The Chicago Bears (2-4) will face the New England Patriots (3-3) on Monday Night Football in Week 7, although there’s a big question mark about who will be starting at quarterback for the Patriots.
Starter Mac Jones has been sidelined with a high ankle sprain suffered in Week 3. Backup Brian Hoyer started in place of Jones against the Green Bay Packers, but another injury forced fourth-round rookie Bailey Zappe into the lineup. Zappe nearly led the Patriots to victory over the Packers, and he’s since followed that up with back-to-back wins as a starter against the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns.
Jones appears to be close to returning from injury. But with Zappe’s performance over the last three weeks, could we have a quarterback controversy brewing in New England?
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick remained mum about who would be the starter once Jones is healthy.
“Well, we’ll see how that process is,” Belichick said, via NBC Sports Boston. “Mac still wasn’t able to play yesterday, so we’ll continue to evaluate him and see how he’s doing physically.”
Jones was voted to the Pro Bowl after a solid rookie season, where he completed 67.6 percent of his passes for 3,801 yards with 22 touchdowns and 13 interceptions for a 92.5 passer rating. But he got off to a slow stat in 2022, where he’s completed 64-of-97 passes for 786 yards with two touchdowns and five interceptions for a 76.2 passer rating.
Zappe has been productive since taking over in Week 4. In three games, Zappe has completed 51-of-70 passes (72.9%) for 596 yards and four touchdowns and one interception. By contrast, Bears quarterback Justin Fields has completed 63-of-115 (54.8%) passes for 869 yards with four touchdowns and five interceptions in six games.
But could Belichick keep riding the hot hand with Zappe? Guess we’ll have to wait and see. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time an injury led way to a young quarterback claiming the permanent starting job under Belichick in New England.
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