Patriots offensive leaders on who will start at quarterback: ‘We’ll see’
Who will start at quarterback for the New England Patriots this Sunday? Bill Belichick won’t say, and two of New England’s offensive leaders kept mum when asked Thursday as well.
“I think everybody will be ready,” said tight end Hunter Henry. “We’ve gotten a lot of reps with each guy and I know they’re all taking advantage of each opportunity.”
“We’ll see,” said center David Andrews. “We all got a lot we can focus on but no matter what it’s always team success and team failure.”
The question of who should be the starting quarterback going forward took on added urgency after incumbent starter Mac Jones was benched for the fourth time this season during last weekend’s 10-7 loss to the New York Giants. Now in his third year, Jones has notably regressed since being named to the Pro Bowl as a rookie and currently ranks among the least productive quarterbacks in the NFL with 2,120 passing yards, 10 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions through 11 games.
Since Sunday’s game backups Bailey Zappe and Malik Cunningham have seen their snaps increase significantly during practice, and Zappe has reportedly received the majority of the first-team reps so far this week.
Though Zappe’s performance in games has been inconsistent as well, he provided a promising glimpse Sunday when he led the Patriots on an 11-play, 60-yard scoring drive to open the second half.
“He was able to execute, make some good checks, get the ball into our playmakers’ hands and did a good job of executing,” Henry said.
Henry added later that Jones is a competitor and a leader and he’ll be ready for whatever opportunity comes his way. But whether it’s Jones, Zappe, Cunningham or someone else, Andrews cautioned fans not to expect anyone to step in and become the team’s savior.
“There’s not one magical thing you’re going to do midway through the year, player-wise, even the trades, it’s very rare a guy comes in and fixes everyone’s problems,” Andrews said. “When teams fix problems it’s when they’re all together and they’re more consistent making better moves and better execution, not making mistakes and things like that as a football team. It’s never just one guy.”