Mac Jones

New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones reportedly will be fined $11,139 for his low hit on Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Eli Apple on Saturday, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.

Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL Network had previously reported Jones would not be suspended.

Jones appeared to go out of his way to take out Apple's legs after a Cincinnati fumble recovery. He was chasing linebacker Germaine Pratt, who had scooped up the ball, and then appeared to target Apple behind the play.

Apple accused Jones of being a dirty player after the game.

"Of course I did [notice it]. He tripped me," he told NESN's Sean T. McGuire. "I thought it was a dirty play. He's done that before; I've seen it."

NFL Twitter sided with Apple:

So Mac Jones laid down instead of tackling Chandler Jones and then does this? pic.twitter.com/QYH1Ns7Lua

— Ross Tucker (@RossTuckerNFL) December 25, 2022

Mac Jones has earned his reputation as one of the dirtiest players in the league. https://t.co/gFHLZ9cslb

— Charean Williams (@NFLCharean) December 25, 2022

Mac Jones is a dirty player - Compilation video from 4 different incidents from his two-year career. pic.twitter.com/LFDUugodvA

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 25, 2022

Jones provided his take on the play during an appearance on WEEI, per Mike Reiss of ESPN.com.

"I went down in front of him to kind of get in the way to stop him from slowing down Tyquan, who obviously could make the tackle there. So just kind of went down in front of him, trying to stop a fast guy from getting to another fast guy.

"It's a split-second decision and there's a lot that goes into it. You're out there trying to compete, it's a physical game. So just trying to help the team win.

"I have all the respect for Eli and the Bengals. They played a great game. So, there's no hard feelings and definitely no intention to hurt anybody on that play. Nor do I believe that when I'm playing quarterback, that's what [the defense is intending to do]; I get hit a lot, too. We're all out there playing hard. It's just part of the game."

It isn't the first time Jones has been accused of dirty play by an opponent. In 2021, Carolina Panthers edge-rusher Brian Burns called him out for grabbing at his leg after a strip-sack:

"Watching the replay and watching all the angles and everything, I think it's some bull. I think it's some bull for him to take his legs—because my main thing is he took his legs and he swept the one leg I had up, you know what I mean? I think it's some bull. And his explanation for it—because he thought I had the ball—I don't think you could think a person has the ball. Soon as I sacked you, you grabbed my arm. And then everybody ran past us.

"Even if you thought I had the ball, it's not legal to trip somebody or leg sweep somebody, let alone twist [an] ankle; it's not legal to do that. Everybody else ran past us. If I had the ball, don't you think I'd be getting tackled? Or your teammate would help? So, I don't think it's cool, but it's whatever."

It isn't a reputation Jones will want to foster around the league.

In the short term, however, the bigger concern is that the Patriots have lost four of their past five games and are a game back of the Miami Dolphins for the final playoff spot in the AFC.

The mediocre play of Jones (2,550 passing yards, nine touchdowns, eight interceptions, 65.6 completion percentage, 30 sacks taken) during his sophomore campaign has played a huge part in New England's struggles.

Huge AFC East showdowns with the Dolphins and Buffalo Bills loom. It's a tough way to finish the season for a team—and quarterback—looking to salvage postseason aspirations.

Mac Jones may be developing a reputation as a dirty player.

Bengals cornerback Eli Apple criticized Jones after the Patriots quarterback was called for a low block in Cincinnati's 22-18 win over New England on Saturday.

"Of course I did [notice it]. He tripped me," Apple said, per Sean T. McGuire of NESN. "I thought it was a dirty play. He's done that before, I've seen it."

It's hard to not agree with Apple's assessment of the play in question. The two were not particularly close to the play when Jones drove into Apple's knees during a Bengals fumble return that was later ruled an incomplete pass.

According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the NFL will review the play to determine if Jones should face any discipline. The league has increasingly cracked down on plays below the knees, hoping to avoid serious leg injuries.

Jones dove at Apple's knees and risked injuring him in what appeared to be an outburst of frustration. Patriots fans loudly booed their second-year quarterback and chanted for fourth-round rookie Bailey Zappe as Jones struggled early in the loss.

This is not Jones' first time being accused of dirty play, either. Carolina Panthers linebacker Brian Burns called Jones out for twisting his ankle in a pile last season. Jones said he believed Burns had the ball and was ultimately not punished by the league.

Former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman offered a solution that would have saved Mac Jones the humiliation of being on the receiving end of Chandler Jones' stiff arm on the final play of Sunday's game against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Appearing on Inside the NFL (h/t Dakota Randall of NESN.com), Edelman said Jones should have tripped Jones to prevent him from scoring.

Even though Jones became the butt of most jokes after the play, the end result wasn't his fault. Rhamondre Stevenson took a handoff with three seconds left in regulation and the score tied at 24, he gained 23 yards before lateraling the ball to Jakobi Meyers.

Meyers decided he wanted to keep the play going, and threw a lateral that was supposed to be for Jones even though he was nowhere in the frame on the television feed until Chandler Jones grabbed the ball.

What just happened?? The @Raiders win on the final play!! #NEvsLV pic.twitter.com/cmKNUuab1k

— NFL (@NFL) December 19, 2022

Edelman's theory sounds good on paper, but tripping is a 15-yard penalty that would have given the Raiders a chance to kick a 47-yard field goal on an untimed down.

If there was an attempt to prevent Jones from scoring by blatantly tripping him, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk also noted there is a rule that allows officials to award a touchdown "to a team that has been denied one by a palpably unfair act."

Stevenson took responsibility for the play by saying he shouldn't have lateraled the ball in the first place. Meyers admitted he was "trying to do too much and trying to be a hero" when he attempted to throw the ball back to Mac Jones.

Even though the game will be remembered for that all-time blunder at the end, Mac Jones didn't do himself any favors with how he played. The second-year quarterback finished 13-of-31 for 112 yards against a Raiders defense that allows the fourth-highest completion percentage and seventh-most passing yards per game.

Bill Belichick is a septuagenarian. When he celebrated his 70th birthday in April, he became one of only two active NFL head coaches older than 70, along with Pete Carroll. Only George Halas and Don Shula have coached more professional football games, and he owns more Super Bowl rings than any other human being dead or alive.

Which begs the question: How much longer does Bill Belichick want to coach a team that is 8-11 in its last 19 regular-season and playoff games dating back approximately one calendar year? How much patience does he have for a squad that, when it comes to boneheaded mistakes and penalties and lack of polish, has become the antithesis of the old Belichick model?

That was put on full display via the historically embarrassing way in which the Patriots lost to the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 15 to fall to 7-7 and remain in a tie for last place in the AFC East. Their 2022 demise is on an increasingly obvious horizon as they prepare to face the surging defending AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals as a home underdog in Week 16.

Odds are Belichick will fail to win a playoff game for the fourth year in a row, even if the Pats manage to make it to the postseason. FiveThirtyEight gives them just a 19 percent chance of doing so.

Belichick is basically the last component left from the Patriots' extended early 21st-century dynasty. Tom Brady is in Florida, Josh McDaniels was on the opposite sideline when the feces hit the fan for New England last Sunday in Vegas, and even right-hand Belichick guru Ernie Adams retired last year.

Those spoiled by the Brady era in Foxborough are realizing that finding another Brady is near-impossible, and that even finding a consistently reliable quarterback in Round 1, let alone Round 6, is a mission. Just look at 2021 first-rounder Mac Jones, who has struggled mightily with a 71.6 passer rating the last three weeks—right when the Pats needed him most.

Belichick appears reticent to endorse Jones as his starter for the remainder of a season that sees New England face three teams in playoff positions in Weeks 16, 17 and 18.

Where Belichick and the Patriots go from here likely depends on what Belichick wants. Likely, but not definitively. You'd think he'd have earned a lifetime membership in his role, but this is business, and if owner Robert Kraft feels it's time for a fresh start, a trade involving Belichick could be on the table. Belichick would have to sign off on that because he wouldn't simply coach anywhere, and whoever acquires an expensive 70-year-old coach would want to be guaranteed a number of years with him.

You'd have to question whether that'd be a publicity ploy more than an attempt to become a Super Bowl contender. Again, the Patriots are consistently proving to be a sloppy, poorly managed team. And consider how rarely Belichick hits on high draft picks. The jury might still be out on Jones and 2022 first-rounder Cole Strange, but they and Isaiah Wynn are greatly outnumbered by a failed group containing names like N'Keal Harry, Derek Rivers and Cyrus Jones (to name just a few).

Indicators of his recent success (or lack thereof) in finding, procuring and grooming talent: Stephon Gilmore is the only Patriots position player who has been a first-team All-Pro in the last four years, and this year's roster contains just one Pro Bowler.

Maybe the Patriots are better off starting fresh, whether that means finding someone to take Belichick off their hands in exchange for draft (or real-world) capital or asking him to resign.

Regardless, it feels as though they're smashing their heads against a wall with defensive-oriented Matt Patricia outlandishly running a revamped but consistently clumsy offense. And because they haven't had much success in recent offseasons, the talent isn't there. Nobody could blame Belichick for not wanting to tolerate a full rebuild, but that might be necessary if Jones can't emerge as a franchise quarterback.

Wynn and starting corner Jonathan Jones are scheduled to hit free agency this offseason, and three of their best young players—Ja'Whaun Bentley, Mike Onwenu and Kyle Dugger—will then enter contract years. The Belichick Way is to not overpay, but that's inevitable in this era. It's hard to envision the Patriots can get a lot better by investing deeply in a good-not-great core, but neglecting to do so will result in even more short-term pain.

In said era, a great coach-quarterback combo can compensate for a lot of flaws. But Belichick appears to have lost much of his touch, and Jones has by all indications regressed as a sophomore subject of the Patricia experiment.

You get the feeling they'll all give it another year. The Patriots have never been rash, and according to Spotrac, they're on track to enter the offseason with more salary-cap space than anyone else in the AFC. Jones could still make it, and Belichick deserves plenty of leeway.

But another year with Belichick, Jones, Patricia and this core has a very good chance to do more long-term harm than good for a team that is owed nothing from the football gods.

As Jakobi Meyers wound up to whip a 10-yard backward pass to Mac Jones, he was hoping to make New England Patriots history.

He did just that—but not in the way he was hoping.

The all-time gaffe wound up in the hands of Las Vegas Raiders defensive end (and former Patriots defensive end) Chandler Jones, who threw a vicious stiff-arm to the face of Mac Jones and scampered all the way to the end zone for one of the most improbable walk-off wins in NFL history.

RAIDERS WIN ON UNREAL WALK OFF TD 🤯

(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/HPknVy1fcB

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 19, 2022

Speaking to Peter King of NBC Sports, Chandler Jones described what was going through his mind as the play unfolded:

"It was a desperado situation, and that was a team that would try to do anything to advance the ball for a touchdown. They'll throw the ball, pitch it, lateral it. I knew that was a possibility to happen. I thought they would do a hook-and-lateral, or something like that. They had a random run.

"I actually missed a tackle on [Rhamondre Stevenson]. I went to go punch the ball out on that play and I missed. The guy kept running. By the time I stood up, I realized that the ball was being pitched around.

"They were playing hot potato now. Instead of pursuing the ball, I just started playing back into saying, 'All right, who's the next passer? Who could they possibly throw it to next that's behind the line of scrimmage?' Because they're playing this whole hot potato game. Sure enough, I saw Jakobi Meyers kinda look back at Mac Jones, the quarterback. He was standing in the middle of the field. I literally just jumped up when I saw the ball coming, intended for Mac. Mac was kind of standing there, looking at me with big eyes.

"I literally just jumped up and intercepted it. I just gave Mac a nice stiff-arm with my right hand. The rest was history."

At least Mac tried 😅🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/acOqMhaBLE

— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) December 19, 2022

"I don't think I've thrown a stiff-arm in practice," Jones told Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. "When I caught the ball, he was there, I was thinking, You know what, I could try to put a juke move on. I could try to outrun him. I don't know, maybe I could outrun Mac Jones. But whenever defensive players are running for touchdowns, they always get made fun of for getting caught by the quarterback. So I thought, I'm not gonna try to outrun him. I'm just trying to run over him. If I fall and trip, I'll pitch it. Because there were guys behind me."

There was no logical excuse for what transpired. The game was tied 24-24 and seemingly headed for overtime.

The odds of Meyers completing a 10-yard lateral were already low in any situation. Throwing the pass to Mac Jones, who is certainly not the fleetest of foot, lowered the odds of success by an exponential degree. There was no world in which Jones was going to scamper 50 yards for a touchdown, so the options were going to be limited even if Meyers did complete the attempt at a miracle.

Instead, the result was perhaps Chandler Jones' greatest individual play of his career and arguably the most embarrassing moment of Bill Belichick's coaching career.

In the offensive-driven NFL, the New England Patriots are trying to win the hard way.

Monday's 27-13 victory over the Kyler Murray-less Arizona Cardinals is a positive step for New England after losing its previous two games against superior competition. But a 7-6 record and tenuous grasp over the AFC's final playoff spot shows how unsteady the team's position currently is based on how half of the roster continues to perform.

Bill Belichick is the greatest head coach in professional football history. How he's built the Patriots into a consistent winner over two-plus decades during the most competitive period in NFL history is nothing short of astonishing. He's not infallible, though.

Belichick's decision not to hire a legitimate offensive coordinator has brought the expected results. The unit has regressed, and Mac Jones' development has been stunted.

Instead, the Patriots' seasonal aspirations remain intact thanks to an aggressive defense, not the play-calling of defensive-coordinator-turned-head-coach-turned-senior-football-advisor (whatever that title means) Matt Patricia.

Jones' outburst during the Patriots' previous loss to the Buffalo Bills became the outward manifestation of the frustration that had been bubbling under the surface.

"Obviously, I just kind of let my emotions get to me," Jones explained to reporters. "What I said was about throwing it deeper within the short game. I got to execute that part better. But it's the short game that we kept going to, which is working. But I felt like we needed chunk plays. I shouted that out to kind of get everyone going. That's emotional. That's football. I'm passionate about this game."

Emotions can be a positive if harnessed properly. Tom Brady is known for his sideline tirades, and they occurred quite a few times during his Patriots' tenure. Jones has yet to earn the same level of transparency, yet it's clear he's passionate and wants more from both himself and New England's offense.

"This is an emotional game, and everyone feeds off emotion," Jones said during a postgame interview on ESPN after the Cardinals game. "And I think, at times, we're too flat."

Entering Monday's contest, the Patriots ranked among the bottom half of the league by averaging 20.8 points per game. However, New England leads the league with 85 points off turnovers this season, according to ESPN Stats & Info. In other words, nearly a third of the team's scoring so far came via the help of the defense making big plays.

Against the Cardinals, linebacker Raekwon McMillan returned a fumble 23 yards for a score.

Points by the @Patriots defense! 💪

📺: #NEvsAZ on ESPN
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/UKeBTYKCRY pic.twitter.com/8PHgaMkuyV

— NFL (@NFL) December 13, 2022

Furthermore, Matthew Judon and Co. are getting after opposing quarterbacks and making life difficult for all opposing offenses. With six sacks Monday, the Patriots defense now ranks third in the category, behind only the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys.

To be fair, New England's defenders are far more capable of creating explosive plays. The offense? Not so much, especially with injuries to wide receivers Jakobi Meyers and DeVante Parker and running backs Rhamondre Stevenson and Damien Harris.

"I see an offense that's running the football well. It's a very conservative pass game—lot of screens, all kind of screens. It's how a defensive guy would call offensive plays—'let's not turn the ball over, let's get four yards a play, and let's try to burn clock,'" Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said during his team's week of preparation.

"That's what they're doing, and that's what he's going to do on Monday night. He's going to be patient. Maybe take a shot from time to time. But for the most part, it's run game, it's quick game, and it's screens."

[Insert "nailed it" GIF]

As Fantasy Points' Chris Wecht noted, Patricia called 11 screens on 39 dropbacks. According to Warren Sharp of Sharp Football, 44 percent of Jones' throws were at or behind the line of scrimmage, and 60 percent of the team's third-down pass attempts were short of the sticks.

To make matters worse, Patricia isn't even trying to build around his unit's strengths. New England claims the league's most effective play-action passing attack, yet utilized a play-fake only three times against the Cardinals, per Sharp.

Unsurprisingly, Jones once again grew frustrated with the offense's performance and let it be known on at least two different occasions. Even so, not much will change through the rest of this season.

"I think we need to do what we're doing better. I don't think at this point making a lot of dramatic changes; it's too hard to do that," Belichick said during his weekly interview on WEEI's The Greg Hill Show.

"If we can just do, consistently, what we're doing, I think we'll be all right. We just haven't been able to have enough consistency. It's not one thing. One time it's one thing. Next time it's something else. We just have to play and coach more consistently."

A few bright spots did appear, particularly among the offense's rookie performers.

First-year backs Pierre Strong Jr. and Kevin Harris carried the ball a combined 13 times for 96 yards and two scores. Strong added two catches out of the backfield for 20 more yards. Second-round speedster Tyquan Thornton collected four passes for 28 yards. As this group continues to grow and become more comfortable, the Patriots offense can be more efficient.

Even with the rookies' in-season development, the entire group is fighting an uphill battle when facing the high-flying offenses in Buffalo, Miami, Kansas City and Cincinnati—three of which New England faces during the final three weeks of the regular season.

The Patriots are also being chased by the Los Angeles Chargers and Jacksonville Jaguars, who are getting outstanding play from their quarterbacks, Justin Herbert and Trevor Lawrence, respectively. The New York Jets are right there, too, though they have some question marks of their own on offense.

New England's offense is predictable, stale and lacks explosive qualities.

"No, I think the biggest thing is not letting it affect my play and bringing the best out of the guys," Jones responded when asked by reports about his obvious frustration with the offensive scheme.

The Patriots' staff is fooling itself if the coaches actually believe the unit is currently good enough to be a legitimate playoff contender. The defense most certainly is.

But everyone watching New England's offense should react in a similar fashion as Jones has the last two weeks because it's deserving of expletive-ridden ridicule.

---

Brent Sobleski covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @brentsobleski.

A little over a week ago, the New England Patriots were winners of three straight. They suffered a narrow loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Thanksgiving, but even then, the 6-5 Patriots felt like a team that could threaten in the postseason.

After Thursday night's 24-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills, however, it feels like New England's season is basically over. Anyone looking to point the finger at quarterback Mac Jones for the loss—or for not being on the level of Josh Allen—shouldn't. Jones didn't fail the Patriots on Thursday. The Patriots have failed Jones all season.

Let's be clear. Jones isn't Allen. He's an adequately athletic pocket passer whose strengths are his timing, accuracy and ability to read a defense. He isn't the sort of dynamic dual-threat who can create big plays out of thin air.

However, Jones cannot and should not be blamed for all of New England's offensive struggles.

The offense isn't exactly loaded with skill-position players. Rhamondre Stevenson is a tremendous runner, while Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith are quality receiving tight ends. However, the wide receiver group—headlined by Jakobi Meyers, DeVante Parker and Nelson Agholor—leaves plenty to be desired.

Meyers came into Thursday with a team-high 571 receiving yards and a team-high three receiving touchdowns. Those aren't numbers indicative of a No. 1 NFL receiver. Entering Week 13, Parker was the only other player with more than 400 receiving yards on the season.

The reality is that New England lacks breakaway threats, and that's a problem when the quarterback is a distributor and not a creator. Another problem is an offensive line that has now allowed 32 sacks on the season.

You can put things this simply:

If you don't protect a guy like Josh Allen, he can put on a Superman cape and just beat you anyway.

If you don't protect Mac Jones, your offense is dead.

Not sure that's something to hate Jones for, but tonight made that pretty clear.

— Khari D. Thompson (kdthompson5.bsky.social) (@kdthompson5) December 2, 2022

Big plays have been few and far between for New England. We saw this play out on Thursday, as New England's lone explosive play was made by a rookie cornerback getting his first NFL offensive snap.

#Patriots bring in CB and punt-return hero Marcus Jones on **offense**.

All he does is make plays. Speeeed. 💨💨pic.twitter.com/3Jc53oyM65

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 2, 2022

The Patriots and head coach/de facto GM Bill Belichick must shoulder the blame for Jones' lackluster supporting cast.

Of course, Jones had a similar supporting cast last season and was a rookie Pro Bowler who took New England to the playoffs. However, he has regressed in both touchdown passes (from 22 to seven) and passer rating (from 92.5 to 87.3 coming into Thursday)—and the supporting cast is only part of the problem.

The Patriots and Belichick have failed Jones in the coaching department, too. When New England lost offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels in the offseason, it didn't replace him with an experienced play caller. Belichick tapped Joe Judge and Matt Patricia—coaches with special teams and defensive backgrounds, respectively—to lead the offense.

Unsurprisingly, the Patriots' attack has been uncreative and predictable for most of the year—one miraculous Marcus Jones play notwithstanding.

So weird. It’s like putting the @Patriots offense in the hand of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge was a bad idea….

— trey wingo (@wingoz) December 2, 2022

Play-calling hasn't helped Jones in any way. No, he doesn't have elite receivers at his disposal, but he does have enough downfield accuracy to stretch the field. Only, the Patriots have rarely attacked deep, instead relying on the run and underneath passes, hoping something breaks.

With the current skill group, there aren't going to be many breakaway plays when opponents aren't concerned with defending the deep ball.

Perhaps Patricia and Co. don't trust the Patriots offensive line. Perhaps they don't trust Jones. Whatever the reason, the result has been an offense that is too easy to defend.

A little creativity could work wonders for Jones, as it did last year. According to Pro Football Reference, Jones ran 32 run-pass options (RPOs) in 2022 and threw for 324 yards on those plays. He attempted 108 play-action passes and threw for 888 yards off of play-action.

Entering Thursday, Jones had run six RPOs and 33 play-action passes with 318 passing yards off of those plays this season.

The Patriots also might want to let Jones do what he does best, stand under center and survey the field.

Mac Jones is better Under Center than Shotgun and that trend continues tonight. When UC he's +17.1% Comp % Over Expected & -12% in shotgun. He's been UC more tonight than his season average, NE should continue to put him there.

— TNF Prime Vision (@TNFPrimeVision) December 2, 2022

With a bland offense that lacks breakaway pass-catchers and doesn't do a stellar job of protecting the quarterback, it would be hard for just about any signal-caller to find success—at least one not named Allen or Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes.

And it's not as if Jones didn't see this coming. The second-year quarterback had trepidation about Belichick's choice of play-caller, and he was largely ignored. According to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, this strained the relationship between team and quarterback early in the season.

Breer said the following on the NBC Sports Boston pregame show in October (h/t NESN's Dakota Randall):

"I think things did get a little sideways, really over the last couple of months. And I think it’s going back from the change to Josh McDaniels. ‘Why are we bringing in Joe Judge and Matt Patricia when Bill O’Brien’s sitting out there and potentially we could’ve made a run at him? Why does it make sense to have a defensive guy and a special teams guy here? Why are we changing the offense? Why are we streamlining after all the success I had?'"

Jones doesn't seem nearly as comfortable in the current Patriots offense as he did under McDaniels—a sentiment shared by many around the league, according to Breer.

"One thing some of these people who evaluated him have told me consistently over the course of this year is it doesn't look like he trusts the offense," Breer said on Early Edition (h/t Justin Leger of NBC Sports Boston). "So I think the first thing is getting him concepts that he trusts. Figuring out what he likes and focusing on that."

This is perhaps the biggest way in which the Patriots have failed Jones. Instead of listening to the guy they drafted to be the franchise quarterback and tailoring the offense to suit him, New England has dismissed his concerns and tried to force him into an unfamiliar system.

And perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. It's the "Patriot Way" to follow Belichick and do what is asked. It worked for years with Tom Brady running the show, though to be fair, Brady is arguably the best to ever do it.

Of course, New England can point to the success of Bailey Zappe—who went 2-0 and posted a 100.9 QB rating when Jones was out with a high-ankle sprain—and say that the "Patriot Way" still works.

However, when a team doesn't trust its quarterback or acknowledge his input, it's hard for that quarterback to trust the team and to flourish.

So, if New England misses the postseason this year, and a bad offense is the culprit, don't blame Jones. As a rookie, he appeared to be a worthy successor to Brady in New England, but in his second season, the Patriots have let their prospective franchise quarterback down in multiple ways.

The New England Patriots reportedly "aren't wavering" on their decision to keep Mac Jones as their starting quarterback over rookie Bailey Zappe.

ESPN's Mike Reiss reported Wednesday the Pats have given "zero indication—publicly or behind the scenes" they are looking to replace Jones now or in the immediate future.

Jones has struggled to back up his promising rookie campaign during the first half of the 2022 season. He's completed 65.9 percent of his throws for 993 yards with just three touchdowns and seven interceptions across five starts.

That's a far cry from last year, when he recorded 22 TDs and 13 INTs while leading the Patriots to a playoff appearance with a 10-7 record.

Zappe, who's played in four games as Jones recovered from an ankle injury, has held his own with a 70.7 percent completion rate, five touchdowns and three interceptions.

It wasn't enough for the Patriots to hand him the keys to the offense as Jones returned from injury, however, and the 2021 Pro Bowler played a decent game in Sunday's win over the New York Jets, going 24 of 35 for 194 yards with one touchdown and one pick.

"I thought Mac did a nice job," head coach Bill Belichick told reporters. "We had pressure on quite a few pass plays—more than we would like, for sure—and I thought he made good decisions. He had to pull the ball down a couple and made some key runs for us. The Jets gave us some looks at the line of scrimmage that he had to deal with in the running game; I thought he handled those well. I thought he gave us a lot of good plays."

While New England is standing behind Jones for now, it'll be interesting to see whether the coaching staff's stance changes if he doesn't show signs of returning to his 2021 form in the coming weeks.

The Patriots are still in the thick of the AFC playoff race with a 4-4 record, but their margin for is limited with a difficult schedule down the stretch. It makes their new two contests, winnable home games against the Indianapolis Colts and New York Jets, quite crucial.

If Jones doesn't play well in those matchups, it wouldn't be a surprise to see a new round of calls to give Zappe another chance to spark the Pats' offense.