The Will Grier stuff is weird and other leftover Patriots thoughts

BOSTON -- Certainly, the population of Mac Island has reached an all-time low. Sunday's performance was so bad that even your local Mac Jones Jersey Wearer is ready to move on from the quarterback who two years ago looked to have a promising NFL future.

Even with that being the case, though, the Patriots run into a little problem: They don't have a viable alternative to play the most important position in the sport.

Bailey Zappe, who was called off the bench for the third time on Sunday, has now completed just 10 of his 25 passes, a 40 percent completion rate. He's thrown for 104 yards, averaging just 4.2 yards per attempt. He threw his first interception of the season on a fake spike to seal Sunday's loss, and he's yet to throw a touchdown this season.

People tend to romanticize Zappe's rookie appearances, because he came out of nowhere and won a couple of games. But they do forget the end. He finished his rookie year with a two-interception second half against the Bears, who didn't win another game for 11 months. And throughout training camp this year, he -- quite simply -- didn't look like an NFL quarterback. Thus far in the regular season, the same holds true.

Because of that, a lot of eyes have turned toward Will Grier. And that's where things are getting bizarre.

The fact that people are calling for Will Grier speaks to the dire nature of the situation in New England. Surely, people are doing so because they want someone -- anyone -- to come in and try to play the quarterback position at a level that doesn't make their eyes bleed and their hearts hurt. Understood. But do they ... do they know anything about Will Grier? It would be rather hard to.

Grier was a third-round pick in 2019, the fifth QB taken. On a team quarterbacked by Kyle Allen (following Cam Newton's foot injury), Grier got 87 snaps in Weeks 15 and 16, starting both games. He went 27-for-44 for 224 yards in his first start, throwing no touchdowns and ... three interceptions. His Panthers lost, 38-6. He started the next week against New Orleans and went ... 1-for-8. And he threw another pick. He we benched.

You might be asking ... Michael, why on EARTH are you spotlighting games from 2019? This was pre-Cam Newton-Patriots era. Thomas Edward Patrick Brady, Jr. was still the Patriots' quarterback in 2019. This was ancient history. Grier was a rookie. Maybe look at some more recent competitions, you giant bozo.

Fair, fair, fair. But the thing is ... there aren't any other games to look at. Since getting benched against the Saints in December of 2019, Grier has not been on the field for an NFL snap. He was the Panthers' third-string QB in 2020, and he never saw the field. He was the Cowboys' third-string QB in 2021, and he didn't play. In 2022, he dressed on game day as Cooper Rush's backup on occasion, but once again, he didn't play.

He did play in the preseason this summer for the Cowboys, throwing four touchdowns and two interceptions while completing 64 of his 84 passes (76.2 percent) and averaging 7.6 yards per attempt. He also ran 13 times for 74 yards and two touchdowns. It was a heck of a preseason. But it was also the preseason.

If you want to throw all your belief into a preseason performance by a fifth-year quarterback, then you can. It remains a free country.

But the strong push from fans to see Will Grier start a game -- and believe me, the push is there -- speaks more to the disappointment in Jones' lack of development than anything else. 

Unfortunately for the Patriots, whether it's Grier or Zappe, the team really doesn't have an answer to help patch the quarterback situation.

Though come to think of it ... how's Malik Cunningham feeling these days??

Leftover thoughts from the Patriots' 10-6 loss to the Colts in Germany, starting .... NOW.

--Hey speaking of Cam Newton, would he want to ... no? Nobody's into that? OK, OK, OK. My bad. He was fun, though. You have to admit he was fun.

--One note on Mac Jones: He did share this week that he works with mental coaches while ever-so-slightly admitting that it's tough to live life under a microscope. That obviously comes with the territory of being an NFL quarterback, and it's why the good ones make tens of millions of dollars every year.

But Jones' brief moment of vulnerability could help explain why he seems to have the yips. There's just no other explanation for why an able-bodied NFL quarterback would underthrow Mike Gesicki by such a significant distance. Jones' penchant for fading away and throwing off his back foot instead of stepping up and firing passes is likely the result of a mental block, which surely developed from being constantly under siege in the pocket for the bulk of the last two years.

The guy simply looks ... broken.

I'm not sure what can be done to break the spell. Some guys get over the yips and become successful outfielders for the St. Louis Cardinals. Others end up as Chuck Knoblauch. There's no road map.

But it does feel like if Jones is going to salvage his career and reestablish his place in the NFL, he's going to have to do it somewhere else. A clean start with an entirely new environment -- coaches, teammates, playbooks, even team logos -- could be necessary to reboot his system.

--I feel like there's a lot of badness from the game, but there was some good. Why not show that, right?!

I like this run stuff by Kyle Dugger. A real pow-right-in-the-kisser type of tackle. Old-school football.

Nice. That's a good one.

This Ezekiel Elliott catch-and-run? Solid stuff. 

Good work. Nice blocking. Way to go.

Demario Douglas had an Edelman-esque reception to convert a third down and then some.

In other circumstances, we'd surely be looking at that kid as a real steal of the draft. Hopefully some of us can stop calling him Demario Davis soon. 

What else, what else, what else? Oh! This Mac Jones pass to Mike Gesicki to keep the first drive alive after the initial third down?

You're telling me that's the same quarterback from the second half? How? That puppy was ZIPPED.

Rhamondre Stevenson also ran over this man, which was neat.

See? Plenty of positives. Just, you know, none of it helped the team SCORE MORE THAN SIX POINTS OVER THE COURSE OF SIXTY MINUTES OF TACKLE FOOTBALL, which has to be a bit discouraging for the lads.

--I thought the offensive line (and backfield) did a good job of distributing the blame on the Colts' FIVE sacks in the first half. That was nice. 

Rhamondre Stevenson gave up another first-half sack, when he lost a one-on-one blocking rep against Tyquan Lewis. The fifth sack was more like Jones being unable to run out of the pocket without getting caught from behind. So like I said, a team effort in that five-sack half. (Shoutout to the Patriots for not allowing any in the second half, though. That's a win.)

--The lack of protection surely played a role in Jones being perpetually skittish, and it also severely limited the play-calling options. That much can be seen from Jones' passing chart. Look at this thing:

Outside of Douglas (9 targets), Patriots wide receivers had TWO TOTAL TARGETS. JuJu Smith-Schuster had one, and Kayshon Boutte had one. That's it. Running backs had seven targets, and tight ends had eight targets. The offense just isn't functional. 

--Bill O'Brien, of course, let his frustrations boil over ...

Nobody blamed him. The play that seemingly set O'Brien off was real bad on multiple fronts. But I'm not sure that really helped Mac, who looked as down as he's ever looked after the pick and at his postgame press conference, when his voice was cracking on just about every answer.

--We all know the Patriots are 2-8. We've watched it all play out. (Well, some of us have. I've never heard from more people saying they flat-out don't watch the Patriots or football on Sunday afternoons now, when it had previously consumed their lives for 20 years.) But just to really drive it home, I'm going to lay out the coach-quarterback combinations that have beaten Bill Belichick's Patriots this season.

Shane Steichen-Gardner Minshew
Ron Rivera-Sam Howell
Mike McDaniel-Tua Tagavailoa, TWICE
Josh McDaniels*-Jimmy Garoppolo𐠒-Brian Hoyer𐠒
Dennis Allen-Derek Carr
Mike McCarthy-Dak Prescott
Nick Sirianni-Jalen Hurts

*has since been fired
𐠒has since been benched  

It wasn't all that long ago that we'd look at that list and see six wins. This year, we've seen eight losses. It's crazy ... and indicative of the magic spell Bill Belichick once had is no longer effective.

(This is a story for another day, but everyone doing the "IT WAS ALL BRADY THE WHOLE TIME" thing are clowns. Brady was more important, yes, because he played the game. Belichick has said that himself. Everyone knows that. It doesn't take a high intellect to grasp that. But Belichick was great for a long time. The fact that it's seemingly run its course doesn't change what has already happened. You clowns. Go back to clown college. Boom roasted.)

(Then again, that's just a byproduct of living in the now-now-now era. People out there genuinely believe that Travis Kelce is better than Rob Gronkowski, solely because Gronkowski isn't authoring any new moments anymore while Kelce is. Those people are also clowns who apparently don't have access to the internet.)

(Is there any other group of people I want to roast as clowns, via parenthetical statement? I'll have to think about it. Will get back to you on that.) 

--I distinctly remember during Mac Jones' rookie season, my COLLEAGUE Phillip A. Perry said that Mac Jones had the potential to have a Matt Ryan trajectory to his career, and fans were MIFFED. Here in New England, where the standard was Tom Brady forever, we always scoffed at the thought of Matt Ryan, who was a one-time MVP, yes, but also represented an above-average QB who was just ... uninspiring. And never won anything.

Suffice it to say, I think people would take a Matt Ryan trajectory now on Jones. And because I was curious, I looked at the first 10 games of the third seasons of both Ryan and Kirk Cousins (another Jones comparable from his rookie year) to see how they were doing. I'll throw Baker Mayfield in there, too, because he similarly was thrown into a bad situation in Cleveland, with different head coaches and OCs every year to start his career.

Matt Ryan, 2010: 8-2 record, 63.1% completion rate, 2,518 yards, 18 TDs, 5 INTs, 92.9 rating

Kirk Cousins, 2014: 1-4 record, 61.8% completion rate, 1,710 yards, 10 TDs, 9 INTs, 86.4 rating

Baker Mayfield, 2020: 7-3 record, 60.8% completion rate, 1,850 yards, 15 TDs, 7 INTs, 89.7 rating

Mac Jones, 2023: 2-8 record, 65.4% completion rate, 2,031 yards, 10 TDs, 10 INTs, 80.2 rating

Looking at that ... becoming Kirk Cousins is still on the table. I'm sure Mac Jones would look at that 12-year career and $231 million in career earnings and be OK with that.

(Cousins really established himself in year four, when he led the league in completion percentage while throwing 29 TDs and 11 INTs. I'm in parentheses again, so I feel emboldened to call some people clowns. You know who are clowns? People who are too timid to go right on red! Don't make me beep, clown! The law allows you to go! We are trying to get home. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Nice. OK. Back to non-parenthetical statements.)

--I also used to say earlier this year that we'd find out if Mac Jones would establish himself as a starter or whether he'd become Gardner Minshew. I hereby retract that statement. Because Gardner Minshew rocks.

This play? It rocked.

And this one, to basically win the game? Buddy ... it rocked, too.

The Patriots, who have not liked their backup quarterback situation all year long, could have signed Minshew in the offseason. He went to the Colts on a one-year, $3.5 million deal. You can bet if he was here, he'd be the starting quarterback right now. Alas.

--Defensively, we all understand that the Christian Gonzalez and Matt Judon injuries wrecked the plan. But it's still jarring to see the Patriots relying on Jack Jones and J.C. Jackson to fill the voids in the secondary while simultaneously disciplining them. It speaks to their desperation that J.C. Jackson was benched for two series last week and told to stay off the practice field this week while not being allowed to even travel to Germany ... yet he remains on the team. Likewise, Jack Jones was benched for the first quarter last week and didn't play in the first two series this week, after a summer where he avoided serious gun charges, yet he ... remains on the team.

Bill Belichick wouldn't speak on either matter on Monday, saying he's not going to get into personal situations. But he clearly doesn't enjoy taking questions on discipline and behind-the-scenes decision-making, and these two cornerbacks have led to a lot of that questioning lately. The whole matter doesn't reflect well on the state of the Patriots.

UPDATE: Jack Jones is gone. Fair enough.

--I was confused why both the game broadcast and the people of Twitter dot com were so up in arms about the Jahlani Tavai penalty. It wasn't intentional or dirty, but he made helmet-to-facemask contact on a defenseless receiver. Could Tavai have done anything else to still make the tackle without making that contact? Not really! But that's how the rules work. They protect defenseless receivers.

A flag in that spot is standard operating procedure. Our value judgments about WHERE THE GAME HAS GONE and whether we need to JUST PUT FLAGS ON 'EM really don't come into play when we look at the basics of the rulebook.

--I am going to leave you with an outlook for the Patriots' next game. Do I believe Bill Belichick will be fired? No, I do not. For as bad as things are, and for as bad as things will continue to be, Robert Kraft won't do that to him. A change atop the football operations is something the organization would do in the offseason. Dumping Bill Belichick like he's Nathaniel Hackett or Matt Rhule should not and will not happen.

What will happen? Well, buddy, the New England Patriots are going to play the New York Giants! We might get Bailey Zappe/Will Grier/Malik Cunningham at QB for the Patriots and Tommy DeVito at quarterback for the Giants. Literally none of us had ever heard of Tommy DeVito before last week, but here we are. Now we know he lives with his parents and his mom makes his bed. What a world.

The Giants rank DEAD LAST in the NFL with 11.8 points per game. That's crazy. Good teams often have more points than that after two possessions in the first quarter, yet the Giants are averaging under 12 points for entire football games. Wild.

Wilder? The Patriots rank just one spot better, with 14.1 points per game. That's not a lot of points, baby!

We'll see fans from both sides likely rooting for their team to lose in order to secure a better draft pick. Considering how important the Giants are to Bill Belichick, we'll also see him doing his best to win. Patriots players, after a week off, will at least be physically refreshed for the game, while the Giants will almost assuredly be coming off their fourth straight loss.

You want to talk about rock bottom, nadir-type of stuff? That's this game. Real sicko stuff.

I can't wait.

You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.