Patriots Got A QB Controversy – Will Mac Jones Or Bailey Zappe Start Next Week?

The New England Patriots quarterback position might be up for grabs and nobody knows what head coach Bill Belichick will do.

Before the season started, Mac Jones was hoped to be the future of the football franchise.

In his rookie season in the NFL, the former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback threw for more than 3,800 yards and 22 touchdown passes.

Jones helped the Patriots win 10 games in 2021 and make the playoffs despite getting annihilated by the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card round.  

Since then, the tides have changed.

Jones suffered a high ankle sprain in week three – forcing him to miss a few weeks of action.

Then in the following week backup quarterback, Brian Hoyer got hurt and the Patriots turned to undrafted Bailey Zappe.

For the most part, Zappe has played pretty well given what was expected.

In four games, he has thrown for 781 yards, averaging 8.5 per attempt.  

Interestingly enough, even as Jones was cleared to play, Belichick planned to play both against the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football.

The game started with Jones – but he struggled early on.

After Zappe got his chance, Belichick did not turn back to Jones.

That’s because he led his team down the field to two touchdown drives in the first half.

Although not much was done by the Patriots on offense in the second half – Belichick stuck with Zappe.

And it will be interesting to see what Belichick decides to do next week with quarterbacks.

After last night’s game, he played coy with the media, which isn’t uncommon with him. 

Asked who is the starting quarterback, the six-time Super Bowl winning coach said:

“We just finished the game.”

And it didn’t get much clearer this morning either when Belichick was asked if Jones will be the starter if healthy.

“That’s a hypothetical question,” he said.

“Let’s see where that is and what that is.”

But it leads you to think that this will very much be an open competition during the season going forward. 

Should Jones or Zappe struggle as the starting quarterback, Belichick might turn to the other.

Or perhaps, Belichick may rotate both quarterbacks, depending on the game situation. 

But it remains to be seen who will start on Sunday against a big divisional game against the New York Jets and who will play the most.