Should New England Patriots Give Jacoby Brissett Chance to Start Week 1?

On Friday, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady announced on his Facebook page that he would “no longer proceed with the legal process” of battling his Deflategate suspension. After almost two full offseasons, the media battle between the Patriots and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is finally over.

What this means, though, is that New England will be without its starting quarterback for Weeks 1 through 4, as the four-game suspension that Goodell initially slapped Brady with was reinstated in court in April.

With the uncertainty of Brady’s status now behind us, the focus on the Patriots’ quarterback unit has shifted from their star passer to the pair of passers who will attempt to replace him: Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett.

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Right now, Garoppolo, a third-year player, is the clear leader in the media’s eyes, but Brissett, a rookie third-round pick, will get a chance to prove himself this offseason, too. According to Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald, Brissett even saw some first-team reps in organized team activities in June.

Brissett has had an odd career up to this point. Himself a super-recruit, Brissett was the third-ranked pro-style quarterback in 247Sports’ 2011 class composite rankings. For reference, he was ranked ahead of 2016 draft picks Cody Kessler, Brandon Allen, Kevin Hogan, Cardale Jones, Jake Rudock and Connor Cook, and those were just the 4-star and 3-star pro-style passers in the pecking order.

Committing to the University of Florida, the team’s highest-ranked offensive coach, Charlie Weis, was his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Prior to joining the Gators, Weis had spent nine seasons in the NFL as an offensive coordinator, including five in New England with Brady.

Unfortunately for Brissett, not all went according to plan. As a true freshman, he was part of a trio of young quarterbacks, alongside Jeff Driskel and Tyler Murphy, who backed up senior John Brantley. By the end of their college careers, they were all at different programs, with Brissett landing at North Carolina State, Driskel playing for Louisiana Tech and Murphy suiting up for Boston College.

Brissett spent his first two years as a backup at Florida under Weis, who would leave after one year for the University of Kansas head coaching job, and Brent Pease.

Weis was fired by Kansas four games into the 2014 season, and he is currently unemployed. Pease spent two years with Florida as an offensive coordinator before being released from his contract. He had a two-year stint as a receivers coach at the University of Washington, which he was fired from this offseason. He’s now the offensive coordinator at mid-major University of Texas-El Paso in Conference USA.

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In 2013, after playing in two systems under two less than stellar college offensive coordinators based on their recent track records, Brissett made the move to Raleigh. His offensive coordinator for all three of his years at NC State was Matt Canada, who was fired in January and is now the offensive coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh.

At least based on the judgment criteria that decision-makers at Kansas, Florida, Washington and NC State laid out for Brissett’s former offensive coordinators, all three of them have failed during Brissett’s career. Even worse, with such limited time with each of them, Brissett never had more than a redshirt sophomore’s level of experience in an offense. He was college football’s Jason Campbell.

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For two years, Brissett led the Wolfpack, mostly in the shotgun. In 2015—his senior season—Brissett’s NC State team finished 13th in yards per completion, was the third-most sacked team in the ACC and finished with the fewest …

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