Mac Jones vs. Bailey Zappe: There was 'never a true competition' between Patriots QBs in offseason, per report

Jones is running far ahead of Zappe

Last season, the New England Patriots had what could charitably be described as a quarterback problem.

Mac Jones regressed badly in his second NFL season, to the point that he was briefly benched in favor of fourth-round rookie Bailey Zappe. Jones saw his completion percentage, yards-per-attempt average, touchdown rate, sack rate, on-target throw rate, and more take steps backward in Year 2 and the offense as a whole stalled out with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge running the show.

Coming into the offseason, there was a school of thought that there might be a legitimate competition between Jones and Zappe heading into the 2023 season. That wasn't the case, according to a report from MassLive.com. 

There never appeared to be a true quarterback competition this spring. Jones took the majority of the quarterback reps in every drill. He was constantly ahead of backup Bailey Zappe. Jones also earned more reps and clearly looked like the best quarterback on the field this spring.

Under new/old offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien, Jones has apparently looked significantly better in practices than he did at this time last year. That's good for the Patriots, because O'Brien was hired to get the Pats back to the type of offensive performances they had before the disaster-level 2022 season. Whether Jones can translate that improved performance to the regular season obviously remains to be seen, but it should be considered a good sign that there is no indication that he will be usurped by Zappe.