FOXBORO, Mass. — The New England Patriots have three games remaining on their regular-season schedule. Will Mac Jones be their starting quarterback for all three?
Head coach Bill Belichick declined to answer that question Wednesday as the Patriots continued preparations for their Christmas Eve matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Question: Bill, is the plan to stick with Mac here at quarterback for the final three weeks?
Belichick: “Yeah, the plan is to try to beat Cincinnati.”
It’s unclear whether that “Yeah” was an affirmative answer or a simple transition. Here’s a video of the exchange, which came at the end of Belichick’s midweek news conference:
Jones is coming off arguably the worst performance of his Patriots career. He completed just 13 of 31 passes for 112 yards Sunday in a 30-24 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. The insane ending to that game overshadowed Jones’ poor play, but his 41.9% completion rate and 3.6 yards-per-catch average both were the lowest of any game he’s started and finished. His yardage total was his second-lowest, ahead of only last season’s three-pass wind game in Buffalo.
The NFL season is 15 weeks old, and Jones’ latest outing — against one of the NFL’s worst pass defense, to boot — marked the first time in 2022 that a QB attempted more than 30 passes in a game and averaged less than 4 yards per attempt.
That was the low point of Jones’ second NFL campaign, but this has been a slog of a season for the first-round draft pick. Only Baker Mayfield has a worse QBR than Jones’ 30.7, and only Davis Mills, Mayfield, Zach Wilson and Kenny Pickett have lower passer ratings than Jones’ 82.6. Saddled with inconsistent offensive line play and a detrimental coaching setup, he has been substantially less effective than he was during his impressive rookie season. Jones also missed three games in October with a high ankle sprain.
Fourth-round rookie Bailey Zappe started the final two of those games after replacing an injured Brian Hoyer early in the first. The Western Kentucky product played well, nearly guiding the Patriots to an overtime win at Lambeau Field before nothing back-to-back blowout victories over the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns. New England scored 29 points against Detroit and 38 against Cleveland, totals it’s failed to match in any Jones start this season.
Though Zappe’s play regressed in his most recent appearance — he threw two interceptions in a lopsided loss to Chicago on “Monday Night Football” — a portion of the fanbase has continued to call for him to replace Jones. That buzz has grown louder since Sunday’s disastrous showing in Vegas.
Asked what the Patriots must do to fix their inefficient passing attack, Belichick replied: “Better execution. Better consistency. Better all the way around. I don’t think it’s any one thing.”
The Patriots will host the Bengals this Saturday at Gillette Stadium before facing the Miami Dolphins at home and the Buffalo Bills on the road to close out the season. They’d likely need to win at least two of those games to secure an AFC playoff spot.
