Why the Patriots should rest Drake Maye even though it sounds like they won't

FOXBORO, Mass. — The New England Patriots are in a conflicted place as the season finale nears on Sunday. Or at least they should be.

A loss against the Buffalo Bills would secure the No. 1 pick for the Patriots for the first time since they landed Drew Bledsoe with the top selection in 1993, a massive boost for a team badly in need of difference-making talent. But they’re also led by a head coach, Jerod Mayo, who is badly in need of a win with his seat warming amid a disastrous season that leaves the Patriots 3-13 entering the last game.

Oh, and to make matters more complicated, the Bills aren’t going to keep their starters in the game very long because they have ambitions far greater than this Week 18 trip to Foxboro. That’s got to be a bummer for a Mayo. Now it cheapens the win if the Patriots do pull off a victory, but could up the pressure if he loses to a bunch of Buffalo backups.

And that’s part of why this shouldn’t be that difficult of a decision for the Patriots. Don’t play Drake Maye. Rest Christian Gonzalez, who is in the concussion protocol. Ensure the two pillars of this rebuild are ready to go for 2025.

This game is pretty meaningless. With a terrible offensive line, it’s not worth jeopardizing Maye’s health. See what Joe Milton III has. That would probably increase your chances at landing the No. 1 pick while making sure Maye and Gonzalez are ready for an important offseason.

Instead, Mayo seems like he’s ready to stick with Maye — even though it’s fair to add skepticism to his public comments given last week he said Rhamondre Stevenson wouldn’t start to send him a message … only to start Stevenson.

“If he’s healthy and ready to go as we go through this week of practice, then he’ll play,” Mayo said, adding in the same news conference that “Drake’s healthy.” (Maye was limited at Wednesday’s practice with an injury to his throwing hand.)

Drake Maye was a limited participant at practice today due to an injury on his throwing hand. pic.twitter.com/QU6BQXoiIQ

— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) January 1, 2025

In a season that’s already offered plenty of reasons to second-guess Mayo, every hit Maye would take Sunday would open further reasons to be skeptical of the head coach. Still, it’s easy to understand why Mayo would badly want to win.

His job security, which once seemed pretty safe, is now in question after the Pats were blown out in two of the last three games while failing to properly answer for oddities around the team like why Stevenson started last Sunday and why Jacoby Brissett suddenly didn’t have a captain’s badge on his jersey (which Mayo has talked about being so important to his team).

Maybe it’s reasonable to assume, then, that Mayo would only sit Maye if he was pretty sure he was coming back next season and it didn’t matter whether the Patriots lost Sunday.

“I’ve never been a part of a team, as a player or a coach, where we haven’t gone out there and tried to win the game,” Mayo said when asked whether Eliot Wolf or ownership had input in who plays against the Bills. “So those conversations haven’t happened.”

There are certainly fair reasons to argue for Maye playing. He’s still young and developing. Each rep is important. If he gets a little dinged up on Sunday, he’s got the whole offseason to heal. And what message would it send to other players if they rest Maye but not other starters? All fair arguments.

But at the same time, how many of these players are going to be back next season? Would the decision made Sunday have any impact on the culture with a completely different roster? And that’s if the same head coach returns, which doesn’t seem like a given.

“I think I’m going to be the starter, so I’m looking forward to being out there,” Maye said. “I’m ready to go out there and win and compete in a close game. I want to be out there. You get experiences in these close games that you can’t replicate in practice. You can’t get those reps anywhere else. So, looking forward to, like I said, getting one more chance at these guys and end off on a good note.”

That’s what you want your quarterback to say. It doesn’t mean you have to listen to him.

While Mayo indicated that Maye would start, he did leave open the possibility of other quarterbacks playing.

“I would say it’s still all up in the air,” Mayo said. “All three quarterbacks, as we’ve carried two, and the emergency quarterback, will be ready to go.”

Reading between the lines, the guess here is that Maye starts but is replaced at some point (maybe halftime?) by fellow rookie Milton, a sixth-round pick. That wouldn’t be as egregious as trotting Maye out there the whole time and would probably end fine. It’s still just a risk that doesn’t seem worth taking.

At this point, the results of Sunday’s game probably shouldn’t factor into Robert Kraft’s looming decision regarding his head coach. If he wants to give Mayo a second year because he still has faith that his hand-picked successor of Bill Belichick is going to turn things around, a loss Sunday probably doesn’t change that. If wandering eyes have Kraft wondering what Mike Vrabel would do with his franchise, it probably doesn’t matter if Mayo’s team beats a bunch of backups.

So with so little on the line, the best long-term move is probably protecting Maye while giving yourself the best chance to land the No. 1 pick, something that could jumpstart a stuck-in-the-mud rebuild.

(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)