How bad is it in New England? Well, through the early games Sunday the Patriots were host to two of the four worst quarterback performances of Week 5.
That means Mac Jones was so bad he warranted replacement. And his replacement, Bailey Zappe, was so bad he made Jones look like a reasonable option. By their powers combined the New Orleans Saints handed Bill Belichick the worst home loss of his storied career.
Jones and Zappe weren’t good, but they also weren’t alone. A pair of NFL candidates also turned in regrettable performances — one in a win. So while the Patriots are the schadenfreude main course, other helpings were served up across the league.
Who was the worst quarterback this week? Fortunately, we’ve got tools to better understand just how damaging these underwhelming performances were. Using the advanced stat expected points added (EPA) can gauge how much a quarterback brings to the table compared to a typical player.
By comparing each passer’s Week 5 EPA against their 2022 and 2023 combined average, we get a better picture of just how frustrating their days were. And we can find both of those thanks to The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin and his incredibly useful stats sites RBSDM.com and HabitatRing.com. So let’s take a look at who disappointed the most in the fifth game of the 2023 season.