The theme of Bill Belichick’s press availability on Monday was doing what’s best for his football team.
"I feel like whatever we do in the next couple of days, like every day, should be what's best for our football team, and that's what we're going to try to do," he said.
Relating to the Patriots quarterback competition, the coach stuck to his word.
By releasing Cam Newton and going with rookie Mac Jones, he’s doing what is best for his football team.
“It’s important to win in the regular season,” he said following Sunday’s game against the Giants when asked about going 3-0 in the preseason.
Jones starting at quarterback gives the team the best chance to win.
After watching roughly a month of training camp practices and three preseason games, it was evident the rookie gives the Patriots the best chance of winning games. Newton certainly improved from a year ago, but Jones is the better quarterback and will only get better with actual NFL experience.
Just watching the two day-after-day, the offense was much crisper with Jones leading the charge.
Three-step drop, plant back foot, boom, the ball gets out to where it needs to go. That was Jones on a daily basis.
Meanwhile with Newton, there was some hesitation and then the ball sometimes took longer to get to where it needed to go. That could be a big difference with an offense so predicated on yards after the catch.
The quick release has been a staple of Josh McDaniels’ offenses over the years, and it’s clear Jones is best suited for the job.
Jones has also quickly earned the respect of his teammates.
“I definitely think that he has taken every opportunity and taken advantage of it," Brian Hoyer said Monday during an appearance with Lou Merloni and Christian Fauria. "That’s the one thing I would say — not many rookie quarterbacks have ever gotten the reps and the opportunity that he has, and he has embraced it full-on, head-on. He goes out there every day and does the best that he can and has earned the respect of his teammates, which I think is huge, especially being a young guy with a team with a lot of veteran guys who have played here.
“He has earned that respect by his preparation and his play. That’s really the only way you can do it, is when you step into that huddle and those guys know you know what to do, how to do it, and go out and execute. He’s done a great job of that and will continue to do a great job.
All of those things put together made it fairly clear, Jones is the right man for the job.
Newton was a terrific teammate and worked extremely hard, but at the end of the day it’s not about being nice and letting the veteran get another chance -- it’s about winning football games.
And then by releasing Newton it eliminates the distraction of him lurking behind the rookie. If Jones were to struggle early on in the season, there would be people pushing for Newton to get another chance.
With him being released, that cannot happen.
While the team may not have done everything they could have to prepare Jones for being the starter — not starting any preseason games, only one preseason series with the offensive line, etc. — it is doing everything it can now to put Jones in the best position for success come the regular season.
Belichick could have certainly gone with Newton to start the season and given him a second chance, but in the end he stuck to his guns and made a tough decision to let the veteran go.
Why?
Because it was the best thing for the football team.