Patriots Daily: Ex-Patriots Quarterback Now a Wide Receiver

The New England Patriots quarterback room needed a revolving door in 2023. Eight different QBs were with the Patriots at some point last season: Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe, Trace McSorley, Malik Cunningham, Matt Corral, Ian Book, Will Grier, and Nathan Rourke. Zappe remains in New England. The rest of the group consists of four NFL quarterbacks playing elsewhere, a UFL QB, one unsigned free agent, and now an NFL wide receiver.

Malik Cunningham signed with the Patriots as an undrafted free agent following the 2023 NFL Draft. He played only six snaps for New England and getting sacked for a five-yard loss was his only offensive statistic. But Patriots fans were excited about Cunningham’s potential, largely based on one preseason performance.

Much like the rest of the Patriots quarterbacks in 2023, there was nothing stable about Cunningham’s tenure in Foxboro. He was cut out of training camp, but signed with their practice squad. He earned a promotion to the 53-man roster but was eventually cut and signed to the practice squad a second time. New England attempted to develop Cunningham as a quarterback, wide receiver, and special teams player.

On to Baltimore

Ultimately, Malik Cunningham was signed off the Patriots practice squad by the Baltimore Ravens. In Baltimore, he was reportedly going to focus on playing quarterback, backing up fellow Louisville alum Lamar Jackson. The Patriots received criticism for their handling of Cunningham and for letting him go, Offensive tackle Trent Brown joined some fans and media in voicing their displeasure.

Now the former Patriot is a former quarterback as well. The Baltimore Ravens have changed Malik Cunningham’s position to wide receiver. Ironically, Cunningham cited the Ravens plan to develop him as a quarterback as his reason for leaving New England.

“When [John Harbaugh] told me that I was all ears. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m sliding. I ain’t going to stay,” Cunningham said at the time.

But yesterday, Ryan Mink posted on X that Cunningham was now listed as a wide receiver for Baltimore.

Malik Cunningham is now officially listed as a WR (not QB) on the Ravens' roster, btw. He made that look like the right call today with several grabs.

— Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) May 23, 2024

So, Malik Cunningham is now officially a wide receiver with the team he left New England to join so that he could develop as a quarterback. This makes as much sense as anything else that has happened with the Patriots’ 2023 quarterback crop. Hopefully, things work out well for Cunningham in Baltimore. For a player who played one solid half of preseason football, he left quite an impression on Patriots Nation.

Also in today’s Patriots Daily:

Football Fun Fact of the Day

Malik Cunningham only played six total snaps for the New England Patriots, a statistic first tracked in 2012. In those 12 seasons (2012-2023) there have been 11 Patriots players who have played fewer snaps for New England.

One snap – Ishmaa’ily Kitchen, Marcus Martin, Quandre Mosely

Three snaps – Kai Forbath, Bill Murray

Four snaps – Travaris Cadet, Trysten Hill*, Michael Jackson, Kellen Winslow II

Five snaps – Bernard Reedy, Tyrone Wheatley Jr.*

*still on the Patriots roster

Post of the Day

Today’s post of the day comes from Jerry Thornton, following Bill Belichick being spotted at last night’s Boston Celtics game in the Eastern Conference Finals

The intermission gives the Celtics time to bring Bill Belichick down to scheme up the 4th quarter defense pic.twitter.com/H5EO6Bl3XV

— Jerry Thornton (@jerrythornton1) May 24, 2024

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Boston Bruins

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Today’s feature – If Brock Nelson becomes available, should the Bruins be interested?

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