New England Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett will remain the starter despite throwing for just 98 yards and taking five sacks in Thursday night’s 24-3 loss to the New York Jets, head coach Jerod Mayo said Friday.

‘Jacoby is our quarterback until I say he’s not the quarterback,’ Mayo said.

The veteran Brissett was pulled for rookie Drake Maye late in the final quarter Thursday with the road game out of hand. It was the NFL debut for Maye, who was taken by the Patriots with the third overall pick in April’s NFL draft.

Brissett was playing behind a makeshift offensive line and faced pressure throughout the game. He completed 12 of 18 passes and lost 46 yards on sacks.

Maye was 4-of-8 passing for 22 yards with two sacks for 13 yards.

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The Patriots (1-2) have a nine-day break between games before they play the 49ers in San Francisco. They return home for games against AFC East-rival Miami Dolphins and the Houston Texans, followed by a neutral-site game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, and then the Jets again, this time in Foxborough, Mass.

Inter Miami’s Leo Campana became the franchise’s all-time leading scorer with his 30th goal in the team’s last match. But he knows the crown might be his for just a short time longer. So is life when the most famous Leo in soccer’s history is your teammate.

Leo Messi, the Argentine World Cup champion, sits just three goals behind Campana after returning from a lengthy injury absence. But Campana, a 24-year-old Ecuadorian standout, is enjoying his spot at the top before Inter Miami faces New York City FC at Yankee Stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.

“Sincerely, it’s funny because with my teammates after the game, we joke and they told me, ‘Hey, enjoy it because you have one or two more weeks and then you’re gone,’” Campana said with a laugh Friday.

He passed former record-holder Gonzalo Higuain with a free kick in the 58th minute of Inter Miami’s 2-2 draw against Atlanta United last Wednesday.

“Right now, this was my week,’ he said. ‘Hopefully, I can keep scoring and I can keep doing better, but obviously they’re coming fast.”

In addition to Messi, Campana mentioned goal-scoring phenom and teammate Luis Suarez, who leads the team with 21 goals and is already in fourth-place on the club’s all-time list.

Messi and Suarez, who both came off the bench against Atlanta, could see extended minutes in Saturday’s game against NYCFC. It’s the last of three matches in a week for Inter Miami, which will not play again until Sept. 28.

Inter Miami remains atop the MLS Supporters’ Shield standings with 63 points. If Inter Miami wins the Supporters’ Shield, it will be the club’s second title of the Messi era. And it could be a catalyst for their third.

How to watch NYCFC vs. Inter Miami live stream?

The Inter Miami game against NYCFC begins Saturday at 2 p.m. ET (3 p.m. in Argentina), and will be live streamed via MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Is Messi playing vs. NYCFC at Yankee Stadium?

Yes, Messi is expected to play, Inter Miami assistant coach Javi Morales confirmed Friday. This will be Messi’s third match in a week since returning from his Copa America ankle injury.

“The most important thing is that his ankle is responding well. And then physically, match by match, he is getting into rhythm,” Morales said of Messi. “We know that he is a player who always wants to be there, and we are going to use him whenever we can, because the truth is that not only he improves us a lot, but also we enjoy having him on our team and on the pitch.”

Messi played roughly 25 minutes in Atlanta, his first road match with Inter Miami since May 11 in Montreal. The shortened minutes followed his first appearance last Saturday, when he played the distance in a 3-1 win against the Philadelphia Union, scoring two goals with a late assist.

Messi has 24 total goal contributions – 14 goals and 10 assists – in just 14 MLS matches this season for Inter Miami.

All-Star center Joel Embiid signed a three-year, $192.9 extension with the Philadelphia 76ers, a person with direct knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports.

The person requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about financial details.

Embiid, the 2022-23 NBA MVP, is under contract with the Sixers for the next five seasons for just more $300 million. The Sixers announced the signing without releasing terms of the deal.

“Joel has cemented himself as one of the greatest Sixers of all time and is well on his way to being one of the best players to ever play the game,” Sixers owner Josh Harris said in a statement. ‘We’re ecstatic that this extension keeps him and his family in Philadelphia for years to come. Joel is a great family man, leader, and person. He is an elite two-way player with a combination of size, strength, and athleticism that this league has rarely – if ever – seen. He is integral to this franchise’s quest for another NBA championship, and we are honored that he continues to choose this organization as his NBA home.”

Embiid is coming off his seventh consecutive All-Star appearance. However, he played in just 39 games last season after winning MVP and earning his fifth All-NBA honor the previous season. He also won a gold medal with the U.S. at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Embiid averaged 34.7 points, 11 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.7 blocks and 1.2 steals and shot 52.9% from the field last season.

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“I started a Sixer and want to be right here for the rest of my career. I had no idea when I was drafted as a 20-year-old kid from Cameroon how lucky I was to be in Philadelphia,” Embiid said in a statement. “Through all the ups and downs, this city and the fans have been everything, and I am so grateful for how they’ve embraced me. I want to thank Josh, (co-owner) David (Blitzer), and the entire organization. Philadelphia is home and it’s time to bring this community an NBA championship.”

The Sixers have championship aspirations but have not reached the conference finals since they appeared in the 2001 NBA Finals. In the offseason, they reached an extension with All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey and reached a deal with Paul George in free agency.

With a healthy Embiid, the Sixers should be near the top of the Eastern Conference standings with Boston, New York and Cleveland.

That Diana Taurasi refused a farewell tour, that she forced the Phoenix Mercury to drop hints large and small about her retirement so fans wouldn’t be caught unaware, is perfectly fitting.

Taurasi has made a career out of doing exactly what she wanted and nothing that she didn’t. She didn’t care that, when she came into the WNBA 20 years ago, women athletes were supposed to look a certain way. Act a certain way. They weren’t even supposed to sweat, let alone talk trash, play physical, collect technical fouls like souvenirs and publicly rage at losses.

But Taurasi did all that and then some. She didn’t care if she got under her opponents’ skin or rubbed WNBA executives the wrong way. She was a basketball player, and she’s always stayed true to that.

Anyone who thought she’d change course now must be new here.

‘DT,’ Phoenix Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said last weekend, ‘does it her way.’

And she leaves the game better for it.

There were bad-ass women athletes before Taurasi set foot on the UConn campus in 2000. Women who weren’t afraid to own their greatness. Women who weren’t afraid to show off their muscles. Women who weren’t afraid to be competitive.

But Taurasi was one of the first to be all those things. When her poor performance as a freshman in the Final Four contributed to UConn’s semifinal loss, she vowed the Huskies would never lose another tournament game while she was there.

They didn’t, winning three consecutive NCAA titles.

She carried that feistiness into the WNBA, where she would run over anyone not in a Mercury uniform without a second thought if it meant getting the win. Taurasi did not take losses well, as evidenced by the cracked door in the visitors’ locker room at Wintrust Arena after Phoenix lost to the Chicago Sky in the 2021 Finals.

She made opponents look silly with her circus-trick passes and 3s from anywhere she pleased. You think Caitlin Clark’s got game? Taurasi was Clark before Clark ever picked up a ball. She holds the WNBA records for scoring, field goals and 3-pointers. (Also fouls, turnovers and technical fouls. Obviously.)

‘Playing against DT was a pain,’ said Natasha Cloud, who spent her first eight seasons with the Washington Mystics before signing with Phoenix this year. ‘I would leave games with bruises all over my arm. She’s one of the hardest people to guard because she just has so many weapons.

‘And what makes her super dangerous is she can pass the (heck) out of the ball, too,’ Cloud added. ‘So you have to really just be on your Ps and Qs when you’re playing against her.’

Taurasi won three WNBA titles and was the 2009 MVP. Perhaps the most fitting honor came in 2019, when the WNBA made her the logo. Oh, the league won’t say that, but c’mon. The silhouette has Taurasi’s shot, her shape and her trademark bun.

‘One of our pillars, one of our legends won’t be in a game anymore, so the game will be missing that,’ Brittney Griner said when asked last weekend how Taurasi will be remembered when she retires.

But Taurasi was so much more than her attitude and her accomplishments. Ask her teammates about her, and they’ll talk about her leadership. Not only on the court, where she has three-dimensional vision and an encyclopedic knowledge of every player and every team. Off it, too.

Gruff as Taurasi might seem, she ‘loves hard,’ said Sophie Cunningham, who has played with Taurasi for six years.

‘Dee is a really, really special egg,’ Cunningham said. ‘If people really got to know Dee, they really do see how much she cares and how much she wants to see the person right next to her be just as successful as herself.’

That was evident after Griner’s release from prison in Russia, where she was wrongfully detained for 10 months. When Griner was ready to leave the Texas military facility where she spent her first week back in the United States, Taurasi was there to accompany her back to Phoenix.

‘My whole career is with Dee,’ Griner, who played with Taurasi with the Mercury and UMMC Ekaterinburg, told USA TODAY Sports. ‘I’ve always said, I credit a lot to Dee, my success. So it’s gonna be a sad day (when she retires).  

‘But it’s also gonna be a great day because we get to actually celebrate it,’ Griner added. ‘She’s one of the most selfless people I know, and she hates being told about herself. But now, when that day comes, she ain’t got no choice but to hear us talk about her. And hype her up and everything that she deserves and all the flowers she deserves. Because she’s done a lot for the game.’

The wins, and what it took to get them, have always mattered more to Taurasi than the trappings of success. People who saw her as a malcontent didn’t understand she was determined to wring every last drop she could out of basketball because she didn’t want to cheat the game that gave her everything.

‘I kind of look at it the other way, what it’s given to me: An opportunity to do something that I love to do,’ Taurasi said Sunday when asked if she can appreciate yet all that she’s done for the game.

‘And I think lately, I’ve been reflecting a little bit more how grateful and thankful we all need to be,’ she added. ‘You need to take a step back and really appreciate the moment that we’re in in women’s sports and the WNBA. With a lot of things changing, we have to be really grateful for everyone before us – and thankful for the next generation, too.’

The game got better because Taurasi played it. It will continue to do so because she played it her way.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

This story was updated to add new information.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The oldest player in the National Football League took off to his left, and an entire fanbase once again held its collective breath. Aaron Rodgers slid on the MetLife Stadium turf – where his 2023 season ended after four plays – for a first down and gain of 5 yards on the game’s second play.  

‘The first time he ran,’ running back Breece Hall said, ‘I kind of started laughing in the back of my head. I was just like, ‘He’s crazy.”

If salvation is a Super Bowl victory, then Thursday night was a salve for New York Jets fans. Rodgers, for the first time since he experienced the cruelest of season-ending injuries during his Jets debut against the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 11, 2023, took the field at MetLife. He led his team to a 24-3 victory over the New England Patriots while looking like the type of quarterback who can send the Jets to the postseason for the first time in 14 years.

By the end of the third quarter, the chants of “J-E-T-S!” had turned into “Aa-ron Rod-gers!” As the game ended, Rodgers hoped for a final defensive stop so he could soak it all in during kneel-downs to wind out the clock.

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‘It was a really special night,’ he said. ‘All those chants are really meaningful.’

Rodgers didn’t carry an American flag during pregame introductions like he did last year. Instead, he carried the early-season hopes of a championship-starved franchise and delivered. Rodgers was 27-of-35 for 281 passing yards and two touchdowns. He completed eight of his first nine passes to six different receivers. 

And he would have passed on carrying a flag this time, he said.

‘I felt a really good calm about (the game) honestly. I didn’t think a whole lot about it,’ the 40-year-old said. ‘Obviously, it was emotional to come back home for the first time since then, but I really think the first week kind of took a lot of the fears and anxiety of playing out. And (Thursday), I felt like I played pretty free.

‘If the expectation is winning, then we’re going to celebrate it, but we should expect a win. The next step is expecting to dominate.’

On the first play of the second quarter, he saw pressure from the Patriots’ defense and escaped the pocket left to find wideout Allen Lazard, who broke away for an explosive 27-yard gain. According to Next Gen Stats, Rodgers was 5-of-5 for 62 yards and a TD when throwing on the run at more than 8 mph.

Rodgers knew that extending plays was something he’d have to gradually ramp up as he readjusted to the game speed of the NFL. He felt good from warmups through regulation Thursday.

‘It felt like I was myself from quite a few years ago,’ he said.

Head coach Robert Saleh said the mobility Rodgers displayed during training camp was on display for the national television audience.

“He may not be what he used to be, but he still has plenty in his legs,” Saleh said. “His arm is still 30 and his mind is still operating at a high level, but he was definitely impressive.”

Lazard scored the game’s first touchdown by beating Pats cornerback Marcus Jones with a move at the line of scrimmage. Rodgers’ former Green Bay Packers teammate wanted to give him the ball to commemorate his first touchdown at home as a New York Jet, and Lazard immediately ran the pigskin to Rodgers once he crossed the goal line.

Lazard gifted Rodgers his game-worn No. 10 jersey. The receiver hung onto his gloves.

‘That’s something I’ll show my grandkids,’ he said.  

Early, Rodgers was content to let his receivers do the work. He delivered them the ball at all different arm angles with velocity, including one sling on a slant to Garrett Wilson on a third-and-5 for a first down that put the Jets on the cusp of the red zone. He threw one side-arm pass to Hall, who picked up more yards after the catch. Hall punched in a 1-yard touchdown run to put the home team up 14-0 and cap off a drive that lasted 7:47. Rodgers and Saleh had an interaction on the sideline that social media ate up; after the game, the two brushed aside any controversy.

By halftime, the Jets had 17 first downs. They averaged 15.3 per game in 2023, when they were stuck on a carousel of Zach Wilson, Tim Boyle and Trevor Siemian once Rodgers went down. The Jets outgained the Pats 252 yards to 40 in the opening 30 minutes, and Rodgers was 15-of-20 with 170 yards. New York ended the game with a 66.7% conversion rate on third down (10-for-15).

‘Winning cures a lot of things,’ Lazard said.

There is room for improvement, of course. Rodgers and Wilson were clearly not on the same page regarding alignment and pre-snap motion on the series before halftime. They missed an open connection on an intermediate out-route and twice on back-shoulder throws, but Rodgers found Mike Williams early in the fourth quarter to set up a field goal. 

“Expect greatness, that’s the main thing, expect greatness,” Williams told USA TODAY Sports of working with Rodgers. “Got to know what you’re doing if you’re out there with (number) eight. He holds everyone accountable. … We got to be on our (stuff).”

The clearest sign of a new day for Gang Green came on the first drive of the second half. Once again, the Jets drove for more than seven minutes (7:10). Rodgers ran for another first down early in the series. He threw on the run to his right to Conklin for a first down. New York did need to burn a pair of timeouts on the drive, but Rodgers put kerosene on the blowout by sticking with Wilson and completing a dart to him on a route to the front pylon that beat New England cornerback Christian Gonzalez, who broke hard on the ball.

‘We definitely feel like we left some plays out there and we still won by three (touchdowns), so I’m excited to get back to work and figure it out,’ Wilson said.

Wilson was then asked if he ever thought back to his first two years in the league when the Jets’ dismal offense was the primary reason the team went 7-10 in back-to-back years. 

“Yeah, I ain’t gonna fake it,” he said, laughing. “It’s a great opportunity for me and the whole receiver group, everyone that’s a skill position on offense, to have fun and play the game we love and score points and get up and down the field. That’s why we play this game. That’s why we play offense. It’s exciting.”

Later in the third, Rodgers rolled to his left, flipped his hips and completed a pass over the middle of the field to Conklin while taking a hit from Patriots cornerback Alex Austin. Rodgers responded by immediately popping up under Austin’s facemask. 

“It was cool to see him running around,” Hall said. “I honestly didn’t expect that.” 

The Jets hadn’t held a 21-point advantage over the Patriots since Oct. 15, 2000, in Bill Belichick’s first season coaching in New England. The Jets have also have have never had a quarterback like Rodgers. They finally found out how much fun that could lead to.

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There’s gold (and burgundy) in those waiver-wire kickers!

Washington’s Austin Seibert just signed a contract last week, and a few days later he went 7-for-7 on his field goal attempts to lead the Commanders to an unlikely victory.

Fantasy managers (in leagues that use kickers) can find that kind of unexpected value on a weekly basis – if they know where to look. Usually a game with a high over/under total will promote kicker scoring … although last week’s Commanders-Giants game did not fit that description. That game reminds us that offenses that sputter in the red zone are also quite good for kickers.

Rankings are compiled by Daniel Dobish, TheHuddle.com. 

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Fantasy football Week 3 kicker rankings

(*-check status before kickoff)

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