Advertisement

Patriots make concerning last-minute change to offensive line for Week 6

Sara Marshall
Sara Marshall

Musket Fire

Houston Texans v New England Patriots / Maddie Malhotra/GettyImages

The Patriots are about to take the field for their Week 6 matchup with the Texans and will have rookie quarterback Drake Maye under center for the first time this season. Jerod Mayo made the announcement last week that Jacoby Brissett will serve as the backup from this point forward, officially beginning the Maye era in New England.

It will inevitably bring a lot of eyes to the game, and the hope is the rookie will bring a much-needed spark to the underwhelming offense and show some signs of life against a very good Texans team.

While there is optimism that could happen, Mayo's subtle reveal of a last minute change with the offensive line group is garnering more concern than anything positive.

With David Andrews missing another game, as he is expected to remain sidelined for the remainder of the season, the belief was that backup center Nick Leverett would remain the starter. That is apparently not the case, as newly signed Ben Brown will take over this week instead.

Not much is known about Brown since this is his first week with the Patriots, but the idea of throwing Maye behind a new center doesn't provide much positivity ahead of his debut. And Mayo's final comments on the matter also don't seem comforting.

"So, it should be interesting."

It would have been nice if he had been less nonchalant when discussing the change, considering how crucial it could be in Sunday's game, but we'll have to wait and see.

It's just not making fans overly excited about what's to come. Leverett was certainly a problem last week, allowing ten pressures against the Dolphins, but the consistency of keeping the same grouping was looking like a good idea.

Maybe starting Brown means he's already better than Leverett, so it is a good idea. But we'll have to wait and see.

More Patriots news and analysis:

Sara Marshall

Sara Marshall

Sara Marshall has been covering the New England Patriots since 2020 and became the Editor at Musket Fire in January 2024. A sports optimist at heart, her goal has always been to bring more positivity to New England sports media. Besides football, she's also a big WWE fan and has her own YouTube channel to discuss the latest on everything professional wrestling.