Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images New England will stick with its starting quarterback in Week 12. The New England Patriots have decided on a starting quarterback for their Week 12 game against the New York Giants, and it is their old one. Incumbent Mac Jones is expected to open the contest on Sunday as the team’s QB1, as first reported by the the Boston Herald. The decision to stick with Jones comes after two weeks of speculation about the former first-round draft pick and his status within the Patriots offense. The 25-year-old, after all, has played the worst football of his career this season and was benched in three of the team’s ten games so far this year. The latest such incident took place before New England’s bye week, when he was pulled late in the fourth quarter of a 10-6 game versus the Indianapolis Colts; Jones had thrown an interception in the red zone — arguably the worst throw of his season — and the team subsequently tried its luck with backup Bailey Zappe. While Zappe himself threw a bad pick to end the game, the two QBs went on to split reps in practice this week. Despite both getting a healthy workload with the starters, however, Jones continued to prove himself the better player in a practice setting. He reportedly out-performed Zappe to earn the start on Sunday in East Rutherford. For Jones, that was the plan all along. “Hope so,” he told reporters earlier this week. “I mean, that’s the plan. I think I always work really hard for that, really put a lot of attention and detail into the week, like I talked about. A lot of that decision making is things I can’t control, but I can control my attitude and my effort like I talked about.” Jones started all 10 of the Patriots’ games this season, and all but three since his arrival as the 15th overall selection in the 2021 NFL Draft. But while he has some staying power, his performances especially this year have been lacking. The Alabama product has completed 212 of 324 pass attempts (65.4%) for 2,031 yards with 10 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. The Patriots offense as a whole has been among the least efficient in the league this year, with Jones having a prominent — but not exclusive — hand in the unit’s struggles. Nonetheless, the team will keep relying on him over Bailey Zappe this week. The Patriots came out of their bye week with three quarterbacks on their active roster. Jones and Zappe were joined by third-stringer Will Grier, who had originally joined the team in late September. However, the veteran journeyman was released on Saturday to bring the depth chart down to two. The Patriots’ game against the Giants at MetLife Stadium will be kicked off at 1 p.m. ET. Source: https://www.patspulpit.com/2023/11/26/2 ... iley-zappe
