Poll: Should Malik Cunningham be Pats QB the rest of way?
As was proven on Sunday, there's absolutely no reason for Bill Belichick to be you-know-what-ing around with the question of who will be his starting QB on a week-to-week basis.
He loves to play his little games and appears unable to help himself. It's what he's done for 24 years, but it hits a tad different when the team is 2-9 compared to when they had a residency in the AFC Championship Game each season.
Both Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe stink. It doesn't matter who is out there, or what mind games and little advantages Bill thinks he's gaining throughout the week by being vague on the topic. When it comes to Sunday, opposing teams aren't thrown off whether they see Jones or Zappe under center because they know either guy is bound to chuck it right at them.
It's not just a QB issue at the moment, the entire offense appears broken. Receivers can't get open and while Rhamondre Stevenson has come on strong in recent weeks, you can't simply run the ball every play.
When Zappe relieved Jones against the Giants, he failed to complete a pass that was more than 5-yards down field while five of his nine completions were behind the line of scrimmage. In fact, over the last two weeks, Jones and Zappe have failed to complete a pass more than 14 yards down the field while throwing 4 INT's on such attempts.
While Zappe showed promise in his two starts last year, throwing for 497yds/3td/1int in a pair of wins, the team thought so little of him this summer that they cut him after training camp. It was only after every other team in the league passed on him that he returned to New England, where he's thrown more incompletions (20) than completions (19) this year, while tallying just 158 yards and 2 INT through the air in mop-up duty.
Mac is doing a wonderful job of losing games on a weekly basis, which should be the goal right now, but is absolutely infuriating to watch. So why not just turn it over to Malik Cunningham? Is he prepared to take the job? Probably not. But neither really are either of the gents currently occupying the position.
Belichick already said yesterday that it's unlikely he would bring in a QB from outside the organization at this point for the final six games of the season, so Cunningham remains the only other option in-house.
With nothing to lose - except draft positioning by messing around and accidentally winning a game or two - what's the harm in turning to the rookie for, if nothing else, some excitement which has eluded this team for much of the year?