From Ronnie (@Tray4o):
Ronnie, I will say that I think a lot of people acting shocked, or feigning shock in blog posts, probably don’t pay enough attention to these things.
There were two things at work here.
One is that the Patriots needed roster spots to get players to short-term IR. To put a player on that list, you need to carry him through the 53-man cutdown, and New England had a number of players who were candidates to go on it (Tyquan Thornton is one who’s already there). So for the Patriots to get those guys through, they had to cut players they otherwise might not have, and could bring back after moving hurt guys to IR.
Two, Bailey Zappe didn’t have a great summer. Last year, Matt Patricia and Joe Judge actually did a pretty good job of getting Zappe playing fast and confident, in a simpler system that was a little closer to what he did at Western Kentucky. This year, Bill O’Brien replaced Patricia and Judge, and went back to an offense closer to what New England’s traditionally done (with a lot of responsibility on the quarterback), and one that better leverages Mac Jones’s strengths. And as they did that, Zappe became less of a fit.
You put him on the practice squad now because maybe you think, with some time, you can develop his mind and eyes to run a more quarterback-centric system. But for now, with the offense O’Brien is building for Jones, the QB-scheme marriage is wonky with Zappe.
And remember the underlying thing here, which is the job of a backup quarterback is different than the job of a starter. No one’s building an offense for the backup. The backup has to fit the offense built for the starter, so he can effectively pinch-hit without the coaches having to turn everything upside down on the other 10 guys in huddle.
All of that, for that matter, applies to Malik Cunningham, too.
