If Patriots lose this game, Mac Jones should be benched if he does not play well

At some point, the New England Patriots should consider making a major quarterback move, especially if they lose at home to the New Orleans Saints, a team that is not nearly as well-coached as the Patriots. Over the last two games, Mac Jones has thrown for 351 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, for a passer rating of 66.3.

Up to this point, he has not really been primarily responsible for the Patriots winning a game thus far in 2023. They can thank the defense for that two weeks ago. Well, the Patriots face off against the New Orleans Saints in Week 5 of the 2023 NFL season, and it does kind of feel like the Saints are a much worse team, right?

The Patriots should be a better-coached team. They also have a solid defense, and should still remain OK even without Matthew Judon and Christian Gonzalez. Saints' QB Derek Carr has been awful this year, as the Saints have scored just 15.5 points per game. Defensively, New Orleans' unit ranks 9th in the NFL, allowing opposing teams to score just 19 points per game.

I think if the Patriots drop this game at home, and see more poor QB play from Mac Jones, they should consider pulling him from the lineup and perhaps taking a look at Bailey Zappe. Zappe played better than Jones did in 2022 in limited action, but some have viewed that season as an outlier. However, Mac Jones has the lowest passer rating of his career through four games in 2023, so perhaps that "outlier" is becoming more of a reality.

If the Patriots were to drop to 1-4 after this week, they'd likely be staring down at least six losses by the time their bye week rolls around. Two games remain in their first-half slate of games against the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills. Besides this week and the two matchups I just mentioned, New England also has contests against the Las Vegas Raiders, Washington Commanders, and Indianapolis Colts before their bye week.

Week 5 is truly a crucial week for this team. Them dropping to 1-4 would be a near-impossible hole to dig out of based on their remaining games and how good we think the AFC can be this year. If Mac Jones is a reason why this team does lose in Week 5, he needs to be benched.