We saw why Patriots' Drake Maye shouldn't replace Jacoby Brissett

Drake Maye made his debut with the New England Patriots a little earlier than expected.

The rookie quarterback replaced veteran Jacoby Brissett in garbage time of New England's 24-3 loss to the New York Jets. Maye played the final four minutes and more, orchestrating a 16-play drive that took the Patriots into the red zone for the first time in the game.

“I just thought it would be a good opportunity for him to go out with the ones and put together some drives,” Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo told reporters, according to a video provided by the team.

Mayo kept the possibility of a quarterback change open.

But let's not pretend that the Patriots should use Maye over Brissett because of those four-plus minutes. Any such suggestion would completely ignore how New England performed in the 55 minutes before Maye came on.

The Patriots allowed seven sacks while the Jets had 15 quarterback hits. Brissett took five of those sacks while Maye was sacked twice during the garbage time drive. The third pick in the first round also took some heavy hits.

New England's offensive line looked worse than it has this season on Thursday night. The Patriots started their third different left tackle as third-round rookie Caedan Wallace, a right tackle in college, filled in for the injured Vederian Lowe. Wallace, like the rest of the group, struggled.

The Patriots allowed three quarterback hits and two sacks against unblocked rushers in their first three drives.

Why did the Patriots want to put Maye in this situation?

There is also the argument that Brissett did nothing to lose the job. The veteran signal-caller was pressured and sacked more than 60% of the time on Thursday night Only five times. He didn't lose the ball for the third game in a row.

Maye, meanwhile, nearly intercepted his first professional pass. Maye sent the ball to tight end Austin Hooper, who found a gap between two Jets defenders on a curl route. New York cornerback Michael Carter II nearly used the ball for a pick-six. That would certainly have led to other storylines after the loss.

Maye looked good, moving the chains with his legs and completing four of his eight short pass attempts. But to use Thursday's game as a reason the Patriots should use Maye over Brissett would be to ignore the first 55 minutes of Thursday's game.