While many people felt like Bailey Zappe would garner some interest as he passed through the waiver wire, it sounds like there was indeed some competition for the second-year quarterback prior to him coming back to the Patriots.
According to the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, seven other teams were apparently vying for Zappe’s services, with the second-year quarterback receiving offers before deciding to return to New England.
With Mike Reiss telling 98.5 The Sports Hub recently that Mac Jones had already been banged up in his lone outing against the Packers this preseason, Zappe may be hoping he’ll get another opportunity to seize the starting role should Jones potentially miss time again in 2023.
Coming back to the Patriots certainly makes sense. While the team is reportedly still exploring its options looking for a veteran behind Jones, Zappe will likely hold down that role until something changes. That’s certainly better than going elsewhere and having to completely learn a new offense while potentially being further down the depth chart.
Granted, things can change the longer the season progresses and the possibility is still there that the Patriots could lose him. But for now, the former Western Kentucky quarterback is at least back to try and finish what he started heading into the 2023 season.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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I don’t follow. If he was in demand, how did he clear waivers ? All a team needed to do was claim him no ? My understanding is that he did not have the service time to skip the waiver process.
Once a player clears waivers, he’s a free agent. It sounds like he had multiple offers after he passed through waivers in addition to his opportunity to return to the Patriots.
Answering my own question, his demand was probably for a practice squad player not a 53 man roster player, hence no claims.