To Mac, or not to Mac. That appears to be the question forming in parts of Patriots Nation as the offseason wears on.

Mike Florio stirred the drink yesterday when he reported that Bill Belichick has "shopped" Mac Jones to multiple teams this offseason. Of course, this follows Bill's comments at the owner's meetings where he declined to say Mac was the team's starting QB and instead said "everyone will get a chance to play."

Couple that with recent reports from the likes of ESPN's Mike Reiss that suggest the Pats want Bailey Zappe to push Mac for the gig through training camp and it seems Bill & Co. might not be totally sold on the 2021 1st round draft pick.

So, what path should the Pats take at the game's most important position? The safe answer is to run it back with Mac and hope the Year 3 jump takes place. But if it doesn't, then they're in the same position at this time next year and another year removed from Robert Kraft's goal of a winning playoff games.

What are the alternatives? Well, Lamar Jackson is out there, but that's nothing more than a wild fantasy.

The Patriots sit at 14th overall in the draft, three weeks from tomorrow night, and could possibly work their way into position to draft one of the top QB's in this year's class. But the only guarantee in taking that route is you'd buy yourself two more years of a cheap QB on a rookie deal, and taking QB's in the first round twice in three years doesn't exactly signal a stable organization.

Then there's the potential to whiff on improving the position, and having the Pats get stuck in a place similar to where they were prior to the '20 season, with Zappe as the only QB on the roster and the team having to search for a Cam Newton-type bailout.

The grass isn't always greener on the other side. The problem is, we don't yet know how green the grass is here after an incomplete effort from the QB's a season ago.

What path do you want to see that Pats take?

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