The biggest question with the Patriots for the 2021 season is who will be the quarterback?
Will Cam Newton return under center for a second year, or will rookie Mac Jones beat him out? Or, will it be Newton to start the year and Jones relieves him during the year after getting more experience in practice?
Appearing on The Greg Hill Show Wednesday, NFL Media's Ian Rapoport believes Jones does not start for the Patriots this year unless Newton gets injured.
"Cam is where is is in his career. He’s obviously a veteran. He’s been injured some. He’s missed some time. Physically, he’s not what he was," Rapoport said. "I would say just based on that there’s a pretty good chance Mac Jones plays at some point this year. But, straight up beating Cam out, I just think it’s hard in practice. To me, he’s either going to beat Cam out in training camp, which is a little bit of a long-shot, but maybe not the craziest thing in the world. Or, it will be an injury.
"The Patriots are not going to be bad. They are actually a really, really talented team. With mediocre quarterback play they are going to be at least average, probably better. I just don’t see a point maybe mid-year where they go, ‘OK, Mac Jones is so much better in practice, we now have to play him.’ To me, it’s probably an injury and then when he gets in he will either play really well or he won’t, and he’ll be ready for he won’t. That’s sort of my [take] on that.”
As for the theory that Newton starts at QB until after they play Tom Brady and the Bucs in Week 4, Rapoport doesn't totally buy into that.
“I would guess, and this is just a guess from my knowledge of the craziness that is the Patriots, I would guess it is probably not as big of a factor as we think," he said. "Like, on one hand I get it. Everyone is saying you want a veteran in there for that game so maybe it’s Cam’s make or break and then after that it’s Mac Jones. I don’t know about that because to me, I could easily just see Bill Belichick going to the press conference, Mac Jones is the starter whenever he wants him to be, whether it’s Week 1 or Week 2 or Week 8, if there’s an injury or whatever, and him saying, ‘We’re going to play the best quarterback.’
"The opponent is who it is, but Bill Belichick owes it to himself and his coaches and his team to play the best guy and I would imagine in his mind it doesn’t really matter about the opponent. The build up is going to be crazy, but once you get out there it’s all the same. I would bet that is probably not as big of a factor as we all are going to make it out to be.”