The Patriots were busy reshaping their quarterback depth chart last week, including the surprising decision to waive 2022 fourth-rounder Bailey Zappe. The risk paid off and Zappe was retained via the practice squad, but he has new competition for the backup QB role. 
New England claimed former Panthers draftee Matt Corral off waivers, filling the vacancy at the position on the team’s active roster. Given the lack of time Corral has had to acclimate to the Patriots’ offense, however, questions have been raised about his readiness to dress as the backup for Week 1. When speaking publicly on the matter, head coach Bill Belichick confirmed that no decision has been made yet on that front.
“All roster decisions are based on what we feel like’s best for our football team,” Belichick said, via Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald. “There’s a number of things involved there. But glad to have Bailey to continue to work with him. Still think he’s a good, young, developing player, and so we’ll keep working with him.”
Zappe made a pair of starts in place of an injured Mac Jones last season, and his play (along with perceived tension between Belichick and the latter) led to speculation about a potential QB competition in the summer. Instead, Zappe struggled this offseason while adapting to new offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien‘s system, one which is catered to Jones’ strengths. Belichick’s remarks confirm Zappe is still in the team’s long-term plans, however.
As for Corral, little can be said with certainty given his lack of playing time. The Ole Miss product missed his entire rookie season due to a Lisfranc injury, and he has yet to make a regular season appearance as a result. Corral was in Carolina’s plans, but they will move forward with first overall pick Bryce Young and veteran Andy Dalton under center.
“We’ll take a look at him and see how it goes,” Belichick added during a WEEI appearance (via Kyed’s colleague Andrew Callahan). “[Corral] had a very good career at Mississippi, and hasn’t really had a lot of chances to do much in the last two years; was injured and missed some time. But [he] had a good preseason, so we’ll see how it goes. Look forward to working with him.”
Belichick added praise for Jones, who is entering a critical third year as the team’s starter. A healthy and productive season as the No. 1 would make much of the Corral-Zappe situation a moot point, but each of the latter two passers will have plenty to prove over the course of the 2023 campaign as well.
‘…The risk paid off and Zappe was retained via the practice squad…’ What risk? The other 31 teams passed on him. Wasted pick by Bill, yet again. I’m so looking forward to year 4 w/o Tom and Bill’s defenders backing up his record! More like year 7-8, if we’re allowed to include his HC time in Cleveland.
Spoiled brat alert
You do realize he won 6 SB’s coaching the pats right?? You may night like him but he is the 2nd greatest coach of all time and I’m sure when he’s finished coaching he’ll have the most all time wins
He only won when he had Tom. That’s his resume. All of us could have won w/ Tom QB’ing. Otherwise a 500 HC and a terrible GM. Google his record w/o Tom, it’s right around 500. Some 8 years to go by. Then google NE 1st round draft picks. He hasn’t re-upped one of his picks in over a decade. That’s embarrassing. The Rams GM & HC laughed at him about last year’s draft at guard. I think they thought Strange would be there in the 4th round(?).
I never said a bad word about him until I saw 3 years in a row of, at best, average coaching & roster. I genuinely that he was great as well. This will be year 4 of mediocrity. That has to go on his resume. As does his time in Cleveland. It’s a complete body of work, not just cherry picking time periods for a player or coach. Especially when they are called the ‘greatest’.
It takes 3-5 years to rebuild a team. Really should be judging him this year and next, while dismissing the last few years. Talent is talent and you have to accrue it over time. Coaching only goes so far.
It doesn’t take 3-5 years to build a team. That’s a myth. Teams churn over 40% of their rosters every year. Even playoff teams. 90% of former head coaches never get 3-5 years to ‘rebuild’. They’re fired. If you draft well, you always have early to mid 20 talent to replace current starters.
Bill said to the effect after Tom left ‘We overspent and now have to pay for the cap.’. Followed by this off season saying the owner is cheap and roster talent isn’t brought in. Can’t have it both ways. That’s nothing but excuses for his performance.
What will you say when NE is around 500 again this season? Better question, if your team had a HC that couldn’t get above 500 in 4 years, would you want him fired?
Belichick spent all of his coaching prime with Tom Brady – hence judging his work without Brady is impossible. Is Belichick the same coach in 2023 that he was in 2013? No way.
Belichick should hand over his draft to someone competent. The Patriot position coaching is better than adequate but draft hits are few and far between. Not sure there’s more than a handful of other teams who draft worse (over time). On the other hand, selling off overpriced mid-tier stars in a timely way is something New England has mastered, as well as reforming other teams’ problem cases.
Thank you acknowledging Bill as a failure at drafting & GM’ing. I have asked this question on every sports site where you can comment. Everyone says Tom left because Tampa had a stacked roster. I agree, it was a great roster. SB roster. But why was Tampa’s roster so much better than Bill’s? He’s the greatest, right?
But in Bill’s prime, 1991-1995, a well established SB winning DC, he was 36-44 w/ one playoff team in 1994. For some reason, everyone glosses over his Cleveland time, why? Can I get an explanation?
Since he can’t construct a roster, he has to have an all time great QB to bail him out. When he has an average QB it equals losing seasons.
I mean he had a pretty good record with Matt Cassel at QB and also did well when he had Jimmy G and Brissett making spot starts. Yes, his drafting overall is poor but I wouldn’t say the last 3-4 yrs “tarnishes” his legacy. I think the game has passed him by. As much as I don’t like to say it, you have to give him credit for winning 6 rings with Brady.
Still skipping over the Cleveland time, why? That’s another 4 years of average coaching. That counts.
The narrative is that Belichick is bad at drafting (particularly in the first round), but when you look at it, he actually isn’t. He’s made 22 first round picks as a Patriot GM:
2000-Adrian Klemm (not good)
2001-Richard Seymour (great)
2002-Daniel Graham (not good)
2003-Ty Warren (good)
2004-Vince Wilfork, Ben Watson (both great)
2005-Logan Mankins (great)
2006-Laurence Maroney (good)
2007-Brandon Meriweather (good)
2008-Jerod Mayo (great)
2009-N/A. Two trade backs left the Patriots with a second rounder as their first pick, which was used on Pat Chung, who was obviously good for NE.
2010-Devin McCourty (great)
2011-Nate Solder (good)
2012-Chandler Jones (good) and Dontae Hightower (great)
2013-Another tradeback. Second rounder got NE Jamie Collins, who was good.
2014-Dominique Easley (not good)
2015-Malcolm Brown (good-no option picked up, but 51 starts in NE)
2016-N/A, second pick was Cyrus Jones, who was not good.
2017-Traded for Brandon Cooks, who was good.
2018-Isiah Wynn and Sony Michel. Decent, not great. I’d say good.
2019-N’Keal Harry (not good)
2020-Traded down, took Kyle Dugger in second, who is good.
2021-Mac Jones (we’ll see)
2022-Cole Strange (we’ll see)
2023-Christian Gonzalez (we’ll see)
There are a couple that you could argue (notably Maroney and Meriweather, but NE got production from them despite being short-lived with Maroney and penalty-ridden with Meriweather), but the vast majority of the picks were pretty good. I expected worse, honestly, because that’s the reputation, even in my mind. But overall, you see a lot of long time starters. You could field a very good defense with those picks. The 200s, especially, was very good. We do start to see a noticeable decline by the mid 2010s, but even then, the product just goes from “great” to “good”. That’s better than most.
Ernie Adams leaving has had, in my mind, the biggest impact on Belichick’s own decline. He was more important to finding those niche or overlooked players than anyone else in the organization. Incidentally, he was also very involved in a lot of cheating and shadiness that went on. Belichick and Adams used a lot of intelligence gathering (not all of illegal, but all of it unconventional) to make adjustments that most wouldn’t.
Thanks for that in-depth look at first round drafting by the Patriots under Belichick.
As I say, the last 10 years.
2013: Collins was good
2014: Not good (NG)
2015: 1 contract w/ NE.
2016: NG
2017: Cook was traded after 1 year in NE
2018: Again neither stayed past 1 contract. That’s not what you want out of 1st round picks. Sorry.
2019-current: ‘We’ll see’ says it all. Average at best.
That’s terrible drafting. This will be year 4 in NE w/o Tom and I can’t find 1 sports site that predicts them winning the AFC East. Why not? He’s the GOAT right?
Tom made Bill, not the other way around. I have said many times, that as a young player Bill was very influential on Tom. But by year 3 it was Tom’s team, not Bill’s. Bill’s record w/o Tom & Tom’s record in Tampa says so.
Using a a different coach. Does Ron Rivera deserve a new contract after this season? 4 years of average football is what I see. Would you sign him up if you just bought the team? I wouldn’t. A veteran coach w/ a SB appearance on his resume. No difference, in my opinion.
You’re cherry picking to prove a point. I’d rather not do this again right now, honestly. I’ll just just say-again-that New England and Tampa were VERY different teams. New England was-is-rebuilding, and Tampa bought up every superstar they could find (Brady was throwing to four starting All-Pros for a whole season), for instance). You bring this up every time Belichick’s name or the Patriots are mentioned, Brady or no Brady. I didn’t put that up to argue with you, Arty. I just thought it prudent to point out that Belichick actually has drafted pretty well.
I didn’t quite expect it either, to be honest. I first noticed it a little while ago, when I saw that Jerod Mayo and Brandon Meriweather were both consecutive first round picks. So I dug a bit deeper. It was better than my memory recalled. Brady had nothing at all to do with Belichick’s drafting, and deserves no credit for any of it. There’s no reason to give him such, other than to further this silly argument. Also, you do always tend to leave out the Patriots record without Brady during their dynasty years. Matt Cassel went 11-5, and Jimmy G and Brissett went 3-1. Now, in my personal opinion, Matt Cassel was one of the absolute worst quarterbacks that I have ever seen, even as a backup in Tennessee. But maybe that’s just me.
How am I cherry picking? It’s a fact that NE has been .500 after 3 seasons w/o Tom? And not single article I read see NE doing much this year. That’s 100% on Bill. He’s the coach and GM.
Like I said at the top, I look forward to mocking him all this season. And seeing his defenders back up another average year.
I don’t hate Bill (never met him and never will), but I do hate that everyone glosses over his time w/o Tom and expects those years simply not to count against his resume. 5 years in Cleveland and the last 3 don’t go on his resume, sorry I don’t buy that.
Arty give up on slandering the aging Bill Belichick. Bill still has game but he’s nothing like the coach he was during the prime Brady years. We all know that. And so does Belichick.
Clearly prime Bill Belichick was one of the greatest coaches to ever coach American football. To argue that he isn’t demeans you, not Belichick.
Just drop it.
You’re cherry picking because you said:
“As I say, the last 10 years.”
You just read the post, said “take away the half of Belichick’s career that doesn’t prove my point” and then nitpicked the results. Brown did not get a second contract in NE, but started 51 games at a good level. So, that’s not a bad pick. Yes, Cooks was traded after a good 1000 yard season. He was traded for a first round pick. So NE essentially got a free 1000 yard receiver for no real net loss. I can’t see how that’s bad. You then insert your opinions as conclusions for picks who haven’t even been there four years. You did not address any of the good first rounders, which out umber the bad. You’re cherry picking by ignoring the above listed data out of dedication to your already decided upon conclusion. You also can’t just ignore half a career because it’s inconvenient. I love ya man, but come on.
I still think BB could add Colt McCoy to the practice squad, then put him in a rotation with Zappe and Cunningham to cover the first nine games as backups while Corral gets acclimated to the system as the emergency QB. By that point they would be at the trade deadline and could sign one of the three to either be the backup or emergency QB. They could also look to trade Corral for a late round pick at the deadline. Injuries around the league could lead to someone signing Zappe off the practice squad.
Zappe could get claimed, you are correct, which would be unfortunate for New England. The thing that it is odd to me is the contention that Zappe does not fit New England’s new scheme, and that Jones does.
If that is the case, then the main area that I can see where that could be true is throwing downfield. Even in a down year, Jones led the league in big time throws last year (per PFF), while Zappe was at the bottom or near it in average depth of target. Zappe was also at the top or near it in screen percentage. Thing is, Jones is not thought of as having a particularly powerful arm, and O’Brien, in my memory, seems to like screens. So it’s hard for me to figure what else could be the reason for any possible lack of fit, other than Zappe being unimpressive throwing downfield.
Now, that’s not saying that Zappe is bad-those are partially the effect of a coaching staff trying to protect a young backup, and as a backup, a player figures to run those types of plays and Zappe did that very well. He executed the plays that a backup needs to at a high level for the most part, and is still young enough to grow into a better player. My guess would be that that is why is, if it’s true that he was not a good fit for O’Brien, the Pats held on to him. The other thing that’s confusing, though, is Corral. He seems more similar to Cunningham than either Zappe or Jones. I suppose his mobility is more similar to Deshaun Watson, if that’s what O’Brien is wanting. Perhaps O’Brien likes his arm strength better than Zappe’s. Still, it feels like New England is retaining two sets of quarterbacks at the end of the day-one mobile set, and another more conventional.