Patriots News: Tom Brady, Jakob Johnson, and Mac Jones

Patriots insider believes Mac Jones will become the third string QB in New England

After the Patriots lost in historic fashion to the Colts in Germany last week, there has been even more speculation surrounding the future of Mac Jones as the starting quarterback for the rest of the season.

He had already been the subject of that debate due to the offense's poor performance and his contributions to it all. But it has been exasperated since his ill-timed interception that essentially sealed the win for Indianapolis.

Rumors have been running rampant about the quarterback, with some chatter suggesting he has lost the locker room and other whispers claiming his latest performance was the last straw that will ultimately lead to his permanent benching as soon as they return from their bye week.

That's the belief that Tom Curran of NBC Sports Boston shared during an appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show" earlier this week, going as far as stating he believes Jones will be demoted to third-string quarterback beginning in Week 11.

"Mac Jones is going to almost certainly sit.

I think he'll probably be dropped down to third-string. You're gonna elevate Will Grier and you're gonna elevate the player that took the final snaps the other day...Bailey Zappe.

If I was a betting man, and I don't have any intel on this, but Will Grier gets the reps to be the starter, and if he fails in that, then Zappe would start and Grier would be No. 2 and you proceed through the end of the year and try to maintain the culture."

Given how poorly Jones has played this year, it's an interesting line of thinking and potentially not far off. The problem with it all is his admittance of no direct knowledge of the situation being in the works, nor did it take into account that Jones was seen working with the starting offense during the media available portion of the Patriots practice on Wednesday.

Things can eventually change, of course, but there was no indication that an immediate change at quarterback was on the horizon. If so, Will Grier or Bailey Zappe would have been seen getting more reps, yet Zappe was not working with the starters.

What will inevitably happen will remain a topic of conversation no matter if or when a quarterback change is made. It will become an exhausting debate regardless, and unfortunately, this is just the beginning.

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