Fourth-round pick Bailey Zappe is expected to lead the New England Patriots onto the field as the starter on Sunday against the Detroit Lions. The New England Patriots’ starting third-string quarterback already made his debut last game day, and now he can set the tone for the rest of the Patriots’ season.

Munich – “It was a dream to be able to play the first NFL game, but obviously not the result we had hoped for. I have to praise my teammates at this point, they did a very good job. I still have a long way to go myself,” rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe said at the press conference after his debut against the Green Bay Packers.

The fourth-round pick, who appears to have graduated from Head Coach Bill Belichick’s media school with flying colours, replaced the injured Brian Hoyer late in the first quarter on fourth down. In his debut, Zappe completed ten of 15 passes for 99 yards of space and a touchdown. Too little to avert the 24:27 defeat after overtime in the end.

Mac Jones injured: Bailey Zappe will take over

The scheduled starter, Mac Jones, is still suffering from an ankle injury. Last year’s first-round pick is rated “unlikely” to play in the upcoming game against the Detroit Lions by the Injury Report. Backup Brian Hoyer is also out with a concussion.

And so Zappe is expected to make his starting debut for the Pats next Sunday. “Last week was pretty promising. (…) Hats off to him for keeping his composure. I think that speaks for him,” teammate Trent Brown is quoted as saying on the team website.

Bailey Zappe reminds stylistically of Mac Jones

A performance that can be built upon and at the same time showed some parallels (not only of an external nature) between Zappe and Jones. Zappe is not convincing with his sheer physical assets, but with his understanding of the game, his precision and hard-nosedness in the pocket.

Bailey Zappe looks like someone that would play Mac Jones in a Netflix series about Alabama football pic.twitter.com/TsWUP9kYly

– NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) October 3, 2022

The 23-year-old distributed the balls well to his pass receivers for long stretches as part of a fairly conservative gameplan (little vertical passing, lots of running and quick passes).

Patriots: Ungrateful duel against the Detroit Lions?

However, this conservative gameplan could be the Patriots’ undoing in their matchup against the Detroit Lions. Head coach Dan Campbell’s team has put up the most points of any team so far, while the defence has also allowed the most points so far. A cautious offensive approach against the biting Lions does not seem to be the right approach.

Zappe has already shown that he can put up points in college. Last season he collected almost 6,000 passing yards and 62 touchdowns in a Western Kentucky jersey.

However, his offensive line often cleared the way for him, he was only under pressure on 13 percent of his pass attempts. The Lions defence may concede a lot of points, but it consistently shows its teeth on the defensive line. The team has already collected 41 pressures, one of the highest figures in the league.

Defeat would make playoffs a distant memory for Patriots

The Patriots have won just one of their four games so far, and another loss would put a possible playoff appearance in the distant future. For Zappe, it is therefore clear that the full focus must be on the game: “I have turned off any messages on my phone, in fact I only write to my family because they were the ones who made this dream possible for me in the first place.”

And this dream should continue for Bailey Zappe on Sunday.