Now that Jack Jones is off the roster, New England’s backup quarterbacks are getting opportunities to establish themselves.
This season, the one constant in the cornerback room of the New England Patriots has been change. The most recent instance occurred earlier this week when Jack Jones, a second-year player, was waived by the team due to concerns about his dependability on and off the pitch.
The depth of the Patriots at wide receiver is once again under scrutiny because Jones is currently in Las Vegas and there are concerns about J.C. Jackson. Head coach Bill Belichick, for his part, believes that during the bye week, the team’s backup options, Alex Austin, Breon Borders, and Azizi Hearn, will have a chance to show off.
In a media conference call earlier this week, Belichick told reporters, “They’ve all done a good job.”
“Alex has been putting in a lot of effort out there, but Breon Borders and Hearn have been here a little longer and have had more practise time.” He had more chances the previous week. This week will be productive for all three of those players, allowing us to get a closer look at them. Moreover, it will allow them to demonstrate their progress in practise ahead of next week’s Giants game.
Both Hearn and Borders signed practise squad contracts to join the team after travelling to New England in late September. For the former, this is his 12th stop in his seven-year professional career; for Hearn, who was not selected in the first round this year, it is his second stop following his original selection by the Las Vegas Raiders.
Without receiving a game-day promotion, both have spent the previous eight weeks on the developmental roster. It’s unclear if that will alter after Goodbye, but Jack Jones’s release seems to present them with an opportunity.
Alex Austin is in the same boat. Prior to being added to the 53-man roster earlier this month, he began his career in Buffalo and Houston as a seventh-round rookie out of Oregon State. Despite being inactive on game days for the previous two games, he currently projects as the team’s fifth pure cornerback, behind J.C. Jackson, Jonathan Jones, Shaun Wade, and Myles Bryant.
That does not guarantee that he will play when the Patriots play the New York Giants after their bye. Ultimately, as Belichick also noted, he will keep playing the players who are deserving of playing.
