Are the Patriots Tanking?
Is New England tanking? Are they losing on purpose? Could the Patriots end up with the first overall pick in the NFL Draft? The Patriots are 1-5 after their loss to the Vegas Raiders on Sunday. On Monday’s Felger and Massarotti show, they discussed those questions based on how Coach Bill Belichick handled the quarterback situation with Mac Jones on Sunday.
Jim Murray: I was in that end zone watching that develop and like, I’m clearly no Mac Jones guy, but even watch, I’m like, this is I can’t believe how stupid he is at times. It’s great. You know, Tony Romo is usually very defensive of any quarterback with whatever game he’s calling. He’s right. Like what you look at some of the decision making, which again, was supposed to be a strength of Mac Jones. And it’s like, was he ever smart to begin with or is he completely lost his mind because they’ve broken him? But you watch something like that and like what felt like slow motion, like you. What are you thinking? Take the sack. Throw it out of bounds. You’re no playmaker. You’re no Patrick Mahomes. You can’t roll out and try to. Oh, I’m going to make this play. That’s not you, dude. You stink.
Mazz: I thought the play was there.
Felger: Zo was great. no, no, no, seriously.
Mazz: I mean, what a horrendous pass. Horrendous. I mean, didn’t even come close. He missed him by three feet.
Felger: Was definitely there.
Mazz: He was open.
Felger: No, no. Most quarterbacks in the league in this day and age can get out there and make that throw. It’s almost become a requirement. I mean, it’s just the way the game is played now. They’re few and far between the guys that don’t have that in their bag. Most guys have that in their bag now. And he doesn’t you know, he’s one of the few that doesn’t. So he, like Jones, can run like he’s I think he’s a little underrated as a scrambler. He can gain you seven yards on third and four if it’s there by running forward a little quicker than you would think. Running in a straight line forward. He cannot throw on the run like he is. Not that.
Mazz: Even Garoppolo can throw on the run that ball yesterday when he was rolling to his left and toward down the sideline. It was a good third downplay. It was a nice ball to Johnson .
Felger: Right before Mac Jones throws that pick as he’s rolling right he does he quickly turns around he quickly turns around and snaps his head back to see if he’s about to get strips. Act because he’s so four clamped about the thing in Dallas and he’s been it’s been drilled into him don’t turn the ball over that as he’s running out there, he quickly you know does a quick twitch over his shoulder to see if anyone’s there about to strip sack him. Which whatever. I’ll put this in air quotes. Rhythm he might have had out there completely destroyed. He just can’t. He’s not that guy. It’s got to be in the pocket. He’s got to time the read. You know, he’s just not a physical playmaker. Like it’s this obvious. And he may not be any kind of playmaker. So you go into the game and a lot of people said, well, double secret probation, final warning. Those were my Greece’s words last week. Final warning. That was in the first half. If he makes a mistake like that, that’s it. He’s done for good. But the way that Bill handled the quarterback depth chart yesterday, that was impossible. In fact, Bill did the exact opposite of giving him a short leash. He gave him more leash because he made the backup quarterback, Malik Cunningham, who can’t come close to running the normal offense. And I don’t think he really ran his offense all that great either. As three snaps. Four snaps was one hand off, one sack, and then he sprinted to the sidelines and Zeke Elliott ran in for a touchdown. I think that was the extent of his work.
Mazz: I think you’re right at quarterback again.
Felger: Air quotes. So, they only had a handful of plays for him anyway, so he wasn’t a viable backup to Mac Jones. So there was there was nothing that was going to get Mac Jones out of that game other than someone taking his head off, right. At which point they would have to go to Bailey’s AP yet and then no one else could play. And then if he got hurt, you’d have to put in like, I don’t know who the fourth guy is. Probably Chris Board. I don’t know. I just made that up because Bill loves them so much. So like the way Bill handled that quarterback thing is he did the opposite of tightening the leash on Mac Jones. He gave him all the rope he needed. He was not going to take them out. He couldn’t take them out.
Mazz: I mean, maybe he was you know, again, when you mentioned Reese, I forgot that, you know, exactly.
Felger: Had final warning.
Mazz: Yeah, maybe. Maybe, maybe Bill was there, him with everybody. He made it sound like Johnson is, you know, and I’m just throwing crap against the wall. I’m not telling you that’s what it was. But like, Mike, the short answer, they don’t have anybody who can play well.
Felger: Okay, But so now this. I just I keep going back to I’m sorry I keep doing this but didn’t Bailey Zappe feel like, yes, you have something.
Jim Murray: Yes. And then they want him to go there.
Felger: But that’s fair. Like even that’s fair. Even if we overrated or anyone who got into AP, people overrated him fine. Okay. We overrated him. Let’s say he actually sucks. He still went to an idol. He’s still just a rookie going into his second year. How does he fall so far from that? That he’s not even he’s released for the season and then not even active for a game in which Matt Jones is teetering is like on the verge of toppling over on his That is such a bad story or so mismanaged or up mean even if it’s not that from probably week two of training camp. After Bill O’Brien got a whiff of the guy and clearly didn’t believe in him. You know, Zappe wasn’t the guy. And according to all the experts. You knew this last year. Okay, So all the people who I’ll just defer to all the football experts who obviously know more than we do that Bailey’s AP sucked when he was going to enroll last year.
Jim Murray: I’ll tell you when we’re ready to talk about Bailey.
Felger: Oh, completely sucked. Greg completely sucked. Chris Gasper and Holley and all you guys completely sucked. While he was going to it all useless. Why then, didn’t they get a viable backup? Why didn’t they, in the off season, get a viable backup? Why didn’t they? The second week of training camp, when Bill O’Brien figured out the kid was completely useless, get a viable backup.
Jim Murray: No. Well, first two weeks ago. First they signed Ian Book.
Mazz: Well, right. Ian book was in the middle there.
Felger: Well, it’s just. What are you doing? So. So the thing you’re like, it just bothers me again because it deprives us of some content. It would have been fun to see. I mean, if you’re a functional team. The rookie last year who wins you a couple of games is a backup. The rookie. It’s just developed and he makes a little progress in a year or two and he’s there in case you’re teetering starter falters and you see what you got. But Zap fell so far. He sucks so bad you don’t even see what you got with him. Like, what’s that? It’s just. God that pisses me off.
Mazz: Well, I’ll tell you two. I don’t know that they can do it now.
Felger: So, what’s the point now?
Mazz: No, not even that. What, are you going to send him out there against Buffalo? Miami.
Felger: These are next two losses. It doesn’t matter who’s quarterback.
Mazz: So, like, I almost feel like now you have to stick with Jones. Otherwise you’re throwing the next.
Felger: Guy to the wolves. And I’m telling you, I guess the saints, it wouldn’t matter. But I don’t know. Mac Jones threw a pick six the second series of the game, so maybe the quarterback would have mattered against the Saints. He was that bad. The quarterback. What a mattered. Yesterday, another interception that led to points. The quarterback would have mattered maybe against Dallas? I don’t know. I mean, they’re much better than you, but I think Dallas still sucks and is stupid. And you gave them 14 points on quarterback turnovers. So I don’t know. There’s no doubt like the zapping thing was just totally. Completely taken off the board. And so yesterday.
Mazz: Which raises another question then why is he even here? So anyway, go ahead.
Felger: No more so than yesterday. Like that feels to me. So you go into a game. Where the second quarterback is just is just the gadget guy. And you have a third guy who’s played in one games in the league, yet the third guy, the guy, the guy who was played in one games in the league is for all intents and purposes unavailable. But the guy who is available is just a gadget guy who only has a handful of plays set aside for him. Are you trying to lose? Like, that’s the kind of thing you do when you’re tanking. That. That’s how you tank.
Mazz: Is there any chance the owner went to Bill and said, This is what I want?
Felger: That’s what you do if you’re tanking.
Jim Murray: So this is what I thought. So Phil Perry, we talked him on the pre-game yesterday and he reported that, you know, there was I think I forget the term he used was like high ranking officials believed in Malik Cunningham. So they wanted to see what they may be had with him. So I thought, well, maybe that meant ownership. We want to see what we have. This is with this kid. So Bill Spitefully said, Oh, okay, then we’ll make him the backup then, and then Bailey’s AP will be the emergency quarterback. Because that situation, think about if Mac Jones gets hurt, your quarterback for the rest of the game is Malik Cunningham.
Felger: That’s it. You just and I have no idea where the spike comes in, but with Belichick, you can’t rule it out, right, that there’s some sort of spite angle to how he’s managing things because that’s how he operates. Do I need to take off the microphone again, like he’s a spiteful manager? So spite is in there somewhere. So. So that’s what you do when you tank. You say. Yeah, there was an injury. What do you want? Well, we had to you know, there’s only 45 active. Here’s the emergency thing. We couldn’t play the emergency guy because then if you play the emergency guy, you can’t use anyone else. And so that’s just what it is. He got hurt. It was injury. That’s what you do when you’re tanking. You make Michael Bishop your quarterback, you know, and it’s what you do when you epically suck, you know? The only team I’ve seen make that gadget guy work is New Orleans and Taysom Hill. And even then.
Jim Murray: Yeah, it’s.
Felger: That almost never works. It’s what you do when you suck. Well, that was the Michael Bishop thing quite like to. I was in favor of him playing too. But that’s what you do when you blow. It’s the gadget guy, but you don’t make him the backup. And the guy that started one games can’t play, you know, again, essentially, given the way the rules are now, that’s what you do when you’re trying to lose or you’re trying to you’re trying to manage. You can’t tell your players not to try, but you can manage your roster in such a way that you really hurt yourself. Is that what they were doing yesterday?
