On Thursday, as the doors to his locker opened, Jacoby Brissett was standing there when reporters hurried over to him, circled him, and pressed their phones, cameras, and microphones up against him.
Over the years, the veteran, 31, has witnessed similar situations occur. He was the quarterback that everyone went to in a few of them. He observed others, disappointed others, like the backup who was defeated in the competition.
Because Brissett wasn’t sure he would ever be No. 1 again, Thursday held special significance for him. He was selected as the starting quarterback by New England Patriots coach Jerod Mayo over rookie quarterback Drake Maye, the third overall selection in this year’s draft.
Brissett remarked, “It’s nothing I take for granted.” “I’m thrilled. To get here has required a great deal of work, long days, and long nights.”
His long football journey, including time with the Colts, Dolphins, Browns and Commanders, has placed him back where his career began — with the Patriots, who took 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 club opens the regular season on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 8 (1 p.m. ET, CBS).Of the 15 quarterbacks picked in the 2016 draft, Brissett is one of six remaining 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 strongest 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 choice 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 inked a one-year, $8 million deal with the team on the first day of free agency.
Van Pelt declared, “He’s a stud, no question about it.” “The guy he is, the leader he is, and the player he is is the reason he is here. He is quite proficient at this offense.”Brissett and PARCELLS, the former Patriots coach who led the team from 1993 to 1996, had been friends since high school.
“After every game I’ve played in my career, Parcells has called me,” he stated. “The man is among the greatest football coaches in history and a Hall of Famer. I tell folks jokes like, ‘That’s legit like my granddad.'”
The relationship started when Parcells, who resides in Florida, happened to stop by Dwyer High School’s football practice in Palm Beach Gardens. Brissett, who was 15 years old at the time, captured his heart and helped Dwyer win its first state title in his junior year.
Throughout his coaching career, which includes two Super Bowl titles with the New York Giants, Parcells, a maestro of player motivation, gave Brissett counsel that is still relevant today.
“Jacoby, you’ll never be someone’s first choice, Parcells usually says. You’ll never be the ideal man for someone. Someone will always be preferred above you by the organization or the supporters. Thus, you simply must remain there whenever you have the opportunity,” Brissett remarked.
That seems to be what I’ve done all throughout my journey and profession. I’ve been able to remain inside ever since.”
CURRENTLY PART OF HIS FIFTH TEAM, Brissett remarked that his professional trajectory embodies the advice Parcells has always given him: “That guy was never you.” There was never going to be a first-round pick treatment for him.
While that may seem apparent for a quarterback selected late in the third round by a franchise that already had Brady and Garoppolo, it really got to Brissett in 2017 when he was moved to the Colts in exchange for wide receiver Phillip Dorsett.
Brady and Garoppolo informed him they had no idea how to handle it because they had never been traded before when he asked. He thought he was alone on an island.
Given that Indianapolis’ star quarterback, Andrew Luck, was about to embark on his sixth NFL season and was recovering from offseason surgery on his right throwing shoulder, Brissett assumed his time in Indianapolis would be brief. Brissett was first considered a depth option by the Colts, who had been lucky to go from one franchise legend to another in Peyton Manning and then Luck.
Unexpectedly, Brissett remained there for a whole four seasons.
Due to a shoulder injury, Luck was forced to miss the 2017 campaign, and in Week 2, Brissett was given the starting job. In the Colts’ 4-12 campaign, he completed 58.8% of his passes for 3,098 yards, 13 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. In addition, he gained 260 yards and four touchdowns on 63 rushes. After Luck’s retirement in August of that year, Brissett was promoted back to the starting position for the 2018 season, during which he had been Luck’s backup the entire time.”I really kind of grew up in Indy, became a man in Indy,” added the man. “For starters, the trade. It’s also the place where a lot of changes occurred in my personal life. I got to know my therapist there. My life improved as a result.”
Brissett should have been overjoyed when he signed a $30 million extension with the Colts following Luck’s retirement, since he had “more money than I ever thought I’d have in my entire life.” But there was a problem.
That day, he remembered Elizabeth White, the team counselor, greeting him and congratulating him on the life-altering deal. Over the previous two seasons, the two had exchanged kind but indifferent pleasantries, but this time, Brissett’s answer surprised even him.
“I think I need to talk to you.”
In retrospect, Brissett is still unsure of what motivated him to say that. He’s happy that he did.
“I went in there and started crying,” he said in memory. “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.”
Beyond the football field, where he turned out to be quite effective in leading the Colts to a 5-2 record that featured victories over the Titans, Falcons, Chiefs, Texans, and Broncos, the conversations provided him something to concentrate on. The team finished 7-9 after that, as the wheels came off.
For the 2020 campaign, the Colts signed veteran quarterback Philip Rivers as a free agent. Brissett felt demolished.
“I thought, ‘f— this.'” I’m not capable of doing this. It was tiring for me to watch you constantly switching between playing and not playing, he remarked.
“I was about to say, ‘Cut me or trade me,’ but I spoke with my therapist first. “Get ready, because if they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it,” she added. However, just be ready in case they don’t. I had no idea how to strike a balance with it all.”
That change in circumstances struck Brissett as “one of the best things that happened for me.”
“I believed that I had learned everything I needed to from everyone else. I had the feeling I was primed to play. I thought, “I have a lot to learn from this dude,” once I met Philip.
The things that most impressed Brissett about Rivers were his memory, his curiosity, and the questions he posed.
Brissett remarked, “It opened my eyes.” “I was like, ‘I’m going to take what I learn from him and hit the ground running.'”When Brissett inked a one-year contract with the Dolphins in 2021, he believed he was on the right track at his next stop. In addition to knowing the team had No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 draft Tua Tagovailoa, he was acquainted with coach Brian Flores from their time together with the Patriots in 2016. Flores was a defensive assistant.
“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 stated. “After being let down once more, I decided that this year was enough. I will be retiring. More than making me joyful, football is shattering my heart.”
However, talks with White again—this time virtually as she still plays for the Colts—modified his original reaction, and he ultimately rediscovers his passion for football. When Tagovailoa was injured, Brissett started five games for Miami and completed 62.7% of his passes for 1,283 yards, five touchdowns, and four interceptions.
After being accused of sexual assault during massage therapy sessions, Watson violated the NFL’s personal conduct rules and was suspended in 2022. This left Cleveland in need of an experienced quarterback.
“All I heard was that there will be an opportunity for you to play. All I needed was that,” he remarked.
By the end of the season, Brissett felt fulfilled again, thinking his play was on par with some of the other starting quarterbacks in the NFL. He had fallen in love with Van Pelt’s West Coast offense.
That season, Brissett participated in 16 games for the Browns and concluded with the eighth-best QBR (62.0) in the NFL, surpassing players like Lamar Jackson of the Ravens, Joe Burrow of the Bengals, Justin Herbert of the Chargers, and Prescott. Brissett had the third fewest interceptions among quarterbacks who have started ten or more games with six.
After signing a one-year contract worth up to $10 million with Washington in 2023, Brissett felt that he “got shortchanged again” when Sam Howell was given the starting lineup, just to what had transpired in Miami. Brissett’s season-long success as a backup quarterback (completing 18 of 23 throws for 224 yards and three touchdowns) added credence to that.
And that’s how he ended up back in New England, where he started his career, reuniting with Van Pelt and McCartney, the assistants he had worked with while at the Browns.
I thought, ‘That’s it, the ideal storm,’ I didn’t care that I knew they would probably draft someone highly. He remarked, “I just wanted to be with someone I can trust.”
