Trent Brown: "Everybody" on Patriots believed Malik Cunningham deserved chance to play quarterback

BOSTON -- When Malik Cunningham left the Patriots' practice squad to sign with the Baltimore Ravens, he received a flood of supportive messages from the teammates he had impressed during his time in New England. One of those messages suggested the coaching staff didn't quite appreciate Cunnigham the same way the players did.

The message came from veteran left tackle Trent Brown, who wrote, "Go flourish where your talent is respected lil bradda" to Cunningham on Instagram.

This week, Brown was asked by A to Z Sports' Sophie Weller about that message, and whether it could be interpreted as Brown believing that Cunningham deserved more of a shot to play quarterback for the Patriots.

"Absolutely," Brown answered. "Everybody on the team did. Everybody."

Brown pointed out the fact that even after Cunningham played quarterback for the team's lone touchdown drive in the preseason opener against Houston, the coaching staff still treated Cunningham like a wide receiver.

"I mean, probably the most exciting drive we had in that stadium was against Houston [in the preseason]," Brown told Weller. "Like, my guy couldn't even get a red jersey."

(Quarterbacks wear red jerseys at practice to indicate to defensive players that they cannot be hit. Cunningham was kept in a regular offensive player's practice jersey by the Patriots, who signed him to play receiver.)

Indeed, despite that promising drive -- he went 3-for-4 for 19 yards while rushing five times for 34 yards and a touchdown, and his lone incompletion was a would-be touchdown pass dropped by Tre Nixon -- Cunningham was used exclusively at wide receiver the next week in Green Bay. He was signed to the active roster and served as a backup quarterback for one game in Las Vegas, though he took just six snaps and didn't throw a pass. He was later elevated from the practice squad for two games but didn't get any offensive snaps, before the Ravens signed him away. 

Through it all, Cunningham worked on the practice field, serving as a scout-team quarterback when the team was facing mobile quarterbacks, and otherwise working as a receiver.

Considering his collegiate resume, the Ravens made it clear that they were signing him as a quarterback, which left the rookie with no hesitation when heading to Baltimore.

Brown agreed with Cunningham's decision-making on that one.

"That's really good for him to actually get a real chance to play his real position," Brown said.

Clearly, Brown is a big believer in Cunningham's ability at quarterback. And with the Patriots' getting subpar play out of both Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe for the bulk of the year, the team probably had little to lose by giving Cunningham a shot at quarterback. The coaching staff, of course, didn't see it the same way.

The specifics on Cunningham in particular matter less in this case than the fact that a player is openly questioning the decisions of Bill Belichick and the staff with regard to the usage and treatment of a rookie. Such public discourse has happened rarely, if ever, over the past two decades-plus in New England.