What Peter King Doesn’t Understand About Struggling Patriots

Peter King believes the Patriots should give one of their most uniquely talented players a real shot.

After a somewhat promising training camp and preseason, Malik Cunningham saw virtually no playing time for New England through 13 weeks. The undrafted rookie was available for the Patriots on Sunday, but Bill Belichick and company chose to ride with the underwhelming Bailey Zappe for the entirety of their painful 6-0 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers at Gillette Stadium.

Considering where the Patriots are at with roughly a month left to go in the regular season, King can't wrap his head around why Cunningham hasn't been utilized.

"I think I don't understand why the Patriots, obviously going nowhere with two shaky quarterbacks (that’s being kind) don't start the versatile Malik Cunningham at least a couple of times before the end of the season. What's there to lose?" King wrote in his latest Football Morning in America column for NBC Sports.

The Patriots obviously aren't high on Cunningham as a quarterback. There's a reason he was released twice dating back to August and has primarily worked as a wide receiver in practice. But like King said, there's no risk in playing Cunningham at this juncture. In fact, arguably the most harm the Louisville product can do to the Patriots at this point is perform well.

Perhaps the 25-year-old will see some run Thursday night when New England visits the Pittsburgh Steelers, who also are dealing with a suboptimal signal-caller situation.