The New England Patriots are mercifully on their bye week in Week 11, but thanks to how their contest against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 10 played out, there's going to be no shortage of drama throughout the week in Foxboro. Unsurprisingly, the main storyline for this team involves Mac Jones' future as the starting quarterback for the Patriots.
Jones' numbers against the Colts (15/20, 170 YDS, 1 INT) don't accurately showcase how bad he was in this game. He had three of the worst passes of his young career, which included overthrowing Hunter Henry who was open in the end zone, nearly turning the ball over on a shovel pass to Rhamondre Stevenson after failing to hit multiple open receivers, and the worst of them all, his underthrown interception on a pass intended for a wide open Mike Gesicki in the end zone.
Jones was subsequently benched for Bailey Zappe on New England's potential game-winning drive, only for him to make an equally awful throw on a fake-spike play that saw him try to find Demario Douglas in triple-coverage. Ever since he was pulled, rumors of Jones' future have swirled, and while many fans are sick of his awful play, benching him is not the right move for the Pats.
The Patriots have nothing to gain by benching Mac Jones
The 2023 season was supposed to be the year where Jones took a step forward after a down year in 2022. He finally had a real offensive coordinator in Bill O'Brien, and was rid of the black cloud that Matt Patricia had cast over the offense. Ten games into this season, it's looking like Patricia wasn't actually the problem for this offense.
Similar to his performance against the Colts, Jones' numbers on the season (212/324, 2031 YDS, 10 TD, 10 INT) undersell how bad he has been. Granted, he has virtually no help with his pass catchers, and one of the worst offensive lines in the league, but Jones is consistently missing wide open players downfield, and when he throws the ball, half of the time he is doing so off of his back foot for literally no reason whatsoever.
If it wasn't clear at any point prior to the loss against the Colts, Jones is not the Patriots quarterback of the future. He has been dealt an awful hand, and Bill Belichick has almost certainly played a massive role in his demise, but there's no sense running from the truth anymore. Fans who want Jones benched are justified. But it's not the best course of action for this team in the long run.
Yes, Mac Jones has been awful, but realistically speaking, what does this team gain by benching him? For starters, the options behind Jones aren't good. Zappe looked awesome for a couple halves last year, but he was so bad during training camp that he was released before being brought back onto the practice squad. Malik Cunningham has had the same thing happen to him twice, and Will Grier was only available on the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad because he wasn't good enough to be on their active roster.
Maybe Zappe keeps the Patriots more competitive than Jones, but does that really matter? The Patriots are not going to make the playoffs this season considering they are already 2-8, and at this point, losing is better than winning, as it helps them land a higher draft pick. Nobody wants to watch their favorite team look like they did in Week 10, but you need to hit these lows in order to climb back to the top of the mountain sometimes.
Beyond that, New England needs to focus on maximizing the value of their current roster as much as possible, which is easier said than done. Zappe, Cunningham, and Grier were all available to other teams at one point this season, and no one else grabbed them. Despite his poor play, Jones still is more valuable than any of these guys by a long shot, primarily due to the fact that he was a first-round talent coming out of college.
Jones can play, and while he has no future with New England, that isn't necessarily true for other teams. We just saw the San Francisco 49ers flip Trey Lance, who may be an even bigger bust than Jones after he was selected with the third overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, get flipped to the Dallas Cowboys for a fourth round pick. That's a far cry from the package the 49ers gave up to get Lance, but considering the position they are in with Brock Purdy, it doesn't really matter.
As of right now, the Patriots would be lucky to find similar value for Jones. And while he could continue to tank his value by going out and laying eggs like he did in Week 10, the expectation that Zappe, Cunningham, or Grier will do any better is foolish. The problems on New England's offense are deeper than Jones, and punishing him for the unit's struggles as a whole will benefit nobody.
New England will be investing in a new quarterback one way or another this offseason, but they still have Jones on one more year of his cheap rookie contract next season before he becomes a free agent (assuming his fifth-year option is declined). That could allow New England to draft another quarterback to develop behind him for a year, or they could simply flip him to a team that wants to take a flier on him for cheap.
These sorts of options don't exist with the other three quarterbacks New England could throw under center to further damage Jones' already shattered confidence. There's really no winning in this situation, but the Patriots cannot afford to make a bad situation even worse. Benching Mac Jones just doesn't improve anything for the Pats, which is why it's best to just play out the season with him before addressing the position ahead of the 2024 campaign.
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