Is Mac Jones the future of the New England Patriots?

Mac Jones’ 2022 season has been nothing short of a disaster. Is he actually still the future franchise quarterback of the New England Patriots?  Mac Jones got the start on Monday night against the Chicago Bears, and only played a couple series.  He went 3/6 for 13 yards and an interception.

Bailey Zappe then took the team the rest of the way.  While he did throw two interceptions, he still looked better than Jones last night, which I guess was not hard to do.  Even with Zappe’s two interception outing, he still has a solid stat line for this season.  He’s thrown five touchdown passes, three interceptions, and has a passer rating of 100.9.

It’s clear that he’s been the better QB for the Patriots so far this year.  Jones just hasn’t found his groove in the new offense.  Being that Mac Jones was still not entirely seen as a franchise QB going into this season, can we actually expect him to be the future now?

Mac Jones’ rookie season was really solid.  Leading the team to a 10-7 finish and a playoff appearance gave many in the fanbase a ton of confidence that he was going to be the long-term guy.  He did about as a much as he could possibly do during his rookie year.

Being that he had only played one year in the NFL going into 2022, there was likely still some doubt on if he was the guy.  He just hasn’t played in a ton of games to unquestionably say he was the franchise for years to come.

There was still some chance that Jones maybe wasn’t going to be or isn’t good enough to be that guy.  To begin 2022, he created more doubt on his future as a franchise QB.  Then, to make matters worse for Jones and harder for the Patriots, Bailey Zappe comes in and plays some very good football.

This isn’t a situation where Jones is six year veteran like Patrick Mahomes and simply was going to get his job back when he got healthy.  Jones just hasn’t played enough, and faltered enough in 2022 to warrant questions about his future.

Now, I think the Patriots are at a point where they need to see how this plays out week to week.  Maybe Mac Jones looks better than Zappe this in practice, or vise versa?  It might not be smart to unofficially participate in a QB competition, but that seems to be where it’s headed.

I think the best decision for the team, for at least 2022 is to allow one of them to take the reigns for the rest of the season.