Mac Jones expected to start at QB in 2023, but Bailey Zappe reportedly could compete for job
Zappe won some fans over in 2022 and could have a chance to recapture "Zappe Fever" in 2023.
It’s been well-analyzed already just how big the 2023 season will be for Mac Jones, but it might come with some added challenges.
Jones is “expected” to enter the season as the Patriots’ starting quarterback, however, backup Bailey Zappe will have a chance to “push” Jones for the job, The Athletic’s Jeff Howe reported.
Jones was briefly usurped by Zappe in 2022 following his ankle injury that caused him to miss three games. In Jones’s absence, Zappe led the Patriots to two wins in the only starts he made (Brian Hoyer started the other game), as New England’s offense arguably had its best games last season with the fourth-round rookie under center.
There was also a brief quarterback controversy when Zappe replaced Jones after the second-year quarterback struggled in the first three drives in his return from injury in Week 7 against the Bears. Zappe led the Patriots to a pair of touchdown drives as fans across Gillette Stadium serenaded him with chants of his name.
Those chants didn’t last too long as the Patriots lost that night, 33-14, and Zappe never saw the field again in 2022 as Jones was named the starter for the remainder of the season.
In his report, Howe also wrote that Patriots coach Bill Belichick “instructed the coaching staff not to be too hard on Jones” during the season, with the coaching staff taking a more “constructive approach” as opposed to “yelling at him.”
Howe noted this was “atypical” for both the Patriots, who have been known to be hard on criticizing players under Belichick, and for Jones, who received hard coaching under Nick Saban at Alabama.
But the coaching situation was a bit unusual generally speaking on the offensive side of the ball for the Patriots in 2022. Longtime defensive coach Matt Patricia was the de facto offensive coordinator, as he called plays in addition to being the offensive line coach. Longtime special teams coach Joe Judge was the quarterbacks coach, too.
As a result, the Patriots’ offense faltered. After ranking in the top 10 in many offensive metrics in 2021, the Patriots ranked in the bottom 10 in many of those same metrics in 2022, including total yards (26th) and red zone efficiency (last).
Jones also squandered. Following a rookie season in which he threw for 3,801 yards, 22 touchdowns, and 13 touchdowns with a 92.5 passer rating, Jones threw for 2,997 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions with an 84.8 passer rating in 14 games during the 2022 season.
Jones’s regression led many to wonder if he should be the Patriots’ quarterback of the future, which might be why they hired the well-experienced Bill O’Brien to be their offensive coordinator in hopes of finding out the answer to that question in 2023.
When the 2023 season ends, the Patriots will have a few months to decide if they want to pick up the fifth-year option of Jones’s rookie contract. The option won’t come cheap as it’s been speculated that the fifth year of a rookie quarterback’s deal in 2025 could be worth over $30 million.
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