Bailey Zappe named Patriots starting quarterback for Week 13: report

The Mac Jones era in New England may be over for good.

Jones was benched for the fourth time of the season during Sunday’s loss to the New York Giants, once again for Bailey Zappe.

Well, it seems like the Patriots won’t have the chance to bench Jones during this Sunday’s game, because Jones will reportedly be on it from the get-go.

According to The Athletic, Zappe will start for New England this Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers.

Earlier this week, Zappe took the majority of reps in practice, although head coach Bill Belichick remained mum on the situation.

“Yeah, I’m not going to make any announcements on our lineup at any position,” Belichick said at the time. “So, it doesn’t matter what the position is. We’ll see how practice goes, see if everybody is ready to go. Hopefully, everybody is ready to go, see what the injury situation is, and we’ll go with who we think is best on Sunday.”

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New England sits at the bottom of the AFC East with a 2-9 record and on a four-game slide. 

Playing in his third season, Jones has completed 224 passes for 2,120 yards and just 10 touchdowns through 11 starts. He’s thrown 12 interceptions and been sacked 22 times. 

“Just bad quarterback play and wasn’t good enough by me,” Jones said Sunday of his first half benching. “If the quarterback doesn’t play well, you have no chance.”

Jones was the 15th overall pick of the 2021 NFL Draft, but the Pats have not struck gold in their heir to Tom Brady’s throne, like they did when they drafted the GOAT in sixth round over two decades ago.

As it currently stands, the Pats own the third overall pick in next year’s draft, which is filled with top-tier prospect talent at the quarterback position, headlined by USC’s Caleb Williams.

Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.

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