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Absolutely zero creative embellishment. Just saw that yesterday Mac Jones was 0-fer, overthrowing receivers on the sideline, putting them out of bounds. Meanwhile Zappe was 3/4 or something.
Based on what I’m seeing on Twitter from beat writers & others, I completely agree with this.
That’sfeim July 18th.
Jones has only been practicing with the starting offense against the starting defense. Zappe has been 85% of the time playing with the backups against the backup defense. Throughout OTAs and training camp, Zappe has gotten one limited set of reps at the end of practice with a blend of ones and twos. Almost everything has been with Jones as the lead dog. Warmups, drills, 7v7, 11v11, etc. This is essentially the same breakdown they gave for starter vs. backup when Brady was in NE. If people want to say Zappe looked better working with the B team, so be it. Sample all the beat guys and tweets you want, but the big issue so far has been the receivers have not been getting open / separation against the defense in close quarters.
My link was from today.
Well Jones isn’t hitting his receivers very often, so there’s that.
It says “updated” today - when I clicked it it said July 18th.
The 11 v 11 numbers for any NE QB have all been terrible so far. But again, it's been non-contact, and not always full speed. Buy as many shares of Zappe as you want. There are very few people that cover the team suggesting Zappe is even in the running to start. If folks want to say that Jones is horrible and will lose the job, that's fine, but it would take the offense to be terrible, weeks and weeks of losses, and that likely would be a midseason thing not an out of camp thing.
I actually don’t disagree with this part.
Yeah right
I am being serious. Some of the media have latched on to Cunningham after last night and are suggesting that he and Zappe will be fighting for one roster spot. I think they are right that there will be one roster spot between them . . . I just don't think there is a competition for it. It's Zappe's . . . and Cunningham will have to earn a spot as last man on the roster or a place on the practice squad.
I think they will open a roster spot likely by putting a player on short-term IR then bring back a QB.
I'm sure that's the plan. A plan to bring back a QB that passes through waivers.
Rypien I bet.
I know it’s Belichick, and the Pats will find ways to win games that perhaps they shouldn’t - but I can really see the Pats “competing” for a top 3 draft pick this season. They may have the worst offense in the league - including Arizona starting Josh Dobbs.
Are people really that influenced by the preseason? NE barely played any of their starters in the preseason. Like 10-15 snaps. The huge majority of players that were thrown into the lineup in the preseason games are off the team. I already outlined that the players they have are better than two years ago, when they were a Top Half of the league offense and Top 10 in scoring. Bill O'Brien is a proven commodity at OC. Gone are the Patricia-Judge collaborative brain trust that ruined the offense.
No - I'm going by knowing the players.
No way? None at all? With a bad o-line, average at best WRS and TEs, and a bottom rung QB? No chance at all?
No - I'm going by knowing the players.
I expect NE do have more yardage than they did in 2021 (6,000 YFS). The following teams had less than that last year: LV, SEA, CLE, TB, BAL, GB, NYG, NOS, WAS, DEN, ARI, PIT, ATL, NYJ, IND, CHI, CAR, TEN, HOU, LAR. The Ravens should be better with a full season of Lamar, and the Jets should be better with ARod over the debacle that was out there last year at QB. I don't see those other teams as making huge improvements. If you want to take the stance that NE won't be a 6K offense, that's fine. But based on that, NE should be middle of the league based on yardage. The 2021 team had worse weapons and that's what they produced.
You keep using 2021 as your benchmark.
We're never going to see eye to eye, but "the scrambling to fill holes" is essentially ONE SPOT. Right tackle. Brown-Strange-Andrews-Onwenu are 4/5 of the offensive line, returning from last year, which was a solid core. They have two weeks to figure out whether they want to move Onwenu to tackle again or figure out a rotation of Anderson, Reiff, Sow, Lowe, and Wheatley.No - I'm going by knowing the players.
These observations are not based on preseason…preseason (and scrambling for players in August to fill holes) is merely reinforcing what many already thought about this offense.
I posted this in the NE team thread yesterday . . .
A lot of your analysis between past & current position groups feels fanciful. Not wrong, necessarily but overestimating the differences between the groups.
We're never going to see eye to eye, but "the scrambling to fill holes" is essentially ONE SPOT. Right tackle. Brown-Strange-Andrews-Onwenu are 4/5 of the offensive line, returning from last year, which was a solid core. They have two weeks to figure out whether they want to move Onwenu to tackle again or figure out a rotation of Anderson, Reiff, Sow, Lowe, and Wheatley.No - I'm going by knowing the players.
These observations are not based on preseason…preseason (and scrambling for players in August to fill holes) is merely reinforcing what many already thought about this offense.
Should they have done more long-term to address both tackle spots? Yup. They took a CB instead of the 4th OT in the first round. There were 7 tackles that went in the first 65 picks of the draft. They apparently didn't think the guys 8+ deep in the draft were worth it. There also were very few FA OT available. The Top 3 free agents signed for $64M, $80M, and $87M. The guys rated just after that were Isaiah Wynn, Jermaine Elumenor, and Cameron Fleming . . . all NE cast offs. Would you want any of those guys back? Should they have taken a tackle in the preceding draft? Probably . . . but they took a guard instead. They have a treasure chest of money to spend next year and could certainly afford to sign an OT and draft one.
As for depth at other positions (QB, RB, TE), the guys they released yesterday should all end up on the practice squad. I agree, none of those guys are proven or are world beaters, but how many teams have great options at backup QB, third RB, or third TE?
Do you really think there is much chance that one of the 31 other teams would claim Zappe and put him on their 53-man roster? That's their only option. Those teams can't sign him and put him on their practice squad. What has Zappe shown that he is worthy of a roster spot on another team with no knowledge of their playbook, no practice time, and a total of 0 snaps in that team's system? Realistically, there is no chance of another team bringing him in as a QB2. So he'd have to be on their roster as a QB3 (and effectively completely useless to begin the season). Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see a huge market for Zappe getting claimed by another team. They could always bring back McSourley.
Wouldn’t be shocked if the cardinals nabbed him. He’s not necessarily worse than Dobbs or Tune.
www.nbcsportsboston.com
There's serious discussion out there that the Cardinals have very little desire or incentive to win and could be tanking the entire season. They just traded for Dobbs and drafted Clayton Tune this past draft. Don't see them moving on from those two, so adding Zappe as a 4th QB on the 53-man roster seems unlikely. It doesn't appear that Zappe has as much game as he showed briefly last year, so they may not really have a capable backup QB even if he does come back. That being said, NE wouldn't be a contender if they had to rely on a backup QB anyway. Even if Mac plays all 17 games, they aren't winning the SB, so they need to access where they are headed.
On the one hand, kudos to BB for recognizing that Zappe is so underwhelming that he’s not afraid to potentially cut his losses there
Odds are the Pats still offered his best chance at starter snaps with only Mac in front of him. I’m guessing the other teams viewed him as a third guy. I’m glad Cunningham is returning at least.
The big takeaway is that no team put a claim in for any player NE released. That’s not a good sign.
Indeed. We were always good for a couple of cuts being snatched up by other teams each year, but not the case now. Even the 19-year streak of having an undrafted guy make the team ended.
