With the 2023 season in the books, MassLive will look at each position group on the Patriots, analyzing how the team performed in 2023 and where it might be heading in the future. This is an important offseason for new Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo and owner Robert Kraft. This series starts with quarterbacks.
Quarterbacks: Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe, Nathan Rourke
Contract situation: The good news is that the Patriots have little money invested in their quarterback situation. They also lack little long-term depth.
Jones enters 2024 in the final year of his rookie contract. He’s scheduled to account for around $4.959 million on the Patriots salary cap. That includes a $2.785 million base salary. If the Patriots trade Jones, they’ll save around $2.785 million on the cap. They’d save no money by cutting the quarterback.
Jones also has a fifth-year option, which is projected to be somewhere in the $23 million range. A source told MassLive that the Patriots won’t pick up that option.
Zappe is signed through the 2025 season. He has a cap hit of $985,000 next season. None of that is guaranteed. Zappe’s cap hit goes up to $1.1 million in 2025. He’s scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent in 2026.
Rourke is not under contract next season. He’ll be an exclusive rights free agent in March.
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2023 review: The Patriots entered 2023 thinking it couldn’t get any worse. After Bill Belichick hired Bill O’Brien to lead his offense, the thought was that the Patriots quarterback issues would be solved.
Instead, it got much worse, and the Patriots found no answers to their quarterback woes.
Jones didn’t have a bad start to 2023. The quarterback was top 10 in the NFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns after three weeks. Everything fell apart after that. Jones had five touchdowns and two interceptions in the first three games. He had five touchdowns and 10 touchdowns in his final eight games.
Jones was benched four times before losing his starting job to Bailey Zappe in Week 12. The Patriots were 2-9 with Jones as their starter. His highlight of the season was leading the Patriots to a fourth-quarter comeback over the Buffalo Bills in Week 7. Jones’ season high for passing was in Week 1, against Philadelphia, was 316 yards and three touchdowns.
Jones finished with 2,120 passing yards, 10 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.
With Zappe, the Patriots finished the season 2-4. He led the Patriots to wins over Pittsburgh and Denver. Zappe’s season highs were 256 yards against Denver and three touchdowns against Pittsburgh. He finished with 1,272 yards with six touchdowns and nine interceptions.
The Patriots played Malik Cunningham as their backup quarterback for one game against Las Vegas. He ended up signing with Baltimore off the team’s practice squad.
The future: The Patriots biggest priority this offseason is fixing their quarterback situation. That’s easier said than done, but the team isn’t in a bad position.
The first step was hiring a new offensive coordinator and the team did that last week with Alex Van Pelt.
The next order of business is to figure out what this depth chart will look like. The team could sign a veteran quarterback in free agency. Options include the likes of Jacoby Brissett, Ryan Tannehill, Joshua Dobbs, Joe Flacco, and Sam Darnold.
The Patriots could attempt to fill their starting spot by swinging ‘big’ and signing Kirk Cousins or Baker Mayfield. That would be a surprise considering where they’re picking in the 2024 NFL Draft. With the third pick, the Patriots are in a position to draft a blue prospect such as North Carolina’s Drake Maye or LSU’s Jayden Daniels.
If the Patriots don’t draft a quarterback at No. 3, they’ll look at the next tier of draft prospects. That includes Michael Penix Jr. (Washington), Bo Nix (Oregon) and J.J. McCarthy (Michigan).
The Patriots could keep Jones around, and he would make for a solid backup, but there’s an expectation that the team will look to trade their former first-round pick. It’s almost certain that the Patriots will revamp their quarterback position this offseason. That could likely mean trading Jones, signing a veteran, and drafting a rookie in the first round.
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