For those who wanted to see Bailey Zappe instead of Brian Hoyer play for the Patriots against the Green Bay Packers, you got your wish in a manner of speaking. (Not that anyone wished for Hoyer to get hurt, of course.)
And the result was both pleasantly surprising and highly predictable.
Yes, the fourth-round rookie threw his first career touchdown pass and briefly gave the Patriots a second-half lead in a game few expected New England to have a chance in. He also completed 67% of his passes and had a passer rating of 107.4. Clearly, you could do much worse, especially in a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency setting such as this.
But let’s do ourselves a favor and be honest about Zippin’ Zappe’s performance: it wasn’t anything eye-opening. If we're going to be even more honest, you probably win that game Sunday if Hoyer played all the way through.
Despite playing all but two possessions, the rookie mustered just 75 net passing yards in Week 4 (99 passing yards with 24 yards lost on sacks) and lost a fumble. Zappe’s 5.8 intended air yards per attempt were the fourth lowest among qualified quarterbacks this week, per NextGen Stats.
Conversely, his average time to throw of 3.31 seconds was fourth-highest among quarterbacks with 15 or more attempts, which is not necessarily a good thing. In addition to the sacks, the rookie bailed on one too many pockets a more experienced player would’ve stayed in and got himself into trouble, which isn’t surprising for a young man playing in his first game.
Isaiah Wynn got beaten mercilessly by Rashan Gary on the sack-fumble Zappe gave up, but the quarterback not feeling the pressure coming from his arm side is unfortunate.
Still, after that fumble and a few of the errant balls we were accustomed to seeing in training camp when Zappe was getting the cannon calibrated properly, he did make some better throws as predicted, including first-down strikes to Kendrick Bourne and Nelson Agholor.
The Patriots did a decent job of protecting him while leaning on their ground game to keep the chains moving as best they could, and he didn’t put the ball in harm’s way through the air. As much as people might have wanted New England to open things up for Zappe, that’s a tough proposition — and a somewhat unnecessary one — in this particular situation.
Also, he probably would’ve taken even more hits and sacks had they given him more downfield shots. So it was likely for the best anyway.
None of this is to disparage what Zappe did on Sunday. Having to jump into a game midway through the first quarter at Lambeau Field in your first game is no joke, and by all accounts he acquitted himself as well as you could expect if not a bit better.
But aside from outstanding mental toughness, you didn’t see anything from Zappe that suggests he’s more likely to win you football games than Jones or Hoyer right now. He’s certainly not on the level of Jones from last season, though Jones also got way more reps in camp and got to prepare as a starter before his first NFL game.
Just remember that if Zappe immediately heads back to the bench should Hoyer be healthy enough to play next week or, at latest, when Jones can give it a go on his bum ankle.
Zappe showed guts, but he doesn’t give the Patriots the best chance to win just yet.
