Devin McCourty says Pats locker room was torn between Jones, Zappe
Mac Jones’ tumultuous 2022 season has been well-documented, but former teammate and recently retired cornerback Devin McCourty is spilling the tea on exactly how bad things got in the New England Patriots locker room.
During a recent radio interview on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show,” McCourty disclosed that New England’s offensive performance was so poor during the season that many players began to question if Jones should have been benched in favor of rookie Bailey Zappe.
“Player-wise there was enough trust that we’re going to put the best guy out there,” McCourty said. “But the struggles on offense, I think there were some guys in the locker room that were like ‘Let’s go with Zappe.’ Or ’No, Mac looked good today.’ It was a back and forth, which to me, spoke more about what we had on offense than the quarterback. We never were solidified as an offensive group that guys had full confidence in anything we were doing. There was never true hope.”
The Patriots, who ranked sixth in scoring offense and 14th in total offense in Jones’ rookie year under former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, dropped to 17th in scoring and 26th in total offense under the combination of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge in 2022.
Zappe saw action in four games, including two starts, impressing many as he passed for 781 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions while completing 70.1 percent of his passes. The Patriots also won both of the games he started.
Jones, however, struggled to find his rookie form. He passed for 2,997 yards, 14 touchdowns and 11 interceptions with a completion percentage of 65.2 and a passer rating of 84.8. He was even benched in Week 7 against the Bears on Monday Night Football in favor of Zappe, though he did start the following week.
The 24-year-old Jones threw for fewer yards per game and touchdowns with a lower completion percentage and passer rating than the previous year.
While Jones is the projected starter for 2023, given Zappe’s performance last season, it wouldn’t be surprising if he was on a short leash under new offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien.
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