The honeymoon between the Patriots and second-year quarterback Mac Jones appears to be over.

Relations between both parties have gone “a little sideways” in the past few months, according to The MMQB’s Albert Breer, who suggested that a series of events in New England — from the installation of a new offense to the fallout from Jones’ high-ankle sprain — have contributed to tension.

“I think things did get a little sideways really over the last couple of months,” Breer said on “Patriots Pregame Live” on Sunday.

“I think it’s going back to the change from Josh McDaniels. ‘Why are we bringing in Joe Judge and Matt Patricia when Bill O’Brien’s sitting out there and potentially we could have made a run at him? Why does it make sense to have a defensive guy and a special teams guy here? Why are we changing the offense? Why are we streamlining after all the success I had?'”

Jones, the Patriots’ first-round pick in last year’s NFL Draft, had a successful rookie season under then-offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who departed the Patriots earlier this year when he was hired as the Raiders’ head coach. Judge and Patricia, who previously served as New England’s special teams and defensive coordinators, respectively, took the reins on offense, which led to an inconsistent training camp.

In his first three games of the season, Jones threw two touchdowns and five interceptions. He has been sidelined since Week 3, when he suffered a high-ankle sprain in a 37-26 loss to the Ravens.

With Jones recovering, the Patriots first turned to veteran backup Brian Hoyer for a Week 4 game against the Packers. When Hoyer exited that game early due to injury, rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe was New England’s next man up, and he nearly knocked off Green Bay in overtime.

Zappe, a fourth-round pick out of Western Kentucky, got his first career start the following week, throwing for one touchdown and one interception in a 29-0 blowout win over the Lions. He followed up that performance Sunday by throwing for two touchdowns without an interception in a 38-15 victory versus the Browns.

Breer added Sunday that he suspects the Patriots could look at what has transpired as of late in sending a potential message to Jones.

“I think that bled over into the injury now and I think this has sort of given the coaches an opportunity to send a message to Mac. I don’t think Mac was ever in jeopardy of losing his job, but I don’t think that they told Mac that either. I don’t think they said to Mac, ‘Hey listen, you’re good, don’t worry about how Bailey Zappe plays,'” Breer said.

“This is a chance for them to sort of send the message to Mac that you have to do things better. Like, if you trust the offense, look what the offense is doing for this fourth-round pick out of Western Kentucky. We saw early in the year he freelanced some, he took shots downfield, we saw the turnover issue. I think part of the message here is, watch what Bailey Zappe is doing. He’s doing what we’re telling him to, and watch how the offense works for him.”

Though it remains to be seen who will start against the Bears on “Monday Night Football” next week, Patriots coach Bill Belichick fanned the flames of a potential quarterback controversy last week, when he declined to commit to Jones as the full-time starter upon his return from injury.