During the bye week, Bill Belichick gave his assistants about 36 hours of vacation time.
Perhaps a little more time would have allowed them to gather their thoughts.
Bill O’Brien, the offensive coordinator, said on Monday that Belichick hasn’t chosen a starting quarterback yet. You recall that at the end of the Patriots’ most recent defeat, a 10-6 humiliation on a global scale that Jones’ replacement, Bailey Zappe, capped with a mind-numbing interception, Belichick benched Mac Jones. O’Brien suggested that the staff might wait to announce this week’s starter until they saw who gave the best practice performance. But honestly, how concerned are you?
Is there a topic that is more overdone than the Patriots’ quarterback situation, which is a mess of poor passers tied to one of the league’s weakest teams?
Three times, Jones has been benched. According to Pro Football Focus, Zappe is the league’s least accurate quarterback this year. Will Grier, the third-string quarterback, may have played less than the 40-year-old virgin because the Patriots, Cowboys, Bengals, and Panthers haven’t given him a regular-season snap since 2019. Moreover, Malik Cunningham is an undrafted rookie who has experience both on special teams and as a receiver.
It makes sense to hold a competition in training. O’Brien hinted that two quarterbacks could get enough practice reps to be adequately prepared for the position. Let’s simplify this for him.
You can choose between Jones and Zappe, who are the Pats’ best options. Cunningham is another one I’ll take.
Cunningham should be given consideration right now if he was good enough to fill in as the Patriots’ number-two backup in a mid-October loss in Las Vegas. Unlike the other quarterbacks, he is a dual threat who can buy time behind a porous offensive line, giving his receivers an extra second or two to get open.
In the second half of a preseason game on August 10 against the Houston Texans, Malik Cunningham, the quarterback for the New England Patriots, scurries out of the pocket. (Greg M. Cooper/AP Photo)Since the summer, Cunningham has been hailed by many as a wise player. The Patriots’ passing attack has already been reduced to Day 1 concepts with Jones: screens, slants, shallow crosses, curls, and deep shots that are almost exclusively off play-action plays. Cunningham’s got this.
