Mac Jones is questionable to play in Sunday’s game for the first time since suffering a high-ankle sprain in Week 3.
The second-year quarterback’s status is still up in the air, but he could be cleared at any time.
In typical Bill Belichick fashion, the New England head coach gave a cryptic answer when asked about his quarterback’s injury status heading into the weekend.
“I know everybody wants a definite answer, but it’s just totally unrealistic to be able to do that,” he said during his press conference. “I don’t know how a player’s going to feel after three days of practice, depending on what the volume is, what the intensity is — it’s impossible to know that until you’ve actually experienced it, or he experiences it. So, we’ll see.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hzpQzNtrko&w=560&h=315]
Belichick was unable — or unwilling — to reveal Jones’ status.
“There’s no deadline on that,” Belichick said. “The injury report is the injury report. There’s a deadline on that and there’s a classification on that. And that’s what we follow. Internally, we can do whatever we want — well, not do whatever we want, but based on the information that’s available, we can make any determination that’s appropriate. Again, part of that is how a player feels, what he’s able to do, what he’s not able to do, what the recovery from what his previous output was or wasn’t. But, no, I’m not going into how internally we talk about the players and all that.”
Jones has been limited in each practice session this week. Belichick conceded that the young signal caller has been making “good progress” throughout the week.
Late-round rookie QB Bailey Zappe stepped in for his first career NFL start this past weekend, leading the Patriots to a 29-0 victory over the Detroit Lions.
Jones will likely be a game-time decision if he’s listed as questionable on the final injury report.