When the Patriots selected Mac Jones No. 15 overall, Bill Belichick said Cam Newton was still the Patriots' quarterback.
Now that training camp has arrived, it seems the Patriots head coach is open to a competition.
Speaking via video conference Tuesday morning, Belichick was asked point-blank if there will be a quarterback competition?
“As I said, every one of us has to go out and establish our level of performance in whatever our role or capacity is," he said. "It’s a new season. We’ve done some things in the spring, but this is really the start of football season in terms of the team-building part here of training camp. We all have a lot of work to do — that includes all of us. Until we go out and do anything then I would say it’s pretty much a clean slate.”
Clean slate including the quarterbacks?
“Including the coaches and all the players," Belichick responded.
Belichick's words do seem indicate there will be a competition between the quarterbacks and everything will need to be earned.
Besides Newton and Jones there's Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer, but based on the spring it feels like it's Newton vs. Jones.
Training camp begins Wednesday morning, but pads will not come on until after a few days so for right now it is an extension of minicamp.
