Patriots need to do ‘soul-searching’ at QB position, former OL says

The Patriots quarterback situation this year has been less than ideal.

Mac Jones was benched for Bailey Zappe four separate times during games this year before the latter replaced his teammate as the starter. Jones didn’t take a step forward in an important Year 3, and never got back to the “Alabama Mac” mindset.

Now at 3-11 going into Week 16, New England is essentially playing for a high draft pick. It’s unclear which direction the organization will go. But how things have panned out this season at quarterback has shown just how important the position is.

On the latest episode of “Eye On Foxborough,” former Patriots offensive lineman Ross Tucker joined MassLive’s Karen Guregian and discussed why quarterback is so important, and why New England has to do some “soul-searching” when it comes to the position.

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“Quarterback is so important. It’s really hard to go away from that. You can usually find a way to manage without an elite receiver. You can find a way to help them protect a certain tackle. But if you’re bottom-five in the league at quarterback, you just don’t have much of a shot,” Tucker said. “And I feel like that’s where the Patriots were this year. I think they need to do some soul-searching as to how that became the case, where they went from Mac Jones as a rookie to what happened the last couple of years. I don’t know how that happened, but it’s not a good look for Jones. It’s also not a good look for your organization the way in which he regressed.”

Jones, Zappe and the quarterback room is far from the only issue the Patriots face. But it’s a glaring one that hasn’t gotten better as the season’s gone on. A lot can happen between now and April when the draft is set to take place, and it will certainly be interesting to see which direction the Patriots go.