Mayo took over as New England’s head coach after the team parted ways with Bill Belichick at the conclusion of the 2023 campaign. Simply put, the Patriots are a mess, and they have been about as bad as they were expected to be in 2024. Some of that is Mayo’s fault, but much of it is due to him inheriting the worst roster in the league. The one bright spot on the year has been rookie quarterback Drake Maye.

By losing to the Bills in Week 18, the Pats would lock up the top pick in the upcoming draft, which would significantly help them speed up their rebuild. However, Mayo revealed on Wednesday that Maye is going to play in the team’s regular season finale if he’s healthy, which is the latest in a long string of mistakes he has made during his first season in charge.

Why Jerod Mayo should not start Drake Maye in Week 18

There’s no sense in beating around the bush; Mayo’s first season in charge has been bumpy. That should have been expected, considering he had no prior head coaching experience, and that he was taking over one of the worst rosters in the league, but there have been a series of head scratching decisions that have followed.

Mayo’s game plans have left a lot to be desired, and he seems to put his foot in his mouth every time he talks to the media. It’s not enough to get him fired, despite the growing clamoring among fans for the team to replace him with Mike Vrabel, but he hasn’t exactly been the leader the team was looking for him to be in the wake of Belichick’s departure.

And yet, the future in New England looks bright because of Maye. The rest of the roster needs a ton of work, but they nailed it when it comes to finding their next quarterback of the future in Maye. Despite playing with the worst supporting cast on offense in the NFL, Maye has shined bright early on, and the team is well-positioned to make his life easier this upcoming offsease.

The easiest way to accomplish that would be by landing the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft. There’s almost no shot that New England would use that pick, but that’s fine. They could trade down, amass a large amount of draft capital, and accelerate their rebuild. At this point, targeting a left tackle, such as Kelvin Banks Jr. out of Texas, seems to be the most logical move for this team.

The path to accelerating their rebuild is there for the taking, and Mayo seems intent on destroying it. On paper, a matchup between the lowly Patriots and high-flying Bills should result in a loss for New England. However, Buffalo is going to rest some of their starters in this game, which means that there’s actually a chance the Pats could win this game.

It’s ironic that, for a team with only three wins on the year, that’s pretty much the worst-case scenario. Losing this game and holding onto the No. 1 pick is pretty much the only thing that matters. Leaving Maye on the bench for the regular season finale in an effort to ensure that happens is the most prudent decision the team could make, and yet, Mayo doesn’t seem to get it.

Beyond the draft pick positioning, there’s also the question of whether it’s even ethical to play Maye behind this porous offensive line at this point. He’s already suffered one concussion on the year, and he had to leave the team’s Week 17 contest against the Los Angeles Chargers to get evaluated for another one, before he eventually returned to the action.

Risking Maye’s health in a meaningless game is just not worth it at this point, but considering the potential repercussions winning this game could have, it just makes the decision to play him even more mind-boggling. Given what we have seen from Mayo so far this season, though, it’s pretty on-brand for him.

There’s a decent chance that New England is bad enough to lose to Buffalo’s backups, and there’s no guarantee that Maye will play the entire game. But this is just another example of Mayo’s decision-making not lining up with the best interests of the team and its players, and here’s hoping that it doesn’t come back to hurt the Patriots.