On Tuesday, Bill Belichick surprised a lot of people by not only going with Mac Jones as his starting quarterback, but releasing Cam Newton.
The Patriots coach spoke to reporters on a video conference Wednesday morning, but did not offer much insight at all into the decision, or even thank Newton for his year-plus with the organization.
“I’m not going to go through all of the different things with any player on that, so we’ll just leave it the way it is and go from there," he said when asked if there was a thought to keeping Newton as a backup.
Belichick didn't get into how hard the decision was specific to Newton.
“I don’t rank them," he said. "We make decisions and then we execute them and go on and take it from there.”
What about the three practices Jones had to himself with Newton away following a COVID testing "misunderstanding," how much did that help Jones win the job?
"I don't know," Belichick replied.
And lastly, the Patriots coach always talks about doing things because they are in the best interest of the team, so why was moving on from Newton in the best interest of the team?
“That’s our decision and we’ve had weeks of meetings on all players, so it would be impossible to rehash everything that’s happened at that position or any other position," Belichick said. "Ultimately, there’s a lot of factors involved and we made our decisions.”
And with that, Belichick likely won't speak to the media again until early next week when it will be a game week and the attention will be focused on the Dolphins.
