Patriots

“It discourages the coaches from going to deep levels, because they realize the players don’t have the opportunity to go to a deep level.”

The Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders have already announced plans to start their rookie quarterbacks — Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels — for Week 1 of the upcoming 2024 NFL season. 

It’s far from a surprising development for the first and second overall picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, with both Williams and Daniels showcasing plenty of promise so far during preseason play. 

Drake Maye — the third pick in the 2024 NFL Draft — has not been guaranteed that same lofty perch atop the Patriots’ depth chart quite yet, even with his impressive returns during Thursday’s preseason game against the Eagles.

While some Patriots fans might clamor for Maye to get the starting nod in Week 1, Jerod Mayo and his staff have largely preached a slow and steady strategy with their rookie QB, giving themselves options this offseason by signing veteran Jacoby Brissett as a viable bridge starter if they feel Maye isn’t ready out of the gate.

Such a cautious approach with Maye’s development may not be exciting, but count Tom Brady among those who feel that rookie QBs are getting rushed into game action too soon — often at the detriment of both their individual game and the NFL as a whole. 

“I think it’s just a tragedy that we’re forcing these rookies to play early, but the reality is the only reason why we are is because we’ve dumbed the game down, which has allowed them to play,” the Patriots legend said during a discussion with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith at Fanatics Fest in New York City. 

“It used to be thought of at a higher level. We used to spend hours and hours in the offseason, in training camp, trying to be a little bit better the next year. But I think what happens is it discourages the coaches from going to deep levels, because they realize the players don’t have the opportunity to go to a deep level. So they’re just going to teach them where they’re at.”

Brady, of course, was not handed starting reps right out of the gate in New England as a sixth-round pick in the 2000 NFL Draft.

With Drew Bledsoe entrenched as the Patriots’ starter, it wasn’t until Brady’s second season — and a severe injury suffered by Bledsoe in Week 2 against the Jets — that Brady stepped in as a starter.

The rest, as they say, is history. 

And while Brady’s path to NFL stardom is certainly an outlier when weighed against other top quarterbacks over the years, he feels as though more QBs would benefit with additional development time before jumping into game action at the pro level.

“Five years (at Michigan), I got to learn how to drop back pass, to read defenses, to read coverages, to be coached,” Brady said. “To deal with winning games, to deal with playing in Columbus, Ohio, in front of 110,000 people.

“I had to learn from being seventh QB on the depth chart to moving up to third to ultimately being a starter. I had to learn all those things in college, that was development.”

Brady also believes that wasted QB development is not just a result of NFL teams pushing top talents into games early. Rather, he feels as though the relaxed transfer rules at the college level makes it easier for players to leave programs when facing adversity. 

“Now I look at what could be a little dangerous is now there are players transferring from schools when they’re not playing and they’re going to different programs and they’re going to different techniques they’re learning. They’re never advancing in an individual system,” Brady said. “There used to be college programs. Now, there are college teams,” he added. “You’re no longer learning a program, you’re learning a playbook.”