3 Patriots Who Need to Be Benched After 0-2 Start

It’s hard to believe we’re already in Week 3 of the NFL season, but the Patriots are still looking for their first win. Fans are already incredibly frustrated with the team’s 0-2 start after the Pats dropped a pair of close games at home to begin the season.

While New England ultimately went on to win the Super Bowl the last time this squad posted an 0-2 start to the year, it also had a young quarterback you might remember named Tom Brady. Brady isn’t around to save the Patriots this time, unfortunately, which means more drastic measures need to be taken if New England wants to save its season.

Several players have fallen well short of expectations so far and need to be benched before they cost us another game. Here are three Patriots who Bill Belichick should consider sitting for this week’s must-win matchup against the New York Jets.

3 Patriots Who Need to be Benched

1. JuJu Smith-Schuster

Unfortunately for New England, its biggest free-agent signing of the offseason already looks like a massive bust.

JuJu Smith-Schuster was brought in to be the team’s No. 1 receiver, but he sure hasn’t played like it. His first two games have produced just 61 receiving yards and no touchdowns on 9 receptions.

His meager 6.8 yards per catch is easily the worst rate of his career — well below his lifetime 11.8 YPC mark and 12.0 YPC figure from last season. If you’re not going to score (which JuJu doesn’t do — 3 TDs since beginning of 2021), then you at least need to rack up yards, and right now he’s not doing either.

Smith-Schuster simply isn’t adding anything to the offense right now. Perhaps his knee injury is holding him back, but if that’s the case then New England should get him some rest rather than forcing him to play through it. We want him healthy for the end of the season rather than blowing out his knee early on and missing the rest of the year.

Or maybe JuJu needs a benching to motivate him. I’m not sure, but all I know is that the Patriots better figure out what’s wrong with him and fix it soon before he ends up being a huge waste of money.

2. Demario Douglas

Speaking of wide receivers who aren’t working out, how about Demario Douglas?

Granted, he’s a rookie, but his first two games have also been pretty underwhelming with just 6 catches on 9 targets for 59 yards and no touchdowns.

Worse, he committed a brutal turnover in Week 2 that may have cost New England the game. After catching a nice pass from Mac Jones, Douglas inexplicably cut back towards the middle of the field into the heart of the defense. Not surprisingly, a defender caught up to him from behind and stripped the ball, halting what was shaping up to be a promising drive for the Patriots.

Those types of mistakes can’t happen, as they can be the difference between winning and losing. Douglas needs to know to run toward the sideline in that situation so that he can step out of bounds and avoid the hit/turnover.

Douglas has shown a bit of promise with his speed so far, but he needs to learn that you can’t outrun every NFL defender. Sitting him down would teach him a valuable lesson and is exactly the type of discipline that Belichick loves to dish out, especially since he already benched Douglas immediately after the fumble during the game.

3. Mac Jones

I hate to say it, but Mac Jones just isn’t good enough to win in the NFL.

The last two weeks have definitely proved that. Both times, he had the ball in his hands at the end of the game with a chance to erase a deficit and save the game. Both times, however, he failed, leaving the Patriots just short.

His error at the end of Week 2 was especially egregious, throwing short of the sticks on a fourth down that New England needed to convert to stay alive. That’s a rookie mistake, and it’s an inexcusable one to make in Year 3.

This isn’t just an early-season trend with Jones, either. He hasn’t had a game-winning drive or fourth quarter comeback since 2021. He’s now 6-10 as a starter since the beginning of last year and 7-14 over his last 21 starts (including playoffs). Yikes.

I’m sorry, but that’s just not good enough. I know he hasn’t had great weapons and has offensive line has struggled and he’s already had three different offensive coordinators, but he also has an amazing defense behind him and gets to play for the greatest coach of all time. It doesn’t help that he’s often quick to blame his teammates and coaches when things go wrong.

At the end of the day in the NFL, you are what your record says you are, and Jones’ record is pretty abysmal. It’s tough to admit your first-round pick and expected franchise QB isn’t going to work out, but at some point you need to move on.

In other words, it’s Bailey Zappe time.

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