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It appears there wasn’t much confidence in Mac Jones coming out of the New England Patriots locker room this season before he was benched in favor of backup Bailey Zappe.
Jones began the 2023 season as New England’s starter. He was benched four times before Zappe took over as the starting quarterback in a Week 13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Will Grier was also mentioned as a potential candidate to take over under center, but Callahan and Kyed reported that he was “never a serious consideration” to replace Jones as New England’s starter.
The Patriots went 2-9 with Jones under center as he completed 64.9 percent of his passes for 2,120 yards and 10 touchdowns against 12 interceptions in 11 games.
When Zappe finally took over, “the internal consensus was he hadn’t beaten Jones out so much as he waited him out,” Callahan and Kyed wrote, adding that “an intact Zappe was better than a broken Jones.”
Zappe has gone 2-3 as New England’s starter, completing 67.1 percent of his passes for 1,026 yards and six touchdowns against five interceptions. He’ll start Sunday’s regular-season finale against the New York Jets.
Plenty of changes are expected in Foxborough following a disastrous 2023 campaign that will end in the Patriots missing the playoffs for the third time in four seasons.
A head coaching change has been mentioned as a possibility, which would end the Bill Belichick era. It’s also likely the Patriots will draft a new quarterback this spring and start over on offense.
With the season coming to an end on Sunday, it likely won’t be long until fans find out what’s in store for the franchise moving forward.
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