Let the Drake Maye era begin.

The New England Patriots will promote the rookie quarterback to the starting post over Jacoby Brissett for Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

According to ESPN’s Mike Reiss, New England didn’t start Maye from the jump due to “the combination of his age and college experience.”

There were some questions before the season about whether the Patriots would just start Maye right away after they made him the face of the franchise by selecting him with the No. 3 overall pick of the 2024 NFL draft.

However, they decided to go with the veteran in Brissett, and it seemed like the correct choice when they stunned the Cincinnati Bengals in the first game and then took the Seattle Seahawks to overtime in the second.

Yet that early season momentum quickly faded with blowout losses to the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers in Weeks 3 and 4. Brissett threw for a measly 98 yards in the loss to New York and failed to reach the 200-yard mark in any of the team’s first five games.

While the 31-year-old has largely protected the football and avoided turnovers while completing 58.5 percent of his passes for 696 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, New England also has a limited ceiling when he is under center. That was even more apparent during a 15-10 loss to the Miami Dolphins in Week 5 when he couldn’t make the key play down the stretch of a winnable game.

New England head coach Jerod Mayo wasn’t pleased with that performance against the Dolphins.

“It just wasn’t good enough,” Mayo told reporters. “I thought we played well enough defensively and on special teams to win the football game. Look, as the quarterback—and he understands this—he touches the ball on every single play, and we didn’t win the game or score enough points to win the game. I think he would echo that same sentiment that it wasn’t good enough.”

There are other problems in New England outside of the quarterback position.

The offensive line has largely struggled and the wide receivers do anything but inspire significant confidence. Tight end Hunter Henry was the team’s leading receiver through five games with 180 yards through the air, so it’s not as if Brissett was working with game-changing pass-catchers.

Still, a 1-4 start means it’s time for the Patriots to turn their attention toward the future, and Maye is that future.

He was the 2022 ACC Player of the Year at North Carolina and then followed that up by completing 63.3 percent of his passes for 3,608 yards, 24 touchdowns and nine interceptions while running for 449 yards and nine scores in 2023 despite playing under the spotlight that comes with being a highly regarded NFL draft prospect.

That spotlight will be even brighter now that he will be under center for an NFL team, and the Patriots’ long-term future will likely depend on whether he can live up to expectations as his career progresses.

And that career starts in earnest in Week 6.