Nice Read by Reiss: Could fixing the Patriots' offense include benching Mac Jones?

[Ghost of Ben Dreith]

Interesting read on Caleb Williams maybe staying in college if he doesn’t like who has the #1 pick in the draft. I wonder if Caleb Williams would return to college if it’s the Pats with the first overall pick? We currently check all the bad boxes: bad OL, bad WR group, defense minded HC, no RB threats.

A decision like that could come back to bite him….the Pats could be picking #1 the following year too.

BTW….the read on Williams is in the Reiss article posted by sb1 above.

 

[sb1]

Plus he didn’t look scared of his own shadow either. Now… imagine if he actually got to prepare as the starter… and got to actually work on timing and chemistry with these guys like Mac has gotten to do all year so far. The overthrows might actually become completions! It seems like an easy idea to digest. Is it the makings of a top 10 explosive offense? Hell no. Is it the pathway to finding a way to squeeze out SOME decent offensive production per game and at least not shooting themselves in the foot by scoring for the other team on a weekly basis? Could be!

If Zappe had anything resembling an NFL level arm then maybe. He doesn't though and very doubtful he ever will. Even Mac has a better arm than Zappe.

Pats should have never drafted Zappe. He's not an NFL QB. I said at the time of the pick it was the most head scratching pick of the draft. There were much better QB options in round 4 like Howell who is doing well in Washington and might have been in a strong position right now if he was the pick to take Mac Jones's job if Mac was playing like he is.

 

[Ross12]

If Zappe had anything resembling an NFL level arm then maybe. He doesn't though and very doubtful he ever will. Even Mac has a better arm than Zappe.

Pats should have never drafted Zappe. He's not an NFL QB. I said at the time of the pick it was the most head scratching pick of the draft. There were much better QB options in round 4 like Howell who is doing well in Washington and might have been in a strong position to take Mac Jones's job if Mac was playing like he is.

I agree his arm isn't great, but I'll take a guy with an F arm who's not ****ting all over himself vs. a guy with a D arm who is ****ting all over himself. That's where I'm at, currently.

 

[sb1]

I agree his arm isn't great, but I'll take a guy with an F arm who's not ****ting all over himself vs. a guy with a D arm who is ****ting all over himself. That's where I'm at, currently.

Hope we find someone better than both of them cause I think my patience has also run out with Jones. Alarming how he completely imploded the last two weeks. Or he somehow met Kellerman's Cliff (tm) at age 25? Lol

 

[Ross12]

Hope we find someone better than both of them cause I think my patience has also run out with Jones. Alarming how he completely imploded the last two weeks. Or he somehow met Kellerman's Cliff (tm) at age 25? Lol

It shouldn't be hard. Most team's QB2 (or even QB3!) are better than NE's whole QB room.

Indianapolis - Gardner Minshew
Houston - Case Keenum and Davis Mills
Washington - Jacoby Brissett
Detroit - Teddy Bridgewater and maybe Hendon Hooker
Denver - Cooper Rush
Philly - Marcus Mariota
Carolina - Andy Dalton
Green Bay - Sean Clifford
Arizona - Joshua Dobbs
Atlanta - Taylor Heinicke
Tennessee - Malik Willis
Miami - Mike White
Denver - Jarrett Stidham (****...)

 

[sb1]

It shouldn't be hard. Most team's QB2 (or even QB3!) are better than NE's whole QB room.

Indianapolis - Gardner Minshew
Houston - Case Keenum and Davis Mills
Washington - Jacoby Brissett
Detroit - Teddy Bridgewater and maybe Hendon Hooker
Denver - Cooper Rush
Philly - Marcus Mariota
Carolina - Andy Dalton
Green Bay - Sean Clifford
Arizona - Joshua Dobbs
Atlanta - Taylor Heinicke
Tennessee - Malik Willis
Miami - Mike White
Denver - Jarrett Stidham (****...)

Lol yeah my thoughts exactly on that.

Too bad we can't take Stidham's arm and mobility with Mac's accuracy last 2 weeks notwithstanding with Zappe being calm... if we could then we've got a franchise QB.

 

[venecol]

If Zappe had anything resembling an NFL level arm then maybe. He doesn't though and very doubtful he ever will. Even Mac has a better arm than Zappe.

Pats should have never drafted Zappe. He's not an NFL QB. I said at the time of the pick it was the most head scratching pick of the draft. There were much better QB options in round 4 like Howell who is doing well in Washington and might have been in a strong position right now if he was the pick to take Mac Jones's job if Mac was playing like he is.

I don't know man. Zappe broke the FBS record in passing yards (5967) & TDs (62), previously held by Burrow. He's a gun slinger. He came from a totally different air assault system. He played much better under Fat Matt's system, whereas BoB is more dink and dunk and screens. I believe the Patriots system was too used to a QB like Brady and we all know how difficult it is for receivers and even QBs. That's why I've been saying for several years now that we need to blow this Pats dynasty offense up and start fresh w/ new HC, OC, etc. Scrap the whole damn thing. Brady's not walking through that door to resucitate it. It is what it is.

 

[sb1]

I don't know man. Zappe broke the FBS record in passing yards (5967) & TDs (62), previously held by Burrow. He's a gun slinger. He came from a totally different air assault system. He played much better under Fat Matt's system, whereas BoB is more dink and dunk and screens. I believe the Patriots system was too used to a QB like Brady and we all know how difficult it is for receivers and even QBs. That's why I've been saying for several years now that we need to blow this Pats dynasty offense up and start fresh w/ new HC, OC, etc. Scrap the whole damn thing. Brady's not walking through that door to resucitate it. It is what it is.

Yeah I totally agree with your last point. The epilogue to the dynasty era has already been written. Time to turn the page so we can see fresh blood and fresh ideas. Don't see why the team can't find a better HC for this era of Patriots football if they tried.

I just think there were better options than Zappe in round 4. His limitations are giving him a low ceiling in this league IMO.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Well IF BB want's to salvage the season Trade for Stiddy there should be a fire sale in Denver Stiddy > Wac Jones.

Stiddy will be the starter pretty soon here in Denver.

 

[Hyped]

Stiddy will be the starter pretty soon here in Denver.

Doubt it given how much they are paying Wilson.

=======================

We really have no choice other than to ride it out with Jones and basically...hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

I really don't want to bring in a competent veteran QB right now...I'd rather bite the bullet...squeeze all we can out of Jones...then prepare to get a new QB in the off-season.

 

[Froob]

I gotta think we see Will Grier at some point once he knows the offense.

Guessing they don’t see Cunningham as a quarterback.

 

[sb1]

I gotta think we see Will Grier at some point once he knows the offense.

Guessing they don’t see Cunningham as a quarterback.

By the sound of things they might see him as our Taysom Hill.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

Bill has set him up for failure now two seasons in a row and somehow managed to make Mac's 2022 season look like 2007 Tom Brady compared to this one.

Still there was plays to be made the last year and a half and Mac didn’t make them because he is trash. that’s on him.

He is an error repeater. He always make the same mistakes without improvement. His rookie season was a smoke screen.

He can thank his lucky star that Zappe is inept otherwise he would have been out of the league by now.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

Hope we find someone better than both of them cause I think my patience has also run out with Jones. Alarming how he completely imploded the last two weeks. Or he somehow met Kellerman's Cliff (tm) at age 25? Lol

Honestly it’s not that hard to find somebody better than those two. The bar is very low.

 

[archstanton543]

Still there was plays to be made the last year and a half and Mac didn’t make them because he is trash. that’s on him.

He is an error repeater. He always make the same mistakes without improvement. His rookie season was a smoke screen.

He can thank his lucky star that Zappe is inept otherwise he would have been out of the league by now.

A QB that was dealt a bad hand here and had a really good college career would be out of the league in over 2 years?

C'mon. I know you're smarter than that.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Hope we find someone better than both of them cause I think my patience has also run out with Jones. Alarming how he completely imploded the last two weeks.

It is alarming, but it also coincides with the OL being as overmatched as it's ever been for him the last 3 weeks (giving up pressure >40% in every game).

 

[Rob0729]

Interesting read on Caleb Williams maybe staying in college if he doesn’t like who has the #1 pick in the draft. I wonder if Caleb Williams would return to college if it’s the Pats with the first overall pick? We currently check all the bad boxes: bad OL, bad WR group, defense minded HC, no RB threats.

A decision like that could come back to bite him….the Pats could be picking #1 the following year too.

BTW….the read on Williams is in the Reiss article posted by sb1 above.

I think we heard that too about Bryce Young last year. I think that is more of #1 pick trying to get a team they may not like to trade down with a team with a better situation. I seriously doubt Williams will stay in college because he could risk dropping out of the #1 pick spot or even the top 10 with an injury or a bad season.

But I think if the Pats have the #1 pick, they will have a new head coach and GM. I can't see Kraft keeping Belichick if they finish dead last in the league with 2-3 wins. And I wouldn't be surprised that if the Pats have the #1 pick that they trade down because they do have so many needs and the best way to address them is to turn the #1 pick into at least two high first rounders and more.

 

[p8ryts]

A QB that was dealt a bad hand here and had a really good college career would be out of the league in over 2 years?

C'mon. I know you're smarter than that.

I really don't have any particular recollection of his performance his rookie season other than he appeared to be better than Cam Newton. We did win some games and actually made the playoffs but were clearly not contending quality. After the wind game in Buffalo that was won by a coaching plan, Mac regressed. He was not good the last four games of that year and has continued to regress. I think he's broken and won't get put back together here. However, I am not interested in a Kirk Cousins or Russell Wilson pick up either. Finish out the season with whichever QB you want currently on the roster and hope next year's high pick QB is the real deal.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

A QB that was dealt a bad hand here and had a really good college career would be out of the league in over 2 years?

C'mon. I know you're smarter than that.

My bad I wrote league but I meant team.

 

[State]

Mac is broken. Starting him Sunday is another in a long line of errors, especially on the offensive side.

Why not platoon a couple of QBs? Even having Malik run an option run attack would be more productive at this juncture.

Hiring Klemm for the OL looks like another mistake.