Getty Chris Simms sent a strong message on Mac Jones' 2023 offseason
Chris Simms insinuated that former Alabama College Football Playoff National Championship quarterback Mac Jones is kept up at night at the thought of the Patriots’ quarterback competition with Bailey Zappe.
“Not surprised to hear that Mac’s hanging around the facility, especially in a year like this,” Simms said on the April 11 edition of NBC Sports’ ProFootballTalk. “And, you know, there’s a backup that gets thrown into the conversation with his name quite often. I’m sure every now and then it wakes him up in the middle of the night. He’s like, ‘Bailey Zappe — OK, I gotta get to work.’ Psycho starting quarterbacks, that’s how they think. That became a thing this year, too. I’m sure he’s going, ‘Wait, Bailey, is he here? He’s not here? Good, I’m going into the facility. I’m going to get a few hours on him.’”
Per ESPN’s Mike Reiss, Jones has been a regular at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough — perhaps giving credence to Simms’ point about Jones’ obsessive attitude with remaining New England’s QB1.
“Quarterback Mac Jones has been a daily presence at Gillette Stadium — using the workout facilities and Socios.com Fieldhouse to throw — one of a small handful of players who has stayed in the region for the majority of the offseason,” Reiss reported April 9.
Mac Jones’ Teammates Not Happy Trade Rumor Leaked
When news broke that Bill Belichick was shopping Jones, there were strong reactions from analysts, including former Heisman winner Robert Griffin III — who is now a prominent on-screen analyst for ESPN.
“The Patriots have reportedly shopped Mac Jones to other teams this off-season,” Griffin tweeted on April 4. “Trying to trade him after giving him a defensive coordinator as his Offensive Coordinator and a special teams coach as his QB Coach last year is mind-blowing.”
NBC Sports Boston’s Phil Perry reported that Jones’ Patriots teammates were not happy such a rumor ever leaked.
“I’ve spoken to players who are not happy that this is in the news, that the Patriots and their potential interest in trading Mac Jones is out there in the public sphere,” Perry relayed. “They aren’t happy on Mac’s behalf; they aren’t happy, period, on their own behalf. They’re not happy that 2022 is bleeding into 2023.”
Patriots Fans Not Worried About Mac Jones Losing QB1 Role
Pats Pulpit’s Bernd Buchmasser and Kyle Thele reported that Patriots fans are not worried about Jones losing his starting job to Zappe — providing raw numbers from an SB Nation Reacts survey.
“Are the New England Patriots facing a quarterback controversy between Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe? It doesn’t look that way, even with Bill Belichick declining to publicly name a starter during a recent media appearance at the NFL owners meetings,” the Pats Pulpit staff prefaced before relaying that 71% of survey participants project Jones as the starter in 2023, Zappe getting 20% of the vote and 9% thinking it will be someone else.
One survey participant laid out the terms that’d need to be met for Zappe to usurp Jones.
“Zappe would have to outperform Jones by MILES to actually get the nod or have some off the field stuff / attitude issues / problems with Bill for him to lose out,” the participant wrote. “Anything remotely close and Jones will get the nod. It would basically be signaling to the fanbase that the season is beyond hope and the franchise would be admitting catastrophic failure in their evaluation of Jones.”