👨‍🍼 How to raise an elite quarterback

Good Morning, Boston

🏈 It’s officially football season, baby. So long, baseball szn. I mean, why think about the Red Sox-White Sox series when you can watch this?

What’s on tap today:

• BB on IG

• Hoarders: Tom Brady Edition

• Rise of The Curse

Let’s get into it…

LEADING OFF

What Patriots can learn from … Patrick Mahomes?

The Patriots’ model for Drake Maye’s development played last night. I get it, Patriots fans. You’re tired of all the Patrick Mahomes talk because he’s chasing Tom Brady for the GOAT title. But he matters to this year’s Pats team for a different reason: he’s one of the poster children for the old-school, “sit ’em, don’t start ‘em” QB development plan many Foxboro fans are currently raging over with Drake Maye. For Mahomes, though, the results have clearly justified the means.

The Mahomes Plan works. Before Mahomes won MVP in 2018 and dueled Brady in the AFC Championship Game, he was one of just five QBs drafted in the top-10 since 2000 to start fewer than three games their rookie season:

• Trey Lance (3rd overall pick, 2021)

• Patrick Mahomes (10th overall, 2017)

• Jake Locker (8th overall, 2008)

• Philip Rivers (4th overall, 2004)

• Carson Palmer (1st overall, 2003)

Why? Because the Chiefs were a playoff team with a good QB already (Alex Smith). So they brought Mahomes along slowly as a rookie and handed him the keys in Year 2. You know the rest.

The Maye Plan is pretty similar. Seven years later, the Patriots seem intent on following a similar model for No. 3 overall pick Maye: signing a starting-caliber QB (Jacoby Brissett) and keeping the rookie off the field as long as possible. Does that mean Maye can’t play right now? No. It just means New England is in no rush to play him if they don’t have to, which both head coach Jerod Mayo and de facto GM Eliot Wolf have repeatedly said. 

Is that the right approach? We’ll see. Just because something worked for Mahomes, a truly one-of-one player in football history, doesn’t mean it will work for Maye. Plenty of QBs, including Peyton Manning, have worked through their early struggles to become great. Who knows? Maybe the Patriots would’ve met Mahomes in the AFC Championship a year earlier if he’d played as a rookie. Mayo himself says young players need to play to develop. So why sit Maye? Because the risk of irreparable harm to the franchise’s most important player is very real.

But are the Patriots in a spot to “redshirt” their QB?  In an ideal world, the Patriots probably would let Brissett play all season and have Maye watch, learn, and play on the scout team a la Smith and Mahomes. Patience out of the gate needs to be a priority for the Patriots and their most prized asset. But unlike the ‘17 Chiefs, the ‘24 Pats are going to be bad. With New England likely clawing for positives at season’s end, expect Maye to get his shot at some point this season.

POLL

How long should the Patriots sit Drake Maye?

BOSTON SPORTS

Quick hits & headlines

📲 Bill Belichick gets “Instaface.” The GOAT coach is officially outside, with a headshot and some captions to prove it. And yes, he does follow Tom Brady. The only question is whether he’ll do the posting or whether he’ll rely on girlfriend Jordon Hudson to do it. The famously tech- and media-averse Belichick is doing everything he can to fill his free time now that he’s not coaching, including co-hosting his own show with ex-Patriots coach Matt Patricia. Are we sure he’s going to coach again?

😈 Joe Mazzulla might be insane. Don’t tell the Celtics coach about the rest of the league gunning for the defending champions. He wants every bit of the smoke – to the point where he sounds like he’s ready to pull off a Fenway heist all by himself. Then again, Celtics players have been trying to tell us Mazzulla’s got a screw loose since he took over the team, so this isn’t news to them. If any team were about to equalize a league ready to snatch their crowns, it’s this one. They just have to match their coach’s crazy.

🐐 Tom Brady’s broadcast prep is elite. You thought Brady prepared hard for games before? Here’s a nugget for you: this man has kept every single play call sheet and scouting report from his entire football career for research purposes. No wonder this man only lost 82 regular-season games in 23 NFL seasons. (Also, you have to love him and Josh McDaniels playing their private joke on Belichick every week.) And yes, Brady said he’s keeping that same energy for the broadcast booth.

BEYOND BOSTON

Out-of-town report

Andrew Benintendi’s suffering in Chicago. What did the ex-Red Sox outfielder do to deserve this? Or getting tossed for being mad at this? Boston fans should send this man a sympathy card when the White Sox come to town this weekend. We’ll always have this, at least.

To (Ja’Marr Chase) or not to Chase? The Bengals star receiver is still holding out for a mega contract extension, but the Patriots still expect him to play Week 1. Maybe Cincy can lowball him just one more time ahead of Sunday to make him not want to play?

Last Call

SEPTEMBER 5, 1918

The haunted championship

The last World Series before The Curse begins. With World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic hanging over the proceedings, fans weren’t overly excited when the Red Sox won Game 1 of the 1918 World Series behind a pitcher named Babe Ruth — or when they eventually bested the similarly cursed Chicago Cubs in six games. Little did they know how long it would be until they could celebrate another title. 

The Best Thing I Saw in Sports

The W’s new dynamic duo

🔥 Caitlin Clark makes the WNBA her playground. This year’s WNBA Rookie of the Year dished it to last year’s Rookie of the Year, Aliyah Boston, as part of a triple-double performance on Tuesday. Also, Aliyah might not be from Boston, but she is from Worcester!

That’s a wrap🗞 I’ll be preparing to obnoxiously yell “AND-1” in someone’s face at pickup basketball this weekend.

📲Keep up with us @BSideSports on IG, TikTok, and X (coming soon). Send comments and suggestions to [email protected]