The Patriots are calling different plays for Mac Jones than Bailey Zappe, leading Chris Simms to wonder if there are nefarious factors at play.
The former NFL quarterback shared his breakdown of the game film from the Patriots’ brutal 33-14 loss Monday night to the Bears. Like other analysts, Simms thought there was a real discrepancy between how the Patriots handled Jones and Zappe.
Simms surmises the reasoning might be about more than X’s and O’s.
“There’s something going on in New England. [Jones] has pissed them off. This is a real thing. I know it. Florio knows it,” said Simms. “I don’t know the exact details: whether he’s talked s— about the coaches behind them to the Kraft family, or he talked s— about the two new offensive coordinators to Belichick. There is an issue there. There is.”
Last week, Mike Florio, who hosts ProFootballTalk Live with Simms, reported that Jones “isn’t thrilled” with his situation. The longtime NFL Insider wrote there are “uncharacteristic rumblings surrounding the relationship between Jones and the Patriots.”
When pressed for more details on “The Greg Hill Show,” Florio demurred, saying he’s only written about the apparent ramblings in a “loose, vague way.”
There was noting vague about Simms’ message on his podcast. He thinks the Patriots are purposefully making the game easier for Zappe.
“There’s a part of me as that game went on, I went, ‘Oh, they called those plays for Mac Jones and they put Bailey Zappe in and called … were they setting him up for failure?’,” said Simms. “What was going on there? The whole thing was un-New England-like and weird to me.”
The numbers support Simms’ feeling. As WEEI’s Khari Thompson points out, the Patriots are putting Jones in shotgun far more often, and running less play-action with him under center. Zappe throws on play-action 22.2 percent of the time, whereas Jones passes out of play-action just 10 percent of the time.
Last year, Jones used play-action on 27.1 percent of his attempts. In other words, the Patriots are seemingly running their successful offense from last season with Zappe, and opening up the field more with Jones.
Why?
