FOXBOROUGH, Mass – The Patriots made a surprise move prior to last Sunday's game, signing Malik Cunningham to the active roster from the practice squad. And to top it all off, the rookie served as the backup to Mac Jones, with Bailey Zappe listed as the emergency third quarterback. 

Yet, heading into this week game against the Buffalo Bills, Cunningham's spot as the backup quarterback is not guaranteed according to head coach Bill Belichick. 

"We'll work our way through the roster situation as we go through the week," Belichick said. "I'm not going to talk about how we're going to play the game."

Cunningham made a name for himself during the preseason, being signed by the Patriots as an undrafted free agent out of Louisville. Despite coming on with the intention of being used as a receiver, Cunningham did receive some reps at quarterback during the preseason and showed promise. 

With speed and an ability to read opposing team's offensive lines, the quarterback showed similarities to Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. And with his success, many began to root for the young quarterback, looking for the Patriots to potentially bring him on as the backup. 

Yet, on cutdown day, Belichick made the bold decision to cut both Cunningham and Zappe, but Zappe was quickly brought back up to the active roster to serve as the backup to Jones (in part due to the drama with Matt Corral). 

However, while Zappe has replaced Jones twice throughout the season after the Patriots fell behind by a large margin, he didn't provide the spark to the offense that they were looking for. And Cunningham has proven that he can do that from his experience during the preseason. 

"Well look, he's a young player, so he's improving. We'll see how it goes," Belichick said and was then asked if he would feel comfortable with Cunningham coming in during the game. "If he's the number two, that's what it would be."

With Cunningham now on the 53-man roster, the Patriots currently have four quarterbacks. 

So that makes getting additional reps during practice all the more vital. But, Belichick is very aware of the one problem the player in that position have. 

"There's never enough reps for the quarterback," he said. "So, one quarterback takes all the reps and it's still sometimes not enough for him. He could go longer. You just have to manage the rest of the team. And then when you start splitting that up with other players, then it's not enough reps for them either. Quarterback's a position that can, assume the quarterback's healthy, they can probably take more reps than any other player on the team."  

With the offense's failures over the last few weeks, it's clear that a change is needed and fans have been rooting for the team to give Cunningham a shot. While he was given a few reps during Sunday's loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, the hope was that he might have a bigger and more influential role. 

Yet, Malik Mania might not be here to stay based on Belichick's latest comments. 

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