Patriots Mailbag: Why Mac Jones Is Facing Pivotal Stretch

Mailbag time! As another week of quarterback speculation comes to a close, let’s dive right into your New England Patriots questions:

@Bushford_oshay
Who are we most likely to have at QB1 going forward?
Barring a setback or major surprise, Mac Jones will start Sunday against the New York Jets. Bill Belichick confirmed that in his Thursday news conference, saying Jones, who was removed from the injury report Wednesday, will be “fully available and ready to go” for the Patriots’ most important game of the season to date.

But Belichick wouldn’t make any commitments beyond that. There was no “Mac is our quarterback” declaration like the ones he repeatedly made about Cam Newton during the 2020 season. Instead, the company lines since Jones’ injury have been “day by day” and “we’ll see how it goes.”

“We’ll take it from here,” Belichick said during a testy exchange Thursday. “Don’t keep trying to trap me into stuff down the future because today’s today.”

I still believe Jones is the best quarterback on the Patriots’ roster, and that New England should give him ample time this week to shake off any lingering rust from his monthlong absence. Yanking him in the first half again, as they did in last week’s loss to Chicago, would be a mistake, even if he struggles early against a talented Jets defense.

But Belichick’s comments suggest he’s not yet sold on Jones as the Patriots’ long-term answer. And based on Jones’ performance since mid-December of last season, that’s not an egregious opinion.

Since the infamous three-pass wind game in Buffalo, Jones has made nine starts (including one in the playoffs) and thrown 10 touchdown passes with 13 interceptions, completing 62.2% of his passes and posting a passer rating of 75.9. In his 12 starts before the Buffalo game, he had 16 touchdowns, eight interceptions, a 70.3% completion rate and a 97.1 passer rating.

Jones wasn’t helped by the Patriots’ offensive overhaul and some of their philosophical decisions early this season — he should not be attempting the most deep balls in the NFL while utilizing play-action at the lowest rate of any QB — but he also deserves blame for his struggles. The interception he threw in his first game back, for example, was inexcusable.

This, then, is a pivotal stretch for the second-year quarterback. The way I see it, Belichick essentially is telling Jones that the starting job is his for now, but that he needs to prove he should keep it. It seems unlikely we’ll see a repeat of 2020, when the Patriots showed no interest in giving Jarrett Stidham a shot even as Newton scuffled throughout the second half of the season and was benched multiple times. If Jones doesn’t cut down his turnovers and recapture the impressive form he showed as a rookie, the door is open for Bailey Zappe to take his job.

It’s unclear how long that leash is, and the buzz around Zappe is considerably less feverish after his uninspiring second half against the Bears. But the fourth-round rookie has shown potential and won games this season. Until Jones’ play or Belichick’s words say otherwise, he’ll continue to be viewed as a possible midseason replacement.

Bill Belichick Clearly Not Convinced Mac Jones Is Patriots’ Franchise QB

Oct 27, 2022

@KP_Booth
Do you see any chance of long-term effects on Mac from the fans turning on him so quickly?
Teammates and coaches have raved about Jones’ toughness and resilience for over a year now, but he wouldn’t be human if what happened Monday night didn’t irk him. Here’s a player coming off one of the best rookie seasons by a QB in recent memory, playing in his first game in a month, and his home fans are booing him and chanting for his backup before the end of the first quarter.

And Jones wasn’t even playing poorly! The offense was stagnant, surely, but that was more the result of a string of Trent Brown penalties and a few stuffed run plays than anything Jones was doing. Some of the loudest boos came after Jones — who’d just scrambled for a first down on third-and-5 and moved the chains again with a nice strike to Hunter Henry — threw a checkdown pass to Damien Harris that Harris dropped. Why are you booing the quarterback in that scenario? How would you feel if you were in Jones’ shoes?

The crowd reaction was a bad look for the Patriots fanbase, and Belichick deserves criticism for placing Jones into that primetime powder keg. The coach will pooh-pooh the boos as inconsequential external noise, and he’s said multiple times that he’s not worried about Jones’ confidence. But feeling that vitriol from your home fans can’t be something that’s easily brushed off as a young player. Jones has a right to be pissed. Jakobi Meyers sure was.

Ex-Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson wrote on Twitter that Jones will “never forget the fans turning on him” and “always hold this against them.” Only Jones knows whether that’s true, but it’s not hyperbole to say this incident could permanently alter the relationship between the QB and his team’s supporters.

@Nicky_Pots
Who’s more likely to get traded before the deadline: Agholor or Wynn?
More likely? Probably Nelson Agholor. The Patriots are deeper at receiver than they are at tackle, and I think Agholor, as a player, would be a more attractive trade target.

The contract values could be a sticking point with both players (Agholor has a $9 million salary; Wynn’s is $10.4 million) but Wynn simply doesn’t have the physical measurables that many NFL teams look for in their tackles. The Patriots don’t mind having someone who’s 6-foot-2, 310 pounds play that position, but a large portion of the league favors taller tackles. That’s why many of Wynn’s pre-draft scouting reports projected him as an NFL guard. And that’s on top of the fact that Wynn has struggled in pass protection this season and has committed an NFL-high eight penalties despite missing one game and playing less than 85% of snaps in three others.

Agholor also has been a nonfactor outside of his Week 2 explosion in Pittsburgh, but the Patriots have too many mouths to feed in their receiver room with rookie Tyquan Thornton off injured reserve. I wouldn’t be surprised if either Agholor or Kendrick Bourne is dealt ahead of next Tuesday’s trade deadline. I think the Patriots would be better off moving Agholor and actually giving Bourne more playing time (he’s been targeted just 14 times through seven weeks but has nine first downs on 11 touches), but the latter probably is a more likely trade candidate since he’s on a much more affordable contract and has a year remaining on his deal.

The Patriots have gotten trade calls on all three of the aforementioned players, plus running back Damien Harris and safety Jabrill Peppers, according to multiple reports. They’ve traded away players in deadline deals in three of the last six years, shipping out defensive end Michael Bennett in 2019, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in 2017 and linebacker Jamie Collins in 2016. They were quiet at last year’s deadline, choosing not to trade or acquire anyone.

@FrogmansWorld
Do you think pats add at deadline as well? Like LB? OL?
If the Patriots choose to buy at the deadline — which could depend on the result of this Sunday’s game in East Rutherford — I could see them adding at linebacker, edge rusher or offensive tackle. Those would be my big three. Stay tuned for much more trade deadline coverage early next week.

@pmolo123
Is NE much worse than average at controlling QB runs or is that just how it appears?
That’s hard to properly judge since not every team has faced high-level rushing quarterbacks this season, but it’s clearly been an issue for New England. Two of the top seven QB rushing performances thus far in 2022 have come against the Patriots: Lamar Jackson’s 107 yards in Week 3 (No. 2) and Justin Fields’ 82 yards this past Monday (No. 7). No other team has even two top-15 showings on that list, and only Chicago has two in the top 20 (Nos. 15 and 20).

Fields and the Bears utilized some of the same QB run concepts that Jackson’s Ravens had success with, and defensive tackle Davon Godchaux said he expects future opponents to do the same until the Patriots prove they can stop them. Fortunately for the Patriots, it’ll be a while before they face another quarterback with top-tier rushing talent, but they’ll need to fix these problems before they face Josh Allen twice and Kyler Murray once over the last six weeks of the season.