I think back with Coach [Jerod] Mayo, we’ve got to play complementary football, and we haven’t done that.”</p><p>Maye wasn’t spectacular against the Texans, committing three turnovers (two interceptions and a lost fumble) in the loss. He provided Patriots fans with plenty of moments to think that he might be a legitimate franchise quarterback moving forward, though. He completed 20 of 33 passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns.</p><p>The first of those three touchdowns was arguably Maye’s best pass of the day. He hit receiver Kayshon Boutte on a go route for a 40-yard touchdown right before the half, making a throw that Patriots quarterbacks in recent years haven’t been able to make.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">.<a href="https://twitter.com/DrakeMaye2?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DrakeMaye2</a>'s first <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NFL</a> TD is to <a href="https://twitter.com/KayshonBoutte1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KayshonBoutte1</a> 🏈</p><p>📺: CBS <a href="https://t.co/Oi7BpFvq6H">pic.twitter.com/Oi7BpFvq6H</a></p><p>— New England Patriots (@Patriots) <a href="https://twitter.com/Patriots/status/1845532192505766208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2024</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>Maye said that the Texans’ decision to play in man coverage on that play gave him the opportunity to make that deep throw. He also thinks the personnel that the team has at receiver will allow him to make deep passes moving forward.</p><p>“I felt like in this group we can push the ball down the field and make plays in the passing game, so we’ve just got to keep repping it and see what you like and I’ve got to make the throws, that’s the bottom line,” Maye said. “Make better throws.”</p><p>That throw was part of a two-minute drill where the Patriots went 84 yards on just five plays and 48 seconds. Maye shared that he was actually pretty comfortable during that two-minute drill.</p><p>“I think the two-minute time is a great time for a quarterback to kind of get some passes and get some plays that we’re comfortable with under my belt,” Maye said. “It was a lot easier in two-minute than in practice when the guys actually come back there and tackle me in the back. Able to make some plays.</p><h2><b>How Drake Maye assessed his performance in his first start as the Patriots QB</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Drake-Maye-1.jpg"><figcaption>Oct 13, 2024; Foxborough, Massachusetts, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (10) throws the ball against the Houston Texans during the first half at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Prior to the touchdown pass to Boutte, Maye and the Patriots’ offense had struggled to move the ball down the field. They were being shut out to that point and had yet to get the ball into Texans’ territory. Maye admitted that he was a little “amped up” to start, but that touchdown pass allowed him to settle in a bit.</p><p>“The guys around me were great trying to settle me down, and Jacoby [Brissett] was a big part of that, slowed me down on the sideline pregame,” Maye said. “Once we got that first drive, it was three-and-out, and I could have probably checked it down on the under. But we’ve got some stuff to look back and learn from, but I also feel like we did some good things.”</p><p>Still, Maye harped over the miscues that he and the offense made.</p><p>“I think we just hurt ourselves today. I think that’s the biggest thing,” Maye said. “I think we put the defense in bad spots, and with how good our defense is, that’s the last thing we can do. We can’t – when the ball is in the red zone, giving the other team the ball in the red zone just makes it hard on them. It starts with me, and I feel like I wish I could have some throws back, and especially the first interception.”</p><p>Maye will look to play a cleaner game in his second career start in Week 7. He and the Patriots will travel to London to take on the 1-5 Jacksonville Jaguars.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Patriots’ Drake Maye not accepting moral victories after first start

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-news-jerod-mayo-brutally-honest-admission-drake-maye-first-start');   ga('set', 'title', 'Patriots’ Jerod Mayo makes brutally honest admission about Drake Maye’s first start');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Jerod-Mayo-makes-brutally-honest-admission-about-Drake-Mayes-first-start.jpg"></figure><h1>Patriots’ Jerod Mayo makes brutally honest admission about Drake Maye’s first start</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-13T16:23:41-07:00">October 13th, 4:23pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-13T16:23:41-07:00">October 13th, 4:23pm</time><address><a>Conor Roche</a>Conor Roche is a sports journalist that has covered Boston sports for a few years and has worked on the Patriots beat since the 2022 season.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Jerod Mayo came away impressed <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-beats-jacoby-brissett-first-start">with Drake Maye in his first start</a>. So much so that he felt some remorse for the rookie quarterback following the New England Patriots’ 41-21 loss to the Houston Texans.</p><p>The Patriots coach was blunt in his assessment of the New England’s performance outside of Maye on Sunday, saying <a href="https://3.basecamp.com/5767866/buckets/36793780/card_tables/cards/7915561980" rel="noopener">that the team failed him</a>.</p><p>“I thought he showed a lot of poise,” Mayo told reporters. “I thought he went out there and controlled the huddle, got those guys out of the huddle and once again, made some plays. It’s definitely encouraging. From a team-wide perspective right now, we let him down. It was his first game, and I feel like I let him down.”</p><p>“I’m sure all the coaches feel like we let everyone down,” Mayo continued. “We’ve just got to be better.”</p><p>Maye didn’t necessarily have the most spectacular outing on Sunday, but he <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-first-td-tom-brady-replacement">gave the Patriots a handful of moments </a>to be optimistic about. He completed 20-of-33 passes for 243 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions with an 88.3 passer rating. He also gained 38 yards on five scrambles, but he also had a lost fumble.</p><p>In relation to how the Patriots’ offense has performed this year, Maye’s performance on Sunday was arguably the best of any player on the offense in 2024. New England’s offense also set a season-high in points scored while Maye threw for more touchdowns in Sunday’s game than Jacoby Brissett did in the Patriots’ first five games combined.</p><p>Mayo seemed all-around impressed with the third overall pick’s performance.</p><p>“I thought Drake made some good decisions out there,” Mayo said. “I thought he had some good reads. I thought he tried to get the ball out of his hands. I thought he did a good job extending plays with his legs, picking up first downs. Just got to be better.”</p><h2><b>Jerod Mayo backs Drake Maye after first start</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Drake-Maye_e84961.jpg"><figcaption>Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>One of the major points against starting Maye this early in the season was the state of the Patriots’ offensive line. Their offensive line has had a different starting combination in each game this season due to injuries. They also gave up 19 sacks through the first five weeks while Brissett had the highest pressure rate of any quarterback in the league.</p><p>Maye took four sacks on Sunday, with his lost fumble coming on a strip sack. However, Mayo believed the offensive line did at least an adequate job of giving May the requisite time to make plays.</p><p>“There were some good pockets to start with up front,” Mayo said. “I thought the offensive line at times definitely had some good pockets to allow the quarterback to make those throws. But once again, it’s a team-wide sport, and we don’t feel very good about anything right now.”</p><p>Maye certainly had a pocket good enough to make a deep throw on his first career touchdown pass, launching a 40-yard touchdown to Kayshon Boutte right before halftime. Plays like that gave Mayo optimism that the rookie will continue to progress.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">.<a href="https://twitter.com/DrakeMaye2?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DrakeMaye2</a>'s first <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NFL</a> TD is to <a href="https://twitter.com/KayshonBoutte1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KayshonBoutte1</a> 🏈</p><p>📺: CBS <a href="https://t.co/Oi7BpFvq6H">pic.twitter.com/Oi7BpFvq6H</a></p><p>— New England Patriots (@Patriots) <a href="https://twitter.com/Patriots/status/1845532192505766208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2024</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>“We fully anticipate or expect him to be better going forward,” Mayo said when asked about the touchdown throw to Boutte. “It was his first start. Obviously here at home there was a lot of expectations on him. I thought he handled it well. Got to build on it.”</p><p>Mayo didn’t give a letter grade on Maye’s performance, but it certainly sounded like he would’ve given him a high grade if he did.</p><p>“His reads were good all day,” Mayo said of Maye. “I thought his reads were good. I’ll watch the film, obviously, but I thought he did a good job.”</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Patriots’ Jerod Mayo makes brutally honest admission about Drake Maye’s first start

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-news-drake-maye-beats-jacoby-brissett-first-start');   ga('set', 'title', 'Patriots’ Drake Maye beats Jacoby Brissett in first start');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Patriots-news-Drake-Maye-beats-Jacoby-Brissett-in-first-start.jpg"></figure><h1>Patriots’ Drake Maye beats Jacoby Brissett in first start</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-13T13:53:24-07:00">October 13th, 1:53pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-13T13:53:24-07:00">October 13th, 1:53pm</time><address><a>Jaren Kawada</a>Jaren Kawada is a former full-time sports bettor and is now a NFL, College Football and Betting Associate Editor at ClutchPoints. Kawada was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, but now resides in Indianapolis, Indiana, after graduating from Butler University with a B.A. in sports media. Aside from football, Kawada is an avid combat sports and basketball bettor.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>New England Patriots fans have to be happy with what Drake Maye has given them so far. In his <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-jerod-mayo-reveals-why-new-england-starting-drake-maye-over-jacoby-brissett">first career start</a>, Maye did not lead the team to victory but gave the offense a new life with his inspiring inaugural performance.</p><p>During the team’s Week 6 home game against the Houston Texans, Maye accounted for all three of the team’s touchdowns. His three touchdown passes in the game <a href="https://x.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1845551805373055125" rel="noopener">surpassed Brissett’s total touchdown count</a> for the season in his five previous starts, per NFL reporter Ari Meirov.</p><p>In the losing effort, Maye threw for 243 yards, more than Brissett managed in any single game of the year to that point. Maye’s 20 completions on 33 attempts were also the most of a Patriots quarterback on the season.</p><p>Of Maye’s 243 passing yards, 92 of them went to leading receiver Demario Douglas. Douglas also accounted for one of Maye’s three touchdown passes with Kayshon Boutte and Hunter Henry bringing in the other two.</p><p>After guiding the team to an <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/why-patriots-arent-a-true-playoff-contender-after-crazy-upset-over-bengals">upset victory in Week 1</a> over the Cincinnati Bengals, Brissett lost his next four starts to give the team a 1-4 record. In all five of his starts, the Patriots struggled to move the ball offensively, prompting head coach Jerod Mayo to turn to Maye, the No. 3 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft.</p><h2>Patriots fall to 1-5 with loss to Texans</h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Drake-Maye.jpg"><figcaption>Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Even with Maye giving the Patriots hope on the offensive side of the ball, the team could not end their current losing streak against the Nico Collins-less Texans in Week 6. The New England defense was uncharacteristically out-matched by CJ Stroud, who threw for three touchdowns in the game.</p><p>In Collins’ absence, veteran Stefon Diggs stepped up as the de facto No. 1 target by reeling in six catches for 77 yards and a touchdown. Second-year wideout Tank Dell was right behind him with his best game of the year, posting seven catches for 57 yards and a score.</p><p>On just 13 carries, Joe Mixon torched the Patriots on the ground with 102 rushing yards and a touchdown. Mixon added a receiving touchdown to give him two total while his backup, Dameon Pierce, also found the end zone on a 54-yard dash.</p><p>Aside from their poor defensive showing, the Patriots were limited by a non-existent running game with Rhamondre Stevenson out due to a foot injury. Maye led the team with 38 rushing yards, all on scrambles. Backup running back Antonio Gibson had the most carries on the team with 13 but turned those opportunities into just 19 rushing yards.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Patriots’ Drake Maye beats Jacoby Brissett in first start

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-news-drake-maye-first-td-tom-brady-replacement');   ga('set', 'title', 'Drake Maye’s first TD has fans believing they finally have a Tom Brady replacement');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Drake-Mayes-first-TD-has-fans-believing-they-finally-have-a-Tom-Brady-replacement.jpg"></figure><h1>Drake Maye’s first TD has fans believing they finally have a Tom Brady replacement</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-13T12:05:22-07:00">October 13th, 12:05pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-13T12:05:22-07:00">October 13th, 12:05pm</time><address><a>Matt De Lima</a>Matt De Lima is an Associate Editor for NFL and college football at ClutchPoints. He has been covering sports for over 12 years at sites like Sports Illustrated, The Game Day, and countless others. Born and raised in California, he is a graduate of Virginia Tech and a diehard Hokies fan who now resides in southern Maryland.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>In a slow first half <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/texans-vs-patriots-prediction-odds-pick-for-nfl-week-6-2024">against the Houston Texans</a>, New England Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye aced a 40-yard <a href="https://twitter.com/ClutchPoints/status/1845532261170421775" rel="noopener">touchdown pass</a> to Kayshon Boutte with seconds to go before the second half. The touchdown made the score 14-7 going into halftime.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Drake Maye with a BEAUTIFUL throw for his first career TD 🔥<a href="https://t.co/QSebe80pl1">pic.twitter.com/QSebe80pl1</a></p><p>— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClutchPoints/status/1845532261170421775?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2024</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>Bill Speros of the Boston Herald was <a href="https://x.com/billsperos/status/1845531897285521635" rel="noopener">a little hyperbolic</a> in his praise for Maye.</p><p>“Drake Maye is the first @Patriots QB since Tom Brady who could have thrown that pass.”</p><p>Another fan came away impressed with how the Pats <a href="https://x.com/jeffphowe/status/1845531978998677541" rel="noopener">finished the first half</a>.</p><p>“Drake Maye capped his best drive with an absolutely perfect deep-ball TD. He looked much better in the hurry-up — gave him a chance to just play and put the nerves aside. Nice glimpse of his potential.”</p><p>And here’s another Tom Brady reference for <a href="https://x.com/ViewsFrom02108/status/1845531776254452092" rel="noopener">good measure</a>.</p><p>“OMG DRAKE MAYE IS TOM BRADY”</p><h2><b>Drake Maye settling in for Patriots  during first start vs. Texans</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Patriots-Drake-Maye-delivering-the-pass-vs.-the-Texans.jpg"><figcaption>© Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Early into the third quarter, Maye is 9-of-16 for 106 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He’s also added 15 yards on two carries,  sacked three times and lost a fumble. This type of performance shouldn’t come as a big shock. The Texans defense has been better than expected to start the season, ranking third in defensive DVOA.</p><p>Houston appears happy to sell out to stop the run, limiting RB Antonio Gibson to 13 yards on nine carries.</p><p>It didn’t take long for the Patriots to move away from Jacoby Brissett. But more than a month on the sideline <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-reveals-the-biggest-lesson-he-learned-from-jacoby-brissett">served Maye well</a>, according to what he learned, per a <a href="https://www.patriots.com/news/transcript-drake-maye-press-conference-10-9" rel="noopener">recent press conference</a>.</p><p>“Yeah, down the sideline, you get more of a view of the defensive structure, trying to see techniques up front from the defensive line, trying to see safeties, and trying to see back-end stuff,” Maye told reporters. “At the same time, you get the back view of what the quarterback’s thinking. I try to do that, or try to stand behind Jacoby. I think that was my mindset, trying to get a feel of playing back there behind him, what it would be like, and you don’t get a great view as you do in practice standing right behind him. I’m just trying to replicate that and play the game while I’m on the sideline.”</p><p>When asked, head coach Jerod Mayo said he believed the rookie gave them the best chance to win.</p><p>“Going forward, I think now, Drake gives us the best chance to win now and going forward,” Mayo said. “He’s been getting better every single week, as I’ve said before. At the end of training camp, he actually was trending at a very high rate. That has continued through the early part of the season.</p><p>“So, it was solely my decision to make this choice. I had a conversation one-on-one with Jacoby. I had a conversation with Drake. We’re all on board.”</p><p>With 8:20 left remaining in the third quarter, the Texans have a 21-7 lead over the Patriots in Week 6.</p><p> </p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Drake Maye’s first TD has fans believing they finally have a Tom Brady replacement

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-news-drake-maye-reveals-the-biggest-lesson-he-learned-from-jacoby-brissett');   ga('set', 'title', 'Patriots’ Drake Maye reveals the biggest lesson he learned from Jacoby Brissett');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Patriots-news-Drake-Maye-reveals-the-biggest-lesson-he-learned-from-Jacoby-Brissett.jpg"></figure><h1>Patriots’ Drake Maye reveals the biggest lesson he learned from Jacoby Brissett</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-12T16:03:14-07:00">October 12th, 4:03pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-12T16:03:14-07:00">October 12th, 4:03pm</time><address><a>Matty Breisch</a>Matty Breisch is a multifaceted writer who specializes in NFL and WWE content at ClutchPoints. He can be read at Heavy, FanSided, Philadelphia Sports Network, and right here at ClutchPoints. Are you ready to read about football and wrestling? Well, you've come to the right place.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>After spending the first five weeks of the 2024 NFL season riding the bench, throwing just eight passes in one lone relief opportunity, <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-make-1st-nfl-start-texans">Drake Maye is set to make his debut</a> for the New England Patriots in Week 6 against the Houston Texans.</p><p>Is Maye ready for the opportunity? Debatable, as he’ll still be playing in front of a bad offensive line with questionable offensive weapons, but that doesn’t mean the pride of North Carolina hasn’t been putting in work to get where he wants to be ahead of this debut. Talking to reporters during his weekly media session, Maye revealed everything he’s learned from Jacoby Brissett over the past few months and how he<a href="https://www.patriots.com/news/transcript-drake-maye-press-conference-10-9" rel="noopener"> plans to translate that to his own on-field play</a>.</p><p>While <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-jacoby-brissett-breaks-silence-on-being-benched-in-favor-of-drake-maye">Brissett didn’t have a ton of success for the Patriots</a> in 2024, he did provide some veteran leadership under center for a team making the most consequential coaching changes of the last 20 years. If his insight can help Maye to see the field better ahead of his NFL starting debut, it should play a massive role in the Patriots’ long-term future.</p><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Drake-Maye-on-the-field-for-the-Patriots.jpg"><figcaption>Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><h2><b>Jerod Mayo has seen improvements in Drake Maye at practice</b></h2><p>So what has head coach Jerod Mayo seen from Maye that he likes enough to give him the nod in Week 6? Well, in his own media session, Mayo noted that he’s really seen an improvement in how his young QB sees the offense over the past few weeks and now<a href="https://www.patriots.com/news/transcript-jerod-mayo-press-conference-10-9" rel="noopener"> feels comfortable in his play</a>.</p><p>Will Maye fare better than Brissett in Week 6? Debateable. Are the Patriots making a mistake playing him with a bottom-10 supporting cast? Debateable. But hey, if Mayo believes in his young QB, why shouldn’t fans? If nothing else, they will get a glimpse at the team’s future, even if the Pats are still a few years away from contention.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Patriots’ Drake Maye reveals the biggest lesson he learned from Jacoby Brissett

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-news-kendrick-bourne-planning-play-texans-clash');   ga('set', 'title', 'Patriots’ Kendrick Bourne planning to play in Texans clash');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Patriots-news-Kendrick-Bourne-planning-to-play-in-Texans-clash.jpg"></figure><h1>Patriots’ Kendrick Bourne planning to play in Texans clash</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-12T11:49:46-07:00">October 12th, 11:49am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-12T12:40:38-07:00">October 12th, 12:40pm</time><address><a>Jaren Kawada</a>Jaren Kawada is a former full-time sports bettor and is now a NFL, College Football and Betting Associate Editor at ClutchPoints. Kawada was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, but now resides in Indianapolis, Indiana, after graduating from Butler University with a B.A. in sports media. Aside from football, Kawada is an avid combat sports and basketball bettor.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The New England Patriots are aiming to have a full receiving corps at Drake Maye’s disposal for the rookie’s <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-jerod-mayo-reveals-why-new-england-starting-drake-maye-over-jacoby-brissett">first career NFL start</a> in Week 6.</p><p>As the team prepares for its upcoming home game against the Houston Texans on Oct. 13, they announced wide receiver Kendrick Bourne is <a href="https://x.com/Schultz_Report/status/1845171112092762579" rel="noopener">preparing to play in his second straight game</a>, per Jordan Schultz. The eight-year veteran made his season debut in Week 5 against the Miami Dolphins after missing the Patriots’ first four games of the year.</p><p>As one of the older receivers of the team, Bourne figures to be a reliable target for Maye against the stingy Texans defense. In his limited return, Bourne ran just 10 routes per PlayerProfiler and caught one pass for six yards in his season debut.</p><p>Assuming he plays, Bourne would likely return to the starting lineup alongside Demario Douglas and rookie Ja’Lynn Polk. Despite playing in just eight games in 2023, the 29-year-old was third on the team with 406 receiving yards and second with four receiving touchdowns.</p><h2>Patriots host Texans in Week 6</h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kendrick-Bourne.jpg"><figcaption>Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>In the first game of the new Drake Maye era, the Patriots will play the second game of their current three-game home stand against Houston. The Texans enter the contest with a 4-1 record and first-place standing in the AFC South, thus making them considerable favorites to beat the 1-4 Patriots.</p><p>Maye takes over under center after <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-jacoby-brissett-breaks-silence-on-being-benched-in-favor-of-drake-maye">five listless performances from Jacoby Brissett</a>, who has thrown for just 696 yards on the year. Brissett’s lackluster yard total is accompanied by a mere 59 percent completion rate and two touchdowns. In his five starts, New England never topped 20 points and lost four straight games despite formidable performances from their defense.</p><p>Conversely, the Texans are led by a high-powered offense that has scored over 20 points in three of their five games on the year. However, the team will play without the NFL’s leading receiver Nico Collins for the first time after the star wideout was placed on injured reserve. Collins scored on a 67-yard bomb from CJ Stroud against the Buffalo Bills in Week 5 before leaving the game with a hamstring injury.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Patriots’ Kendrick Bourne planning to play in Texans clash

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/nfl-news-rob-gronkowskis-mind-blowing-reveal-on-actor-portraying-him-in-fx-show');   ga('set', 'title', 'Rob Gronkowski’s mind-blowing reveal on actor portraying him in FX show');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Rob-Gronkowskis-mind-blowing-reveal-on-actor-portraying-him-in-FX-show.jpg"></figure><h1>Rob Gronkowski’s mind-blowing reveal on actor portraying him in FX show</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-10T15:29:07-07:00">October 10th, 3:29pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-11T03:31:34-07:00">October 11th, 3:31am</time><address><a>Zachary Weinberger</a>Zachary Weinberger joined ClutchPoints in October 2023 as a Miami Heat reporter as well as an Associate Editor. He graduated from Florida Atlantic University in 2022 after covering the school's athletic programs since his freshman year at the FAU University Press, where he was a Sports Editor and Editor-in-Chief. He then covered FAU Sports for The Palm Beach Post.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Entertainment</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Combining the NFL and entertainment worlds, the latest show that has garnered attention has been the <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/aaron-hernandez-series-reveals-first-look-at-controversial-patriots-figure">FX television series titled “Aaron Hernandez: American Sports Story”</a> which details the life of the former New England Patriots tight end. A character in the show is <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/rob-gronkowski-actor-in-aaron-hernandez-show-goes-viral">Rob Gronkowski which a clip has went viral</a> on social media as the actor plays the star “over the top” as even the legendary football player would say.</p><p>Gronkowski was on the show “Up &amp; Adams” with Kay Adams where he <a href="https://x.com/NFL_DovKleiman/status/1844073422848204908" rel="noopener">talked about the performance of Laith Wallschleger</a> who is a former NFL player in his own right. The recently retired tight end would say that the actor is actually a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzf3AIKzSRY&amp;t=792s" rel="noopener">“good friend”</a> of his which makes the moment all the more better.</p><p>“It was definitely over the top. Do you want to know a fun fact about that clip,” Gronkowski asked Adams. “That is my good friend Laith who is playing me there, I’ve known him for about 14 years. He definitely went over the top, and I feel like it fit the show perfectly though, especially with all the other characters, and Coach Belichick. Just seeing Robert Kraft in this show as well. I feel like it was definitely over the top, a little exaggerated that’s for sure but it played the part in how this show was produced.”</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚: FX did Rob Gronkowski so dirty in the new Aaron Hernandez show 😂<a href="https://t.co/9PezLwCCMl">pic.twitter.com/9PezLwCCMl</a></p><p>— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL_DovKleiman/status/1844073422848204908?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2024</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://instagram.com/embed.js"></script></p></figure><h2><b>Rob Gronkowski reveals he’s friends with the actor that portrays him </b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Rob-Gronkowski-on-Dec.-16-2023.jpg"><figcaption>Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Gronkowski is not the only character on the show as the controversial show even features actors that play obviously Hernandez, but also Tom Brady, <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/bill-belichick-actors-bon-jovi-jam-in-aaron-hernandez-show-is-comedy-genius">Patriots head coach Bill Belichick</a>, owner Robert Kraft, and more. Wallschleger as Gronkowski does make a lot of sense as while being good friends with each other, he has played him technically in other commercials as a “double” as the 35-year old revealed Thursday.</p><p>“This show just went and got one of your cronies from Buffalo or New England? Is he like a friend of yours?” Adams asks Gronkowski.</p><p>“Yes it’s actually a good friend of mine and he plays my doubles in all of my other commercials and everything else I do,” Gronkowski said. “He was my double in The Kick of Destiny as well, so I think you met him before. So he’s a good friend and it was hilarious and it was classic.”</p><p>The actor played with the Arizona Cardinals, but did not see a permanent spot with them on their roster as he came out of the University of Delaware where he played at defensive end and tight end. After football, he took his career to acting where he has been in multiple shows on major networks like ABC, CBS, The CW, HBO, and now FX for the show focusing on the life of Aaron Hernandez.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Rob Gronkowski’s mind-blowing reveal on actor portraying him in FX show

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-jacoby-brissett-breaks-silence-on-being-benched-in-favor-of-drake-maye');   ga('set', 'title', 'Patriots’ Jacoby Brissett breaks silence on being benched in favor of Drake Maye');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Patriots-news-Jacoby-Brissett-breaks-silence-on-being-benched-in-favor-of-Drake-Maye.jpg"></figure><h1>Patriots’ Jacoby Brissett breaks silence on being benched in favor of Drake Maye</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-10T09:22:54-07:00">October 10th, 9:22am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-10T09:47:36-07:00">October 10th, 9:47am</time><address><a>Ryan Bologna</a>Ryan Bologna is an author at ClutchPoints. He studied journalism and communication at UConn.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>New England Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett spoke to the media for the first time since being benched for rookie quarterback Drake Maye, and he <a href="https://x.com/DougKyed/status/1844406532726981140" rel="noopener">did not hold back</a> on how the decision is impacting him.</p><p>“I don’t think words can really describe how tough it is,” Jacoby Brissett said, via Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald.</p><p>Although it was a given <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-silence-replacing-jacoby-brissett-as-new-englands-starting-qb">that the Patriots</a> would hand the starting job to Drake Maye at some point, it is clear that Brissett is upset about losing the job this soon. Many thought that New England would at least wait until later in the season to make the move to Maye. Instead, the rookie will get the start against the Houston Texans, who boast arguably the best pass rush in the NFL this season. Brissett <a href="https://x.com/ByMarkDaniels/status/1844407336854749441" rel="noopener">described his interaction</a> with Maye after the decision.</p><p>“Drake asked how I’m doing. I’m like, ‘Man, if you’re worried about me, you’re worried about the wrong thing,'” Brissett said, via Mark Daniels of MassLive.</p><p>Despite the obvious disappointment, Brissett <a href="https://x.com/ByMarkDaniels/status/1844406671092875339" rel="noopener">made it clear</a> that he will support Maye as he takes over the starting job <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-jerod-mayo-reveals-why-new-england-starting-drake-maye-over-jacoby-brissett">for the Patriots</a>.</p><p>“I’m here to support Drake,” Brissett said, via Daniels.</p><p>When Brissett returned to the Patriots this offseason, it was known that Brissett would likely be starting games while a rookie was sitting behind him. Still, he is a competitor and wanted to keep the starting job for as long as possible.</p><h2><b>Drake Maye in for big test as Patriots face Texans</b></h2><p>As mentioned before, this is not an easy landing spot for Maye in his first start in the NFL. The Texans pass rush is ferocious, and given the Patriots’ offensive line, which has been the worst in the NFL by many metrics, Maye will likely have to get the ball out quick.</p><p>For the Patriots to have a chance in this game, Maye will have to make quick decisions to possibly control the time of possession. That would limit the Texans’ time with the ball and chances to score. CJ Stroud getting a lot of chances with the ball is not a good recipe. Avoiding falling behind early in the game will be an important aspect of this game for the Patriots.</p><p>Regardless, this is a huge game for the organization. They think Maye is the quarterback of the future, and it will be a huge test for him to go up against a Super Bowl hopeful.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Patriots’ Jacoby Brissett breaks silence on being benched in favor of Drake Maye

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-news-jerod-mayo-reveals-why-new-england-starting-drake-maye-over-jacoby-brissett');   ga('set', 'title', 'Jerod Mayo reveals why Patriots are now starting Drake Maye over Jacoby Brissett');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/3ecf325a-8661-11ef-94fa-127f490d6a29.avif"></figure><h1>Jerod Mayo reveals why Patriots are now starting Drake Maye over Jacoby Brissett</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-09T12:30:07-07:00">October 9th, 12:30pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-09T12:31:12-07:00">October 9th, 12:31pm</time><address><a>Conor Roche</a>Conor Roche is a sports journalist that has covered Boston sports for a few years and has worked on the Patriots beat since the 2022 season.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The Drake Maye era <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-make-1st-nfl-start-texans">has officially arrived in Foxborough</a>, with Jerod Mayo confirming that the rookie <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/beantown-rundown-patriots-wrong-decision-start-drake-maye-jacoby-brissett">will replace</a> Jacoby Brissett as the team’s starting quarterback.</p><p>Mayo gave some standard coachspeak when <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCSPatriots/status/1844043360048214474" rel="noopener">he explained the decision</a> to reporters on Wednesday, saying the team made the move that gave them the best opportunity to win games.</p><p>“Going forward, I think now, Drake gives us the best chance to win now and going forward,” Mayo said. “He’s been getting better every single week, as I’ve said before. At the end of training camp, he actually was trending at a very high rate. That has continued through the early part of the season.</p><p>“So, it was solely my decision to make this choice. I had a conversation one-on-one with Jacoby. I had a conversation with Drake. We’re all on board.”</p><p>The Patriots opened the season with Brissett at quarterback after having an open competition for the starting spot during training camp and the preseason. Brissett led the Patriots to a surprise win in the season opener, but things slowly unraveled from there. New England has gone on a four-game losing streak since the Week 1 win.</p><p>Brissett has played a large role in the Patriots’ shortcomings through their 1-4 start. He’s 27th in passing yards (696) and has thrown for just two touchdowns in five games. As a result, New England ranks 31st in total offense (250.8 yards per game) and scoring (12.4 points per game).</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Jerod Mayo addresses decision to start Drake Maye over Jacoby Brissett 🗣️ <a href="https://t.co/E3YgYRvVmN">pic.twitter.com/E3YgYRvVmN</a></p><p>— Patriots Coverage on NBCS Boston (@NBCSPatriots) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCSPatriots/status/1844043360048214474?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2024</a></p></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></figure><p>Of course, Brissett isn’t solely to blame for the Patriots’ offensive woes. He’s <a href="https://www.nfl.com/news/patriots-plan-to-start-no-3-overall-pick-drake-maye-over-jacoby-brissett-vs-texans" rel="noopener">been pressured</a> a league-high 50 percent of the time on his dropbacks, per Next Gen Stats. He’s also been sacked 17 times through five games, with 13 of them coming in the last three games.</p><p>Mayo saluted Brissett for hanging in there during a rough period, adding that the veteran quarterback took the team’s decision to bench him well.</p><p>“He was a warrior,” Mayo said of Brissett. “As you guys know, he’s taken a lot of hits and just kept getting up. I would also say, for a guy like that to be voted as a captain in this situation and continue to be very supportive of Drake Maye, I tip my hat to Jacoby for having that egoless mentality.”</p><h2><b>What Jerod Mayo said of Drake Maye’s progression to make him Patriots’ starting QB</b></h2><p>Even though Brissett has been starting at quarterback, Maye had been receiving 30 percent of the reps at practice, an unusually high amount for a backup quarterback. Those reps allowed the Patriots to see the rookie’s progression.</p><p>Obviously, the Patriots liked Maye enough ahead of the draft to select him with the No. 3 overall pick. But Mayo shared the team was surprisingly impressed with Maye in one area ahead of the draft, with the rookie showing progression in that certain aspect.</p><p>“Drake’s a smart guy, and we saw that throughout the draft process,” Mayo said. “As far as understanding the offense, the language and just his overall football IQ, I think that continues to improve. I was actually pleasantly surprised. Even when he got here, it was never a question, ‘Was he smart?’ But I was pleasantly surprised, just his work ethic, out of this world, and studying the playbook and trying to get those reps.</p><p>“He continues to get better each and every day.”</p><p>Maye has gotten the chance to show his ability at the NFL level on a few occasions. He completed 21 of 34 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown to go with 32 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown over three preseason games. He also made his NFL debut against the New York Jets in Week 3, completing 4 of 8 passes for 22 yards and rushing for 12 more in a garbage time drive.</p><p>Now, it’s go time for Maye, and Mayo expects everyone on the team to be behind the rookie quarterback.</p><p>“We had a conversation with Jacoby and Drake the night prior [Monday night],” Mayo said. “But I told the team this morning that in the same way that the full weight of the organization was behind Jacoby at the time, I expect the same thing, the full weight of the organization to be behind Drake no matter what.”</p><p>The Patriots will hope that Maye will break their losing streak when they host the Houston Texans on Sunday.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Jerod Mayo reveals why Patriots are now starting Drake Maye over Jacoby Brissett

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-news-drake-maye-silence-replacing-jacoby-brissett-as-new-englands-starting-qb');   ga('set', 'title', 'Drake Maye breaks silence on replacing Jacoby Brissett as Patriots’ starting QB');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Drake-Maye-silence-on-replacing-Jacoby-Brissett-as-New-Englands-starting-QB.jpg"></figure><h1>Drake Maye breaks silence on replacing Jacoby Brissett as Patriots’ starting QB</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-09T11:14:13-07:00">October 9th, 11:14am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-09T11:45:46-07:00">October 9th, 11:45am</time><address><a>Jackson Stone</a>Jackson Stone is a Mercer University senior from Atlanta on track to graduate with a BA in communications. A lifelong sports lover, Jackson is a die-hard fan of all Atlanta teams. He joined ClutchPoints in 2023.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Following last week’s <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-most-to-blame-week-5-loss-dolphins">New England Patriots loss to the Miami Dolphins</a>, head coach Jerod Mayo made the decision to bench Jacoby Brissett for this week’s upcoming game vs the Houston Texans <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-make-1st-nfl-start-texans">in favor of rookie Drake Maye.</a> While it may have taken longer than some would have hoped, Patriots fans will now have a chance to see their team’s number three overall draft pick in action as a starter for the first time in his career.</p><p>Now, Maye himself is revealing his <a href="https://www.nfl.com/news/patriots-rookie-drake-maye-on-first-career-start-biggest-thing-is-me-playing-on-time" rel="noopener">one hundred percent honest reaction</a> to his coach’s decision as he begins as the Patriots QB1, per Kevin Patra of NFL.com.</p><p>“I think it’s a great opportunity,” Maye said. “Something you dream of, getting your first start in the NFL. So excited to get out there with the guys, take advantage of having the full week to get prepared and try to put my best foot forward and help the team win.”</p><p>Maye also spoke on what it will take for him to be able to find his footing as a starting quarterback at the NFL level with the Patriots.</p><p>“I think the biggest thing is me playing on time,” Maye said. “Playing in rhythm and trusting the guys around me. The game plan is not going to change. … What we do on offense is what we do on offense. I’m not trying to give too much hints toward the game plan.”</p><p>Drake Maye played his college football at North Carolina for three years before entering this past NFL Draft, becoming the third player selected off of the board behind Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels, both of whom have had strong starts to their own respective rookie NFL seasons.</p><p>While he is relatively mobile, it was Maye’s arm strength and accuracy that led him to become a consensus top-five draft prospect throughout last season, and the hope now will be that the Patriots offensive line is able to hold up enough to give the youngster some time to put that talent on display.</p><p>The Patriots and Texans are slated to kick off at 1:00 PM ET on Sunday.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Drake Maye breaks silence on replacing Jacoby Brissett as Patriots’ starting QB

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-news-nfl-jabrill-peppers-move-legal-troubles');   ga('set', 'title', 'NFL makes Jabrill Peppers move after legal troubles');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/NFL-makes-Jabrill-Peppers-move-after-legal-troubles.jpg"></figure><h1>NFL makes Jabrill Peppers move after legal troubles</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-09T08:52:05-07:00">October 9th, 8:52am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-09T08:52:05-07:00">October 9th, 8:52am</time><address><a>Owen Crisafulli</a>Owen Crisafulli is a Senior Editor and NFL Lead at ClutchPoints. He recently received his Masters in Business Administration from Nichols College. Previously, he obtained his Bachelor's degree in Sport Management and for a while ran his own sports website. Sports are his passion, and he thoroughly enjoys writing about thoughts and opinions that are related to the game. He has been a lifelong fan of the major professional teams in Boston and loves discussing all topics surrounding those teams.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Not much has gone right for the New England Patriots this season, and that continued when it was revealed on Monday morning that veteran safety Jabril Peppers had been <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-jabrill-peppers-arrested-assault-prior-to-week-5-loss-dolphins">arrested on Saturday</a> ahead of their Week 5 contest against the Miami Dolphins. Peppers ultimately did not end up playing in the contest, as he was ruled out for the game on Saturday due to a <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-injury-woes-continue-with-jabril-peppers-update">shoulder injury</a>.</p><p>Peppers appeared in court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to the charges he was facing, which include strangulation and drug possession. The Patriots didn’t appear intent on making any rash decisions in regards to Peppers status with the team until more information came out, but the NFL stepped in and <a href="https://x.com/RapSheet/status/1844030752348164514" rel="noopener">placed him on the Commissioner Exempt List</a> on Wednesday morning.</p><p>Via Ian Rapoport:</p><p>“The NFL has placed Patriots S Jabrill Peppers on the Commissioner Exempt List. Peppers may not practice or attend games while on the list.”</p><h2><b>Patriots dealt another blow with Jabril Peppers update</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Jabril-Peppers-of-the-Patriots.jpg"><figcaption>Mandatory Credit: Matt Stone-USA TODAY NETWORK</figcaption></figure><p>New England was anticipating Peppers being a key part of their defense, as he formed a strong safety tandem alongside Kyle Dugger at the back of their secondary. Instead, he can’t be with the team for the time being, and there’s a chance they could end up releasing him if the ensuing information that comes out on this situation deems it necessary.</p><p>Peppers was a defensive captain for the Pats this season, and through four games, he had racked up 23 tackles, two passes defended, and an interception for the team. During his absence, New England is going to lean heavily on Dugger, with Marte Mapu appearing likely to fill in Peppers’ free safety role for the time being.</p><p>As always, it will be worth keeping an eye on this situation, as there will surely be more information that gets made public over the coming days. For now, though, Peppers won’t be with the Patriots, and it ultimately wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he has played his final down with the team, regardless of what the outcome of this case ends up being.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

NFL makes Jabrill Peppers move after legal troubles

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/beantown-rundown-patriots-wrong-decision-start-drake-maye-jacoby-brissett');   ga('set', 'title', 'Beantown Rundown: Patriots making wrong decision to start Drake Maye over Jacoby Brissett');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Patriots-decision-to-start-Drake-Maye-in-Week-6-is-the-wrong-move.jpg"></figure><h1>Beantown Rundown: Patriots making wrong decision to start Drake Maye over Jacoby Brissett</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-09T06:04:43-07:00">October 9th, 6:04am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-09T06:04:43-07:00">October 9th, 6:04am</time><address><a>Owen Crisafulli</a>Owen Crisafulli is a Senior Editor and NFL Lead at ClutchPoints. He recently received his Masters in Business Administration from Nichols College. Previously, he obtained his Bachelor's degree in Sport Management and for a while ran his own sports website. Sports are his passion, and he thoroughly enjoys writing about thoughts and opinions that are related to the game. He has been a lifelong fan of the major professional teams in Boston and loves discussing all topics surrounding those teams.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Editorials</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The New England Patriots are officially laboring through the 2024 campaign, as they have <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-bill-simmons-blasts-new-englands-awful-coaching-after-week-5-loss">lost four straight games</a> after opening their season with a shocking 16-10 upset victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. That win feels like it took place years ago, as the Pats offense has been stuck in the mud all season long, with their defense and special teams units being unable to do enough to make up for their woes.</p><p>As a result of their struggles, <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/10/09/sports/patriots-thoughts-alex-van-pelt/" rel="noopener">the Pats offense</a>, led by veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett, has been under fire all season long. Brissett’s numbers are lackluster (79/135, 696 YDS, 2 TD, 1 INT), but he’s largely done what’s been asked of him. He hasn’t turned the football over much, and he’s taking a beating under center behind a lackluster offensive line.</p><p>Despite the lack of talent on offense, calls for the team to insert rookie quarterback Drake Maye under center have only grown louder with each passing week, and the team finally relented by <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-make-1st-nfl-start-texans">announcing that he will get the start</a> in their Week 6 contest against the Houston Texans. There’s no doubt the offense needs a shake up, but inserting Maye into the lineup is not the right move, and this could prove to be a costly mistake for the Pats.</p><h2><b>Why Patriots are making a mistake by starting Drake Maye</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Drake-Maye-of-the-Patriots.jpg"><figcaption>Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>After failing miserably to develop Mac Jones as their quarterback of the future, the Patriots punted on him this offseason by trading him to the Jacksonville Jaguars. They quickly replaced Jones by signing the veteran Brissett in free agency, and selecting Maye with the third overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft. After they quickly thrust Jones into action, only to watch him crash and burn, the Pats new regime opted to take a slower approach with Maye, letting him sit behind Brissett to open the season.</p><p>While not incredibly exciting, the move made a lot of sense. Maye’s potential is sky-high, but he’s still young and raw in a lot of ways, and after they completely messed up Jones’ development, taking a more cautious path forward with the former UNC gunslinger made sense. Beyond that, New England’s offense is completely lacking in the talent department, so even if Maye were to play, he’d be at risk of struggling early and losing confidence.</p><p>Brissett has not been good through five games, there’s no doubt about that. But he’s taking an absolute beating behind a makeshift offensive line, and has arguably the least talented crop of playmakers in the entire league around him. New England doesn’t have a pass catcher who has amassed more than 200 receiving yards through five games, and their top playmaker in running back Rhamondre Stevenson was benched in favor of Antonio Gibson in Week 5 after he fumbled in each of the first four games of the season.</p><p>And yet, the team has decided now is the time to thrust Maye into the lineup. There’s no doubt this will make games more interesting to watch, but that’s not really the point of this season. The Patriots are rebuilding; they are supposed to be awful. Letting Maye develop behind the scenes by not throwing him into harm’s way until they absolutely had to was the best path forward for this team.</p><p>But the calls for Maye to start permeated the inner fortress at Gillette Stadium, and it has led to this hair-brained decision. Maye will be thrown into the lions den now, and his development is at serious risk as a result. Sure, he could go in and light it up, but what has this offense done through five weeks to indicate that is even remotely possible? Their struggles don’t fall solely on Brissett’s shoulders.</p><p>Maye’s first start will come up against a Texans defense that just shut down the Buffalo Bills offense in Week 5. Josh Allen, who is one of the best quarterbacks in the league right now, completed just nine of his 30 pass attempts, which is the lowest completion percentage of any quarterback who has attempted at least 30 passes in a single game over the past 30 years. That doesn’t exactly bode well for Maye behind this porous offensive line, and without a top target to throw to when he drops back.</p><p>The safe route is boring, yes, but there’s a reason why the team turned to Brissett to start the season. The Patriots aren’t going to win no matter who they play at quarterback this season; not even Tom Brady could find a way to win with this dumpster fire of a unit. Again, Maye will make things more exciting, but that is no reason to potentially sacrifice his development for.</p><p>Who knows, maybe he goes out there and lights it up like fellow rookie quarterbacks in Jayden Daniels or Caleb Williams, but a quick look at their respective supporting casts shows you just how desolate the Patriots unit is. It’s not a stretch to suggest this could be a franchise altering mistake, and while New England will be more fun to watch the rest of the way out, it could come at the cost of actually being able to turn Maye into their franchise quarterback in future seasons.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Beantown Rundown: Patriots making wrong decision to start Drake Maye over Jacoby Brissett

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/drake-maye-bold-predictions-1st-nfl-start-texans');   ga('set', 'title', 'Drake Maye bold predictions for 1st NFL start vs. Texans');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/ASAP-Drake-Maye-bold-predictions-for-1st-NFL-start-vs.jpg"></figure><h1>Drake Maye bold predictions for 1st NFL start vs. Texans</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-09T01:57:02-07:00">October 9th, 1:57am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-09T01:59:58-07:00">October 9th, 1:59am</time><address><a>Joshua Valdez</a>Joshua Valdez started his journalism career as the Sports Editor for the Rutgers University newspaper before becoming an associate editor and Washington Wizards/Mystics reporter for ClutchPoints. He is a diehard Yankees, Jets, Knicks, Rutgers, and Tottenham Hotspur fan. When Joshua is not either watching a game or writing about one, you can find him in an art-house movie theater or working on a screenplay.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">Editorials</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>With a New England Patriots Week 6 game scheduled against the Houston Texans, all eyes will be on rookie quarterback <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-dan-orlovskys-hope-new-england-drake-maye-start">Drake Maye making his first NFL start</a>. Ahead of the <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-make-1st-nfl-start-texans">Patriots-Texans game</a>, we’ll be making our Drake Maye Week 6 predictions.</p><p>The Patriots hit the reset button this past offseason after legendary head coach/general manager Bill Belichick’s retirement. Executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf is now the de-facto general manager, and former inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo was promoted to the head coach role. The pair’s legacy will be heavily tied to rookie quarterback Drake Maye, who they drafted third overall out of North Carolina this past spring.</p><p>After backing up Sam Howell as a redshirt freshman in 2021, Maye passed his way onto the NFL radar in ’22, tossing 4,321 yards with 38 touchdowns (both school records) and seven picks on a 66.2 completion percentage. He also added 698 yards and seven scores on the ground, leading the Tar Heels to ACC Championship Game and Holiday Bowl appearances. His breakout campaign earned him ACC Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and first-team All-ACC honors.</p><p>Maye slightly regressed the following year, but still made second-team All-ACC and was high on draft boards. The 6-foot-4, 225-pounder was <a href="https://www.nfl.com/prospects/drake-maye/32004d41-5928-9639-2999-10019fb4c292?affiliateCustomId=3Cem0CyJJBthSjz7bmepgxkvmGTBzAiclz0PbxaekU7qAj&amp;affiliateId=96525&amp;clickId=4873335944&amp;icampaign=npl-ros-adv" rel="noopener">considered an exciting gunslinger</a> that needed to improve his decision-making, via NFL Network’s Lance Zierlein.</p><p>“Challenging evaluation with top-flight measurables and tools but inconsistencies that create a lower floor. Maye’s size and arm talent jump off the tape immediately,” Zierlein said. “He can make every throw, but he will try to make throws that he shouldn’t have attempted. The gunslinger mentality creates a fearlessness that can turn into interceptions, but it will also allow him to win in tight windows and make splash throws that get crowds (and evaluators) on their feet.”</p><p>“The combination of traits and tape make him a boom/bust prospect who might need patient management and coaching to help shepherd him toward his potential.”</p><p>Just five weeks into the season, the Patriots now consider him ready to play in the NFL at just 22 years old. Will this decision blow up in their face? Let’s discuss it in our Drake Maye Week 6 predictions.</p><p><i><b>*Watch NFL games LIVE with fuboTV (<a href="https://www.fubo.tv/stream/football/?irad=356362&amp;irmp=492408" rel="noopener">free trial</a>)* </b></i></p><h2><b>Drake Maye will complete a 50-yard pass against Texans</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Drake-Maye-playing-against-the-Jets.jpg"><figcaption>Brad Penner-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>Maye is still raw, but New England didn’t draft him to be a game manager. That was Jacoby Brissett’s role, who completed 58.5% of his passes for 696 yards with two touchdowns and one pick across the first five games. While the veteran kept the ball out of harm’s way, he didn’t create many big plays, which is partially why the Patriots rank 31st with 12.4 points per game.</p><p>Expect Maye to take more shots down the field, which will lead to more turnovers, but also more chunk plays. The North Carolina native doesn’t have much talent to work with, but establishing the run with Rhamondre Stevenson should help open up looks in the passing game. A deep completion to the speedy DeMario Douglas or Ja’Lynn Polk is more feasible with the rookie under center.</p><h2><b>Drake Maye will throw two interceptions </b></h2><p>At some point, New England will probably be down against the superior Texans, which will lead Maye to press and force throws into tight coverage, especially towards the end of the game. Offenses are easier to defend against when the defense is expecting the pass, as it becomes a one-dimensional attack. A rookie making his first start isn’t ready to constantly be on the back foot.</p><h2><b>Drake Maye will lead two Patriots touchdown drives</b></h2><p>With that being said, Maye’s arm talent and energy will bring New England’s offense new life, leading to one passing and rushing touchdown. The Patriots only scored two touchdowns in a game once this season, which came in the 23-20 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 2. This would be an impressive showing for the rookie in his first start, as Houston ranks third in the NFL with just 5.9 pass yards allowed per attempt.</p><h2><b>Texans will beat Patriots</b></h2><p>Maye’s performance will be a mixed bag, leading to a two-possession loss to Houston. His final stat line will be in the neighborhood of a 55 completion percentage with 200 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, and 20 rushing yards while leading the team to 17 points scored. This is far from perfect, but it’s a promising showing for an unseasoned rookie against a good pass defense.</p><p>Maye’s legacy won’t be defined by this game, but it’ll go down in Patriots history as the beginning of a fruitful era in which it finally found Tom Brady’s long-term successor.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Drake Maye bold predictions for 1st NFL start vs. Texans

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <script>   (function(i, s, o, g, r, a, m) {     i["GoogleAnalyticsObject"] = r;     i[r] = i[r] || function() {       (i[r].q = i[r].q || []).push(arguments)     }, i[r].l = 1 * new Date();     a = s.createElement(o),       m = s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];     a.async = 1;     a.src = g;     m.parentNode.insertBefore(a, m)   })(window, document, "script", "https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js", "ga");   ga('create', 'UA-66147751-16', {     'storage': 'none',     'clientId': localStorage.getItem('ga:clientId')   });   ga(function(tracker) {     localStorage.setItem('ga:clientId', tracker.get('clientId'));   });   ga('set', 'checkProtocolTask', null);      ga('set', 'page', '/patriots-news-dan-orlovskys-hope-new-england-drake-maye-start');   ga('set', 'title', 'Dan Orlovsky’s ‘hope’ for Patriots ahead of Drake Maye’s first start');   ga('send', 'pageview');</script>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    background: transparent;    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #DDDDDD;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 30px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 21px;    line-height: 125%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 15px 15px 15px 15px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;    text-decoration: underline;}ul {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}ol {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 17px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.23px;}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8);    font-family: "SFUIText-Medium";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 19px;    line-height: 135%;    letter-spacing: -0.41px;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 13px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article id="mvp-content-main"><header><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Dan-Orlovskys-hope-for-New-England-ahead-of-Drake-Mayes-first-start.jpg"></figure><h1>Dan Orlovsky’s ‘hope’ for Patriots ahead of Drake Maye’s first start</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2024-10-08T15:56:21-07:00">October 8th, 3:56pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2024-10-08T15:56:21-07:00">October 8th, 3:56pm</time><address><a>Troy Finnegan</a>Troy Finnegan is an Associate Editor at ClutchPoints. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2023 with a degree in journalism and minors in communications and sports media, as well as a critical sports studies certificate. He has had a passion for sports his entire life, and enjoys covering and writing about all sports.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NFL</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The New England Patriots are finally handing the keys over to their rookie quarterback, as the team announced on Tuesday that No. 3 overall pick <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-drake-maye-make-1st-nfl-start-texans">Drake Maye will make his first career start on Sunday</a> against the Houston Texans. The move comes on the heels of the <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-most-to-blame-week-5-loss-dolphins">Patriots’ fourth consecutive loss</a>, this time against the Tua Tagovailoa-less Miami Dolphins, and Jerod Mayo and New England have concluded that it’s time for Jacoby Brissett to head to the bench.</p><p>Many fans and pundits voiced concerns coming into the season about the situation that Maye was walking into, and the lack of offensive line talent was the top talking point. Those concerns haven’t been eased in the first five weeks, as the Patriots have the third-worst PFF <a href="https://premium.pff.com/nfl/teams/2024/REGPO" rel="noopener">pass blocking grade</a> as a team. Jacoby Brissett has been pressured on 74 of his 160 dropbacks, and Maye was pressured five times in 12 dropbacks during his relief appearance against the Jets.</p><p>Former NFL quarterback and ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky <a href="https://x.com/danorlovsky7/status/1843737808353231054" rel="noopener">voiced his concerns</a> about what Maye is walking into after the move was announced.</p><p>“Hope they get a new OL as well,” Orlovsky wrote on X, formerly Twitter.</p><p>The Patriots will have an uphill battle in front of them against the Texans no matter who is at quarterback. DeMeco Ryans has the Houston defense playing very well, and the Patriots aren’t equipped to attack them effectively.</p><h2><b>Why now is the wrong time to start Drake Maye</b></h2><figure><img src="https://wp.clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Drake-Maye-sacked.jpg"><figcaption>Brad Penner-Imagn Images</figcaption></figure><p>The Patriots are making a big mistake with the timing of the <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/patriots-news-jacoby-brissett-honest-review-offense-amid-1-4-start">move to bench Jacoby Brissett</a> in favor of Drake Maye. The question you have to ask yourself right now is this: what has changed in New England? The reluctancy to start Maye from the outset of his rookie season was there because of the poor Patriots offensive line and lack of pass catching talent.</p><p>Through five weeks, the Patriots offensive line has played poorly and their pass catchers have struggled to separate. Surprise! The same bad situation that many people didn’t want to put Maye into at the beginning of the season has done nothing except be confirmed as a bad situation, and now it’s somehow the time to throw Maye into the fire?</p><p>Ideally, Maye could sit out this season, maybe get some game reps here and there, and then take the starting job next season when the Patriots add a little bit more talent. However, if they insist on Maye starting this season, there is one obvious place to do so.</p><p>New England has a Week 14 bye, which makes it late enough in the season where Maye can get adequate mental reps before then and then can have two weeks to prepare for a game. New England could come back from the bye and give Maye four low-leverage starts to end the season, assuming they’re out of playoff contention by then. Their first game back from the bye is against the Arizona Cardinals, who have one of the worst defenses in football.</p><p>Starting Maye after the bye would give him the best chance of success this season, but it’s going to be tough sledding for 12 games with this supporting cast.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

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