FOXBOROUGH – Bailey Zappe's rise in recent weeks has been sudden and certainly surprising to many. But the New England Patriots rookie quarterback isn't surprised by how he got to where he is today.

Zappe has gone from being the Patriots' third-string quarterback to being one of the NFL's hottest sensations in just a matter of weeks. He replaced Brian Hoyer, who was starting in place of an injured Mac Jones, early in Week 4 and proved to be a steady hand in what ended up as an overtime loss against the Green Bay Packers.

Zappe made his first career start in Week 5, completing 17 of 21 passes for 188 yards with a touchdown and an interception in what ended up being a 29-0 win over the Detroit Lions. In Week 6, Zappe Fever reached a fever pitch when he completed 24 of 34 passes for 309 yards with two touchdowns in a 38-15 win over the Cleveland Browns.

If you dig even beyond April, when Zappe was a fourth-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, his path to being an early success as a rookie seems even more improbable. Zappe began his college career at Houston Baptist, an FCS school, where he was redshirted as a freshman before starting for three seasons. After a strong senior season in 2020 (he threw for 15 touchdowns with just one interception in four games), Zappe made the jump to the FBS, transferring to Western Kentucky.

Zappe broke the Division I records for most passing yards (5,967) and passing touchdowns (62) in his lone season at Western Kentucky. Performances like the one he had with Western Kentucky in 2021 might be part of the reason why he always had the belief he'd make it to the NFL.

“Of course [I had believed I'd make it to the NFL], I had a little confidence that I'd be able to make it in myself,” Zappe said Wednesday. “But for me it's still surreal to be in this position and be in the NFL, be a quarterback in the NFL. I don't think it would ever come to me that I'm playing in the NFL. I still think I'll always take advantage of every day and live this dream that I've had since I was five.”

While Zappe's made it look relatively easy for a rookie so far, he admitted that there were some challenges along the way. He credited some people though for helping smoothen the transition from being a college quarterback to an NFL quarterback.

“The offense that I went with at Western was kind of the same offense I had at Houston Baptist so that was a lot easier for me,” Zappe said. “But coming into the NFL of course it was a lot different, a lot different offenses. I leaned on a lot of people to help me learn different schemes and different stuff like that.”

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One of the teammates Bailey Zappe's leaned on is Mac Jones. The rookie QB said that the second-year signal-caller has “helped a lot.”

“Of course, he's been in the league for a whole other year above me,” Zappe said. “I've been able to pick his brain. I've been able to ask him questions, and he's been giving me great feedback answering them. He's a lot of help.”

Some could be surprised by Jones' willingness to help Zappe as several speculate as to whether or not there's a quarterback controversy between the two. We might get the answer if there is one or not this week. Jones' left ankle reportedly continues to progress after he suffered a high ankle sprain in Week 3. His injury status has improved over the last three games as he was questionable and traveled to Cleveland for the Week 6 matchup against the Browns.

As Jones potentially gears up to return as the Patriots' starting quarterback, Zappe isn't changing his approach ahead of Monday night's Week 7 game against the Chicago Bears.

“As far as preparation, nothing's going to change,” Zappe said. “I'm going to keep doing the same thing I've been doing for the last seven weeks now. With the Monday game, we kind of get an extra day to get on to the Bears. Just this week working on some things that we saw the last few weeks of the film. Like fundamental-wise, working on that in practice but other than that nothing's really going to change at all.”

If Zappe ends up getting the nod, he's excited to possibly play in primetime for the time in his career.

“It's a great environment,” Zappe said. “It's primetime football, but right now I'm just kind of focused on practice next week and getting ready for practice tomorrow.”