The day you are drafted into the NFL is often filled with celebration and excitement after fulfilling a lifelong dream. For Jacoby Brissett, however, it was a bit flat. Of course, the current Colts quarterback was selected by the New England Patriots in the third round of the 2016 NC State NFL Draft, which he told Devin and Jason McCourty on the Double Coverage podcast was the last place where I wanted to end.
“I honestly didn’t want to be there,” he admitted. “When I made my visit there, my pre-draft visit, I thought, ‘Hell, no. If a team recruits me, it better not be them.’ And I will never forget it, Josh (McDaniels) called me on the phone the night of draft and I didn’t have his number saved. That was so bad. I didn’t even have his number saved on my phone like, ‘Damn it, man.’ “
However, Brissett’s perception of the Patriots as a non-sporting militaristic team changed rapidly once he arrived in Foxborough. The confidence the team showed also stood out.
“Then I get there, everyone says, ‘Man, it’s New England,’ and then you meet some of the guys on the team like you (Devin McCourty),” he said. “It was then when (Terrence Knighton) was on the team and Anthony Johnson and Martellus (Bennett) and it was fun, man. I’ve never been with so many older guys who were so young, you know?
“And one of the main things I learned was how to be a professional. How to be able to do it: we laughed in the locker room and unzipped ourselves when we weren’t doing soccer things, but when we were in soccer, everyone thinks he’s like him. Army. We were locked up and loaded. And there was no game where we felt, ‘Damn, this team could beat us.’ Jason, you know going into that from a different team, you’re like, ‘Damn, trust here is a madness. ‘”
Brissett went into action early in his career with the Patriots. While Brady was serving his four-game suspension for Deflategate and Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a shoulder injury in Week 2, Brissett played the rest of Brady’s suspension. In that stretch, New England was 1-1 in the games Brissett started when the young quarterback completed 61.8% of his pitches for 400 yards.
After backing up Brady and Garoppolo that season, the Patriots traded Brissett to Indianapolis at the end of the 2017 preseason. For the Colts, he started 30 of his 35 games, including 15 in 2019. Last season, Brissett was able to go 7- 8 as the Indy starter by completing 60.9% of his passes for 2,942 yards, 18 touchdowns and six interceptions. Before 2020, he will serve as backup for Philip Rivers, who signed a one-year contract in free agency to be the Colts’ new starting quarterback.
