The New England Patriots have pulled quarterback Mac Jones before the fourth quarter in each of the past two games – lopsided losses to the Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints.

But while Bailey Zappe has come in for Jones in both games, the Patriots have shown no inclination to start the backup over Jones in search of a turnaround.

The other quarterback on New England’s active roster is Will Grier, who joined the Patriots from the Cincinnati Bengals’ practice squad on Sept. 22. New England is Grier’s third team since he made two starts for the Carolina Panthers in 2019 in his only NFL regular-season action.

The Patriots have one more quarterback on their roster, and coach Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien talked about the practice squad’s Malik Cunningham this week.

“Malik did a good job in the preseason,” O’Brien said. “Malik works very hard. He does a good job on the practice squad. Plays a lot of receiver. Played some quarterback last week mimicking (the Saints’) Taysom Hill. He does a really good job, and he continues to improve. He’s probably one of the most improved practice-squad players that we have. A good guy to work with.”

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Cunningham passed for 2,913 yards and 30 touchdowns and ran for 1,015 yards and 19 touchdowns as a senior at Park Crossing High School in Montgomery. During his college career at Louisville, Cunningham had 9,660 passing yards, 70 touchdown passes, 3,179 rushing yards and 50 rushing touchdowns.

New England signed Cunningham with the intention of turning the quarterback into a wide receiver and special-teams contributor as it had done with Julian Edelman to great success. But while Cunningham has undertaken the transition, he also has worked to QB, too.

In the Patriots’ preseason games, Cunningham ran six times for 39 yards and one touchdown, completed 3-of-6 passes for 19 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions, caught one pass that lost 1 yard and returned a kickoff 21 yards.

“Malik’s really worked hard and made a lot of improvement,” Belichick said. “He never really played in the kicking game at Louisville, so he’s started to show up there. Never played receiver. Didn’t look very good, either, in the spring. But he’s really improved there. He can catch the ball, but just route running and finding zones and things like that. But it’s come pretty naturally to him. He plays a good amount of quarterback. He’s competent there.

“He’s a smart kid, works hard, and the opportunities he’s had, he’s shown a lot of improvement. It’s a little too early for an induction ceremony here, but definitely a lot of improvement.”

Could Cunningham be turned to as a change-of-pace spark off the bench if Jones’ slump continues? Belichick said Cunningham was trending toward getting on the field for New England, but the coach didn’t say at which position.

“Anybody who keeps improving is going to eventually probably get an opportunity to play,” Belichick said.

Cunningham would provide quite a contrast at quarterback for the Patriots. In his 36 NFL regular-season games, Jones has run for 291 yards and one touchdown on 106 carries, and Zappe and Grier have nine NFL rushing attempts between them.

Zappe started two games and played most of two others as a rookie last season when Jones had an ankle injury. In this two relief appearances in 2023, Zappe has completed 7-of-18 passes for 79 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.

New England is looking for better play at quarterback after Jones completed 24-of-43 passes for 260 yards with no touchdowns and four interceptions in the past two games. Two of the interceptions were returned for touchdowns, and Jones also lost a fumble that was run in for TD.

After joining the Patriots from Alabama as the 15th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Jones played in the Pro Bowl and New England went to the playoffs in his rookie season.

Josh McDaniels worked as the Patriots’ offensive coordinator then. He’s now the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, New England’s opponent on Sunday.

“He’s a very talented player,” McDaniels said. “Accuracy has always been a huge part of his game. Touch, anticipation — he has all those things at a very high level. They’ve battled the same bug we’ve battled, honestly, with the turnovers and losing opportunities through change of possession, so I’m sure that’s something that they’re going to work hard at limiting and getting rid of. And it’s the same thing we’re talking about.

“But this is a guy who’s a very capable passer in every situation. He’s played big in big games. He’s battled against really good teams, made some high-level throws and hung in there. Very tough in the pocket, gets hit and gets right up and goes to the next play, so a lot of respect for him, a lot of admiration for what he did when I was there. It’ll be a big challenge for us this week.”

The Patriots and Raiders will square off at 3:05 p.m. CDT Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.