Patriots coach Bill Belichick surprised just about everyone when he waived quarterback Bailey Zappe last week. But after Zappe cleared waivers and returned to the Patriots’ practice squad, Belichick said he thinks that’s the right approach for developing Zappe.
“All the roster decisions are based on what we feel like’s best for our football team,” Belichick said of Zappe on WEEI, via Boston.com. “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, so we’ll keep working with him.”
Zappe played well enough as a rookie last season that most people expected he’d stay on the 53-player roster as the backup to Mac Jones. And if Zappe wasn’t going to be the backup to Jones, undrafted rookie Malik Cunningham looked like the most likely option. Instead, Belichick waived both Zappe and Cunningham, and then claimed Matt Corral off waivers to be the only quarterback behind Jones on the 53-player roster.
That doesn’t mean Zappe can’t be called up to the active game day roster to back Jones up, and it doesn’t close the door on Cunningham getting on the field for the Patriots, either. But the fact that Belichick was willing to expose both Zappe and Cunningham to waivers suggests that he thinks both of them have a long way to go. And the fact that all 31 teams passed on both quarterbacks on waivers suggests that the rest of the league agrees.
