Patriots Coach Bill Belichick Gives Reasons For Benching Mac Jones

For the Patriots on Monday night, Mac Jones made his first start since leaving Week 3 due to a high ankle sprain. It was short-lived. The Gillette Stadium crowd booed the former first-round draft pick when he threw an interception in the second quarter against the Bears after struggling to get going. Jones was immediately replaced by rookie backup Bailey Zappe on New England’s subsequent drive, who immediately answered with a touchdown drive to spark the offense.

Starting the game, Jones had completed two quick three-and-outs after sustaining an ankle injury in Week 3 before being intercepted by rookie safety Jaquan Brisker to cap a 10-play, 41-yard drive.

With just over 11 minutes remaining in the first half, Jones was formally removed from the contest. After a rather encouraging 2021 debut as the team’s first-ever full-timer, he has so far only thrown two touchdowns this season as opposed to six interceptions.

Bill Belichick Explains His Decision Of Benching Mac Jones

However, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick earlier left the door open for Zappe to continue to be the team’s starting quarterback even after Mac Jones returned to full health. Jones had taken the majority of practice repetitions in the lead-up to Monday’s game.

After the game on Monday, Zappe told the media that he only knew that Jones would start the game against Chicago in Week 7 “the same time ya’ll did,” implying that Belichick had kept his game plan a secret from his own signal-callers. Which QB will start in Week 8 and subsequent weeks is unknown.

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He refrained from claiming that Jones was benched in favor of Zappe because Jones had thrown an interception on the drive before the change in the quarterback.

Playing two quarterbacks, according to Belichick, was the “best thing to do based on the situation,” though he didn’t specify what that “situation” was. Although it was very clear that Mac Jones was moving well, Belichick did claim that Jones’ health was “a consideration” in the decision and that he would have returned to the game had the score not gotten out of hand.

“I told the quarterbacks we were going to play both of them, so we did,” Belichick said.

Even still, “Zappe-Mania” seems to be taking Foxborough by storm, and the enthusiasm generated by the QB switch both on and off the field raises the likelihood of a developing QB debate in the coming weeks.

 

 

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