Tuesday is the day that NFL teams need to get their roster down to 53 players. The Patriots had to whittle down their quarterback room, and Mike Reiss of ESPN is reporting that the team has informed Bailey Zappe that he will be released.
The Patriots were a mess at quarterback last year with Mac Jones failing to improve. They eventually gave Zappe a chance, leaving him to play in a total of 10 games. The results weren’t much better with him under center. He threw for 1,272 yards and just six touchdowns. He was also intercepted nine times. In the last two games of the season, he threw a combined five interceptions against the Bills and Jets.
The writing was on the wall for Zappe after the Patriots signed Jacoby Brissett and drafted Drake Maye to be their quarterback of the future. The veteran Brissett has the potential to be a good caretaker for the Patriots’ offense until they deem that the Maye is ready to take over. Maye has opened some eyes during the preseason, leading to some speculation that he could grab hold of the starting job as early as Week 1 against the Bengals (Patriots +9, O/U 42 at DraftKings Sportsbook). However, the Patriots are projected to have one of the worst offensive lines in the league, so they may prefer to at least give the veteran Brissett a shot out of the gate.
The Patriots are currently projected to have three quarterbacks on their final roster with Joe Milton III also in the fold. He was selected in the sixth round of the 2024 Draft, so the current front office and coaching staff decided to keep him in the fold, rather than go with Zappe from the previous regime.
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