How Patriots Split QB Reps After Mac Jones’ Latest Benching

It’s unclear whether Mac Jones will keep his Patriots starting job this week or whether the team has even made that decision.

But Jones did remain in his usual spot as New England’s top quarterback during the team’s lone bye-week practice, offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien confirmed Monday. Backups Bailey Zappe and Will Grier both received looks, as well.

“The other day in practice, Mac took the first-team reps,” O’Brien said in a video conference. “Bailey rotated in there. Will Grier rotated in there.”

Jones has been benched three times this season, including in the Patriots’ 10-6 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Germany last Sunday. Zappe struggled in all three of his relief appearances after being cut at the end of training camp. Grier hasn’t appeared in a regular-season game since his rookie year in 2019, and head coach Bill Belichick recently said the 28-year-old mostly has been limited to scout-team work.

O’Brien, who said Belichick will make the final decision on who starts Sunday against the New York Giants, indicated that call will hinge on how the QBs perform in practice this week. New England is set to hold its first post-bye practice Tuesday.

“I think what I’m saying that’s really important is that — and I’ve said this, and I know that people may scoff at this — but one of the reasons why I really enjoy coaching here is you have to earn it on the practice field,” O’Brien said. “And you earn it on the practice field by quality reps. Really, you have to strive for perfection on the practice field. You’re not going to reach perfection on the practice field, but you’re going to strive for it and try to execute at a high level, and then hopefully, that leads to good execution in the games.

“Right now, we haven’t had consistent enough execution in the games, obviously, so we’ll see what happens down the road here.”

Staging a three-way quarterback competition in the middle of the season isn’t feasible, O’Brien said, but there is room for two signal-callers to fight for the job. Belichick’s remarks about Grier seemed to indicate any battle would be between Jones and Zappe, though that’s not confirmed.

“The way that we practice here, there’s plenty of reps to go around,” O’Brien said. “Now, can you do it with four guys? Three guys? No. But for two guys, there’s enough reps to go around where everybody gets a shot at it. So I don’t think that’s an issue at all. These guys run the same offense. They’re in the huddle with the same guys. I don’t think that’s that big of an issue.”

The 2-8 Patriots entered Week 12 with the worst record in the AFC and the third-worst in the NFL. Despite that and their uncertainty behind center, they opened as 3.5-point road favorites over the Giants, who are 3-8 and starting third-string rookie QB Tommy DeVito.