A day after a disaster in Deutschland, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick declined to name a starting quarterback.
As of Tuesday, it appears he still hasn’t.
Mac Jones, who was benched in the Patriots’ loss to the Indianapolis Colts Sunday in Germany, said he has not been told if he’ll be starting in Week 12 versus the New York Giants.
“No. We haven’t talked about that,” Jones said Tuesday on the Jones and Mego Show, via WEEI’s Mike Kadlick.
Jones threw a horrible red-zone interception on the second-to-last drive against the Colts on Sunday. He was summarily benched and replaced by Bailey Zappe, who threw a game-ending INT. It all added up to a 10-6 loss and confusion aplenty since the Patriots’ return stateside.
Belichick said after the loss that “it was time for a change” in regard to benching Jones.
However, just how long that change will run for remains to be seen.
Asked Monday if Jones was still going to be the Patriots’ No. 1 QB, Belichick didn’t clear up anything on the matter.
“We’ve got a lot of things to work on this week as a team and we’ll work through those,” he said. “That’s what we’re going to do this week.”
A day later, nothing’s been worked out, per Jones’ account.
“Really just, today we watched the game film and kinda talked about the plans for the bye week, so,” Jones said. “We have practice tomorrow so. Just see how it goes there and the bye weeks a great time to work on things that you can do better so, that’s what I’m going to do.”
The No. 15 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Jones was a Pro Bowler as a rookie who started all 17 games, throwing for 22 touchdowns and 3,801 yards.
Since then, Jones and the Patriots offense have floundered.
In a disastrous 2022, Jones failed to find his rookie form while working with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge as de facto offensive coordinators. This year, Bill O’Brien has taken over as the official OC, but BOB and Mac have found no better results.
Jones is averaging career worsts of 203.1 yards per game and 6.3 yards per attempt with 10 touchdowns and 10 interceptions through just as many starts.
“I think everyone’s frustrated and I am, too,” Jones said. “There are a lot of things that I wish I could do better. … I know I’m going to put the work in to do it.”
Jones got X-rays after Sunday’s loss but said Tuesday that he’s fine health-wise and won’t need rehab or anything of that ilk during the bye week.
He also called his relationship with O’Brien a good one despite statistics to the contrary.
“It’s good,” Jones said. “I always have had coaches that expect a lot out of their players and I love it. There’s a good relationship there.”
Whether it will be a QB1-OC relationship going forward remains to be seen.
New England’s bye week has commenced and a decision as to who will start at quarterback in Week 12 remains unanswered.
