Tag: Mac Jones

Patriots TE Mike Gesicki shows support for QB Mac Jones

Patriots TE Mike Gesicki shared his thoughts on Mac Jones after the quarterback’s recent struggles.

New England Patriots tight end Mike Gesicki still supports quarterback Mac Jones, who was demoted to the scout team at Wednesday’s practice.

Quarterback Bailey Zappe has taken the starting reps, and The Athletic’s Jeff Howe reported that the team was preparing to start Zappe on Sunday. As of now, there has been no definitive role for Jones for the upcoming game against the Los Angeles Chargers.

Jones struggled in last Sunday’s game against the New York Giants. He went 12-of-21 on the afternoon, throwing for 89 yards and two interceptions. He was benched for the fourth time this season and second time in back-to-back games.

Gesicki had nothing but good things to say about his quarterback on Wednesday, as transcribed by NESN.com’s Zack Cox.

“I’ll never have anything negative to say about Mac,” Gesicki said. “He’s the same guy that reached out to me the day after I signed here. He’s the same guy that had me over to his house. He’s the same guy that has led us through good and led us through adversity.

“He’s the same guy, and I think that he deserves a ton of credit for the way that he handles himself, the way that he goes about his process, how he prepares. I can’t say enough good things about him.”

Gesicki has had a decent rapport with Jones. He has recorded 21 catches for 182 yards and a touchdown this season. This included the game-winning touchdown catch against the Buffalo Bills on October 22.

Nevertheless, the tides appear to be shifting at the quarterback position.

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Patriots QB Mac Jones reportedly working with scout team at practice

Mac Jones was reportedly working with the scout team at practice.

Could a quarterback change be coming in New England?

Wednesday’s practice revealed a lot about the state of the quarterback position. Per MassLive’s Mark Daniels, Mac Jones ran with the scout team offense, and Bailey Zappe is in line to make his first start of the season at quarterback on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers.

It’s been a difficult season for Jones and the quarterback position overall in New England. The third-year signal-caller has thrown for 2,120 yards, 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions on the year.

Inconsistency has plagued Jones throughout the course of the season, and he has not been able to find a consistent groove in the offense. He has been benched four times this year, in what has been the toughest season of his NFL career.

Time will tell who takes the top reps on Sunday. For now, it doesn’t appear that Jones is part of the starting quarterback equation.

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Bailey Zappe taking first-team reps with the Patriots (again) is a sign the Mac Jones era is over

Mac Jones might be getting benched if Patriots’ practice reps are to be believed.

The Mac Jones era of New England Patriots football might be coming to an end.

ESPN’s Mike Reiss reported on Wednesday that Patriots quarterback Bailey Zappe has returned to taking first-team reps with the offense, followed by practice squad rookie quarterback Malik Cunningham.

Reiss noted that Jones and practice squad quarterback Will Grier didn’t take any throws when media was present.

This is the first sign we’ve gotten so far that the Patriots might be moving on from having Jones as their starting quarterback, at least for the time being.

Everything has been in a downward spiral for Jones after his first two seasons in the NFL, with a report recently suggesting that the 2021 first-round quarterback was losing support in the New England locker room.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick, whose future is also in question with the franchise after more than two decades at the helm, deflected inquiries recently about who would start for New England going forward.

While Zappe taking first-team practice reps isn’t a confirmation that Jones will be benched, it’s a pretty clear indication this is where the Patriots are headed for the time being.

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After latest QB struggles, Patriots reportedly re-signing Will Grier

Backup QB Will Grier is reportedly returning to New England.

The New England Patriots are re-signing veteran quarterback Will Grier to their practice squad less than a week after cutting him from the main roster. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the news on Tuesday.

Grier was believed to be in the mix to potentially start for the Patriots with the continued struggles for Mac Jones. Bailey Zappe also hasn’t done enough behind the scenes to prove he’s worthy of the starting job title.

Even if Grier wasn’t the answer at quarterback, he at least offered something different than the team was seeing with Jones and Zappe under center. But those hopes were nixed after coach Bill Belichick claimed the journeyman backup had some catching up to do in the offense.

Not long after those comments, Grier was released from the main roster.

Now that he’s back in the mix, he can continue competing for an opportunity to be elevated from the practice squad back to the main roster. It might seem like a long-shot hope with only six games left in the regular season, but given the ongoing struggles for the Patriots at quarterback, it shouldn’t be considered out of the question, either.

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Here’s what Mac Jones said when asked about joining another team

Would Mac Jones consider joining another team?

After making a Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2021, things have gone off a cliff for quarterback Mac Jones in his run with the New England Patriots.

It’s quite jarring to see the rapid decline from where Jones started to where he is right now in his quarterback journey. In Sunday’s loss to the New York Giants, he didn’t even look good enough to be a backup in the NFL.

He was outplayed by New York Giants rookie quarterback Tommy DeVito and benched in the second half in a 10-7 loss.

The Patriots haven’t done a great job of surrounding Jones with the necessary talent to succeed at the NFL level, and some have wondered if the former first-round draft pick would be interested in a fresh start with another team.

“I mean, I’m good right now,” Jones said, when appearing on “Jones & Mego.” “I really want to be the quarterback here. I’ve always wanted to be a quarterback in the NFL, and specifically for the Patriots. Like I said, I’ve got a lot of room to grow and everything, and I’m going to just continue to work hard and do all the things I can to put myself in a position to have success.”

The ship might have sailed on Jones being the long-term option at quarterback for the Patriots. Barring a magical turnaround in the final six games of the season, New England seems to be heading in the direction of drafting a new quarterback in 2024 and rebooting the offense.

It would be a tough way to end things for Jones, who seemed like the perfect fit to lead the Patriots in the post-Tom Brady era two years ago.

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This Rob Gronkowski Patriots comment was hilariously brutal

Rob Gronkowski admitted Sunday’s game was the first half of a Patriots game he’s seen all season, and it left him stunned.

Former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski did not mince words when talking about Patriots quarterback Mac Jones.

Jones struggled in Sunday’s game against the New York Giants. He threw for 89 yards and two interceptions before being benched for Bailey Zappe in the second half. His 27.8 quarterback rating was his lowest of the season, and his season rating of 77.0 is the lowest in his three-year career.

Gronkowski appeared on the Fox NFL halftime show, alongside Michael Strahan, and summed up the first half of the game in the most “Gronk” way possible.

“It’s very frustrating as an ex-Patriot to watch the game,” said Gronkowski. “It’s actually one of the first times this year I’ve watched a complete half of a Patriots game, and let me tell you, it’s as bad as what the fans have been saying. Mac Jones should have thrown about four picks already.”

The Patriots ended up losing to the Giants by a 10-7 margin.

It’s safe to say that everybody is beginning to recognize the struggles Jones is having. One has to wonder if Jones will be able to salvage his season in the final six games.

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Rex Ryan has harsh advice for Patriots coach Bill Belichick

Rex Ryan goes in hard on Bill Belichick’s Patriots: “Your team stinks”

ESPN analyst and Bill Belichick’s former adversary, Rex Ryan, has obviously had enough of the New England Patriots’ continued indecision at the quarterback position.

Belichick has been non-committal to naming Mac Jones or Bailey Zappe as the starting quarterback for the Patriots. It’s a bizarre approach that culminated in Jones taking all of the first-half snaps under center on Sunday, while Zappe played for the entire second half of the game.

“Please stop. Just name your dang starter,” Ryan urged Belichick, when appearing on ESPN’s “Get Up.” “It doesn’t matter. They both stink. Whether it’s Zappe, Pea Shooter Jones—we don’t care. They both stink. Just go ahead and save the drama. Like we care about your team. Your team stinks.”

When appearing on “The Greg Hill Show” on Monday morning, Belichick claimed he wasn’t going to announce starters every week, particularly at the quarterback position.

So it could be another week of speculation and guess work when it comes to Week 13 in New England.

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5 big takeaways from Patriots 10-7 loss at Giants

Here are 5 big takeaways from Sunday’s Patriots-Giants game.

There was once a time when the New England Patriots were renowned for the level of extra preparation for their next game they underwent during the bye week. That time seems to have long passed.

Coming off their annual week of in-season rest, the Patriots fell to the New York Giants 10-7 on Sunday afternoon in the battle for the third overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft.

The loss punctuated what has been a brutally disappointing season for a team that used to routinely dominate the NFL, and one that had even usually reserved media members openly astounded.

Here are five big takeaways from the loss.

The Morning After…major draft blunder comes back to haunt Patriots

One of Bill Belichick’s worst drafting blunders came back to haunt him against the Giants.

The tanking crowd had plenty to celebrate as the significantly lighter New England Patriots bandwagon sputtered to 2-9 on Sunday.

A late fourth-quarter comeback drive by quarterback Bailey Zappe and the Patriots offense was ultimately foiled, due to a missed 35-yard field goal attempt by rookie kicker Chad Ryland.

As if the fan-base needed further reminding, the loss to the Giants cemented the fact that the Patriots are one of the worst teams in football. It also kept them in position to have a shot at coming away with one of the top-two quarterbacks, Caleb Williams or Drake Maye, in the 2024 NFL draft.

Let’s get into some leftover notes from Sunday’s game.

The NFL’s Worst of the Week: Diontae Johnson, shotgun runs, bad Jets/Pats, Shawn Hochuli

This week’s Worst of the Week in the NFL included Diontae Johnson, Jared Goff, the Jets and Patriots, and of course, more horrible officiating!

Football is a wonderful, thrilling, inspiring game that can lift us to new heights in our lives.

But football is also a weird, inexplicable, at times downright stupid game that may force you to perform Keith Moon-level furniture destruction in your own living room.

So, as much as we at Touchdown Wire endeavor to write about what makes the game great, there are also times when it’s important to point out the dumb plays, boneheaded decisions, and officiating errors that make football all too human.

Folks, it’s time for the Worst of the Week for Week 12 of the 2023 NFL season.