Jakobi Meyers didn’t hide from the fact that he disagreed with how Mac Jones was treated Monday night.
The Patriots all week had been quiet about who would start at quarterback against the Chicago Bears. Mac Jones seemed healthy enough to return from his ankle injury, but the Patriots had played well with Zappe, and with the Patriots not offering much from their side, there was little idea of how they would proceed.
What they ended up doing blew up in their face. They say now that the plan was to have both quarterbacks play, and they did. But Jones started and only played three nondescript drives before he was replaced with Zappe. As things went south for Jones, there was a mix of fans booing Jones and clamoring for Zappe to take over.
The end result was an ugly loss at home on primetime. Zappe started off well but flamed out, and Meyers told the media afterwards that he didn’t like how everything unfolded.
"Not even as a football player. I mean, it's tough as a man to see somebody who worked so hard kind of get that kind of treatment," Meyers told reporters. "But at the end of the day, we're all trying to feed our families, so we've got to go out there and make plays with whoever is throwing it."
Asked by The Boston Herald’s Andrew Callahan if he was talking about the coaches, Meyers expounded.
“Not even the coaches, just everybody. The crowd, all of it," Meyers said. "It was an ugly situation, in my opinion.”
Ugly indeed, however Bill Belichick didn't offer much during his weekly appearance on the “Greg Hill Show,” when asked about the comments.
“I didn’t talk to Jakobi after the game, so I’m not sure about all of that,” Belichick responded.
Belichick also said in the interview that there was “no lack of communication” about the plan. And sure, not everybody in the organization needs to know what the approach will be. But even Rhamondre Stevenson said he didn’t know that both quarterbacks were going to play.
Maybe the communication wasn’t lacking in Belichick's eyes, but there were offensive starters who were in the dark. That reeks of a breakdown in communication.
The Patriots head coach wouldn’t say who will be their quarterback this week against the Jets. Whoever they end up going with, it seems clear players would prefer to know that ahead of schedule.
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