It's been a tumultuous first week and a half of the NFL season on the injury front for the Patriots' No. 10.

Mac Jones was beaten to a pulp in Miami thanks to a porous offensive line mixed with a bit of his own indecisiveness and headed to the x-ray room before the game was even officially over.

Then yesterday, Mac missed practice with an undisclosed illness, which NFL Network and others reported was not COVID-related, and rather just a stomach ailment. Mac said the back injuries from Week 1 would not keep him off the field this week at Pittsburgh, and all reports from yesterday suggest the tummy bug should not affect his Week 2 status either.

Even if that's the case, it hasn't been an ideal entry into the 18-week war of attrition that the NFL regular season is.

QB health is not something that we've had to worry about here in New England for a long time. Like almost three decades.

Apart from 2008 and four games at the outset of the 2016 season, Tom Brady was under center week in and week out for 20 years. Before him, Drew Bledsoe commanded the position 95% of the time from 1993-2000. After Brady, Pats' starters (Cam Newton and Jones) have played in 33-of-34 games, with Brian Hoyer making a spot start in Kansas City during the 2020 season after Newton tested positive for COVID-19.

It's not a hypothetical that most Pats fans want to think about, but if something were to ever happen to Jones, who should be the next guy up?

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