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Mike Reiss, ESPN Staff Writer
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Jacoby Brissett was waiting in front of his locker as the doors swung open Thursday, when reporters darted in his direction, circled him, and thrust their phones, cameras and microphones in front of him.
The 31-year old veteran has seen similar scenes play out over the years. In some of them, he was the quarterback everyone came running to. In others, disappointing others, he watched as the backup who lost the competition.
Brissett wasn’t certain he’d ever experience being No. 1 again, which made Thursday meaningful to him. New England Patriots coach Jerod Mayo named him the starting quarterback over rookie Drake Maye, the No. 3 overall pick in this year’s draft.
“It’s nothing I take for granted,” Brissett said. “I’m excited. It’s been a lot of work, long days, long nights, to get to this point.”
His long football journey, including stops at the Colts, Dolphins, Browns and Commanders, has landed him back where his career began — with the Patriots, who selected him in the third round of the 2016 NFL draft. Unlike that year, when he was the No. 3 option behind Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo, he’ll take the first snap when the 2024 team opens the regular season on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 8 (1 p.m. ET, CBS).
Brissett is no stranger to competing for his job. He’s had to do it at every stop of his career. But with guidance from mentor and NFL Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells, adviser Abe Elam, and finding help in therapy, Brissett has been able to sustain his career.
Of the 15 quarterbacks selected in the 2016 draft, Brissett is one of six still on an NFL roster, a group that includes No. 1 pick Jared Goff, No. 2 Carson Wentz and fourth-rounder Dak Prescott.
Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and quarterbacks coach T.C. McCartney have been two of Brissett’s biggest supporters. They coached him in Cleveland in 2022 when Brissett started 11 games in place of suspended quarterback Deshaun Watson, going 4-7 and finishing with 2,608 passing yards with 12 touchdowns and six interceptions.
They targeted Brissett as their No. 1 option for their first season in New England, knowing they’d also be developing a highly drafted rookie behind him, which turned out to be Maye. Brissett signed a one-year, $8 million deal with the team on the first day of free agency.
“He’s a stud, there’s no question,” Van Pelt said. “That’s why he’s here — the person he is, the leader he is and also the player he is. He has great command of this offense.”
PARCELLS, WHO SERVED as Patriots coach from 1993-1996, has known Brissett since he was in high school and they’ve kept in contact.
“After every game I’ve played in my career, Parcells has called me,” he said. “The dude is a Hall of Famer, one of the best to ever coach football. I joke with people, ‘that’s legit like my granddad.'”
The connection began when Parcells, who has a home in Florida, was visiting a football practice at Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens. He became enamored with Brissett, 15 at the time, who would lead Dwyer to its first state championship during his junior season.
A master of motivating players during his coaching career that included two Super Bowl championships with the New York Giants, Parcells has passed along advice to Brissett that still resonates.
“Parcells always says, ‘Jacoby, you’ll never be somebody’s favorite pick. You’ll never be somebody’s No. 1 guy. There will always be someone the organization or the fans want over you. So whenever you get your chance, you just have to stay in there,'” Brissett said.
“I feel like that’s what I’ve done throughout my career and journey. I’ve always been able to stay in there.”
NOW PLAYING FOR his fifth team, Brissett said his career path reflects what Parcells has always told him: “That guy was never you.” He was never going to be treated like a first-round pick.
That might seem obvious for a player drafted late in the third round to a team that already had Brady and Garoppolo at quarterback, but it really hit Brissett in 2017 when he was traded to the Colts for wide receiver Phillip Dorsett.
He asked Brady and Garoppolo how to handle it and they told him they had no idea; they had never been traded before. It made him feel like he was on an island.
Brissett figured his stay in Indianapolis would be short, considering they had franchise quarterback Andrew Luck entering his sixth NFL season, even though Luck was coming off offseason surgery on his right throwing shoulder. The Colts had been fortunate to transition from Peyton Manning to Luck, one franchise icon to another, initially making Brissett a depth option for them.
To Brissett’s surprise, he stayed there for four seasons.
Luck missed the ’17 season with a shoulder injury and Brissett was handed the starting role Week 2. He completed 58.8% of his passes for 3,098 yards, with 13 touchdowns and seven interceptions in the Colts’ 4-12 season. He also rushed 63 times for 260 yards and four touchdowns. Then Luck returned for the 2018 season and Brissett spent the entire year as a backup, only to be elevated back to the No. 1 role when Luck retired in August 2019 at age 29.
“I really kind of grew up in Indy, became a man in Indy,” he said. “One, because of the trade. Also, it’s where a lot of things in my personal life changed. It’s where I met my therapist. My life got better after that.”
After Luck retired, Brissett signed a $30 million extension with the Colts, which should have been a time of joy for him, with “more money than I ever thought I’d have in my entire life.” But something wasn’t right.
He recalled team counselor Elizabeth White saying hello to him and congratulating him on the life-changing contract that day. The two had exchanged cordial-but-passing greetings over the prior two seasons, but this time, Brissett’s response stunned even himself.
“I think I need to talk to you.”
Looking back, Brissett still doesn’t know what led him to say that. He’s grateful he did.
“I went in there and started crying,” he recalled. “We just started talking for two, 2½ hours, dating back to when I was a kid and all the way up to where I was at that point.”
The conversations gave him something to work on beyond the football field, where, it turns out, he started hot in helping the Colts to a 5-2 record that included wins over the Titans, Falcons, Chiefs, Texans and Broncos. Then the wheels fell off, the team finishing 7-9.
The Colts signed veteran free agent quarterback Philip Rivers for the 2020 season. Brissett was crushed.
“I was like ‘f— this. I can’t do this.’ You keep bouncing around from playing, to not playing, to playing, to not playing, that took a toll on me,” he said.
“I was going to say ‘cut me or trade me,’ but then I talked to my therapist. She said ‘if they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it, so prepare yourself. But also just be prepared if they don’t.’ I didn’t know how to balance all of that.”
Brissett reflected on that turn of events as “one of the best things that happened for me.”
“I thought I didn’t need to learn any more from anyone else. I felt like I was ready to play. Then once I met Philip, I was like, ‘I have a lot to learn from this dude.'”
Brissett was most impressed with Rivers’ recall, inquisitive nature and the questions he asked.
“It opened my eyes,” Brissett said. “I was like, ‘I’m going to take what I learn from him and hit the ground running.'”
AT HIS NEXT stop, Brissett thought he was headed in the right direction when he signed a one-year deal with the Dolphins in 2021. He knew coach Brian Flores from their time together with the Patriots in 2016 (Flores was a defensive assistant), and also knew the franchise had Tua Tagovailoa, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 draft.
“Obviously they wanted Tua to be the guy and understandably so, but I thought I had a really good training camp and deserved that chance,” Brissett said. “I got let down again and was like, ‘I’m done after this year. I’m going to retire. Football is breaking my heart more than it’s making me happy.'”
But again, conversations with White — this time long distance because she remains with the Colts — altered his initial instinct and he eventually found his love for football again. Brissett started five games for Miami when Tagovailoa was sidelined with an injury and completed 62.7% of his passes for 1,283 yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions.
In 2022 he went to Cleveland, which needed an experienced quarterback because of Watson’s impending suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy after being accused of sexual assault during massage therapy sessions.
“All I heard was ‘you’re going to get a chance to play.’ That’s all I needed,” he said.
Brissett fell in love with Van Pelt’s West Coast offense, and by the end of the season, he felt fulfilled again in believing his performance matched up favorably with some of the NFL’s other starting quarterbacks.
Brissett played in 16 games for the Browns that season and finished with the eighth-best QBR (62.0) in the NFL — a better mark than the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson, the Bengals’ Joe Burrow, the Chargers’ Justin Herbert and Prescott. Brissett’s six interceptions were the third-fewest of quarterbacks who started 10 or more games.
In 2023, Brissett signed a one-year deal with Washington worth up to $10 million, yet similar to what happened in Miami, felt like he “got shortchanged again” when Sam Howell was named the starter. Brissett’s performance as a backup (completing 18 of 23 passes for 224 yards with three touchdowns) during the season further strengthened his belief.
And that’s how he landed back where he began his career in New England, reconnecting with former Browns assistants Van Pelt and McCartney.
“I was like ‘that’s it, the perfect storm.’ Knowing they were going to more than likely draft somebody high, I didn’t care. I just wanted to be with someone I can trust,” he said.
VAN PELT SAID Brissett’s experience in his system, and the tools he has to get out of pressure situations, make him the best choice to be the Patriots’ QB1. McCartney, the quarterbacks coach, appreciates Brissett’s steadiness.
“It starts with Jacoby being a great person,” he said. “You can count on him. He has no motives about him except getting better at football. He’s the same every day. You can trust him.”
Brissett remembers how valuable it was for him to have Brady as a mentor as a rookie. Brady, Garoppolo and Brissett referred to their quarterback trio as the “Wolfpack” during a season that ended with a 34-28 victory over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
Brissett wants to fulfill a similar role for Maye, 22, whose locker is next to his. The two had met last year through mutual friend Howell, Brissett’s fellow quarterback at Washington and Maye’s former teammate at North Carolina. So when Brissett hosted teammates for a throwing session in Florida in the weeks leading up to training camp, Maye was part of the group.
“He’s done a great job. Dating back to when he first got here to now, it’s been light years difference and I think he’ll say the same,” Brissett said. “I’m excited for his future.”
Brissett shared that after Mayo announced he would be the starter, Maye approached him and told him he’d be there to help him with anything he needed.
“It’s the same thing for him. Whatever he needs from me, I’ll do the same,” he said.
There were times earlier in his career when Brissett wondered if his willingness to help others was coming at his own expense on the field. His perspective is different now.
“A lot of people say ‘Jacoby is a great teammate’ but as a young kid I remember thinking ‘is that really getting me anywhere? I’m stuck in the same cycle,'” he said. “To an extent, it’s still like that today. But I think one of the things my therapist helped me realize is it’s not the cycle. It’s just the timing. You have to wait your turn.”
Brissett’s time is now in New England. He plans to do everything he can to make it last.
“I never gave up. Every year I sat out, I ended up falling more in love with the game,” he said. “I think my journey has built me for the journey of this year.”