Bill Belichick once again not naming starting QB for Patriots' next game
BOSTON -- The Patriots will host the Chargers on Sunday at Gillette Stadium. Someone is going to play quarterback for New England. But Bill Belichick isn't revealing who that will be.
The Patriots' head coach met with the media on Wednesday, and -- as expected -- he was hit with an avalanche of questions about Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe. Similar to last week, the coach said he has no announcement to make.
"Yeah, I'm not gonna make any announcements on our lineup at any position. So it doesn't matter what the position is. We're not -- we'll see how practice goes, and see if everybody's ready to go," Belichick said. "Hope everybody's ready to go. We'll see what the injury situation is, and we'll go with what we think is best on Sunday."
A reporter pointed out that in the past, Belichick has named Jones as the starting quarterback during the week, a practice that has changed over the past two weeks.
"Yeah, because that's -- we'll see how it goes," Belichick said. "I'm not prepared to make any announcement. I'm not gonna do that."
Asked specific questions about Jones and Zappe, Belichick answered in a general sense, saying all players need to be better than they've been, and all players have to focus on their own jobs and capitalize on any opportunities they might get. Belichick was also asked why Jones has gotten so many chances, where other players in the past might have been benched for longer periods after failing to perform in games.
"Yeah well look every situation is different so I don't really know exactly what you're referring to. But it doesn't really matter," Belichick replied. "We're going to do what we think is best for the team based on the individual situation."
Last week, that meant Jones starting the game. But his two interceptions and generally inaccurate passing led to him getting benched for the fourth time this season. Zappe entered the game in the second half, and while he did lead a touchdown drive, he also threw the majority of his passes at or behind the line of scrimmage. The rare pass that he did throw downfield got intercepted.
Jones now has 10 touchdowns and 12 inerceptions to go with a 77.0 passer rating. Zappe has no touchdowns and two picks with a 38.2 passer rating.
Clearly, the Patriots don't have a great option at quarterback right now, which means it's anyone's guess who will trot out onto the field with the starting offense on Sunday around 1 p.m.
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