Patriots
“Yeah, it’s a little opposite of what it’s been the last two years.”
Not too long ago, New England fans were cheering for Bailey Zappe to overtake Mac Jones as New England’s starting quarterback.
He was once called “the most popular man in New England” during ESPN’s broadcast of a 2022 Monday Night Football game against the Bears when he came in after Jones was benched. Fans chanted his name loudly and gave him a hearty round of applause that night.
During Thursday night’s preseason opening win against the Panthers, the fans demonstrated how much things have changed.
Zappe was booed as he took over for rookie quarterback Drake Maye in the first quarter.
“Yeah, it’s a little opposite of what it’s been the last two years,” Zappe said. “But when it was happening the opposite way it really didn’t bother me and when it’s happening this way it didn’t bother me either. We drove down and scored, so I think they were cheering after that. That’s really all you can do as a quarterback is go score and then everybody is happy.”
For the most part, Zappe played well. He completed 12 of his 20 pass attempts for 108 yards. He didn’t have any touchdowns, but he did throw a 28-yarder to Kayshon Boutte to set up a two-yard Kevin Harris touchdown run.
Zappe took on the bulk of the passing workload Thursday night with Maye and Brissett playing just one series each. Joe Milton threw just six passes, completing four including a 38-yard touchdown to JaQuae Jackson.
Zappe jokingly said that he helped set up Milton’s touchdown pass.
“It’s nice to have all four of us quarterbacks rooting for each other,” Zappe said. “So as we come off to the side everybody has an iPad and is talking about ‘maybe we should do this next time, maybe we should attack this guy or do this route.’”
“It’s just little stuff like that that can translate when you get back out there on the field like Joe’s touchdown on the double move,” Zappe added. “We were setting that up all game and I was like man I threw those out routes for you, you’re welcome for the double move there. But that was a great play by him, great catch, and great touchdown for the offense. It was pretty cool.”
Zappe, who started eight games after taking over from Jones last year, has seen his practice reps drop significantly during training camp. But, he threw more than three times as many passes as any other Patriots quarterback on Thursday night.
“I knew who I was going in after and when I was going in but I didn’t know how long it was going to be,” Zappe said. “If it was the entire game, I’m happy with that, I want to play but that’s up to AVP (offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt) and (Jerod) Mayo.”
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