Bill Belichick sits high and mighty atop the football depth chart in New England.
He’s certainly earned that throne thanks to two decades of unparalleled success, including six – count ‘em – six Super Bowl rings!
In terms of football decisions, he runs the Patriots’ show.
He’s also made it quite clear over the years that he’s the singular voice of the football program at Gillette Stadium.
Got a Patriots question? Ask him.
So it was that Belichick met with the collective media via Zoom Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after news broke that New England was parting ways with veteran incumbent quarterback Cam Newton and, apparently, turning the keys to the post-Tom Brady offense permanently over to upstart rookie No. 15 overall pick Mac Jones. If we’re being dramatic, New England has a new franchise QB! The Jones era has begun!
It was a big decision. Huge news. Left lots of questions about both players and how the overhyped, overanalyzed competition played out this spring and summer in New England.
Yet, Belichick declined to really offer up any substantive answers when asked those questions. Shed any light on the situation at all.
Nope. Following the biggest decision since Belichick let Brady walk out the door in free agency, the future Hall of Fame coach and self-proclaimed mouth of the Patriots organization had very little to say.
Heck, Belichick didn’t even give his standard answers for when any veteran of note is let go. There was no, ‘He did everything we asked of him. In the end, it just didn’t work out.’
He didn’t muster up any vague “best interest of the football team” as he so often does. Even that had to be offered up by one of his questioners.
For crying out loud guys like Michael Bennett got more respectful dismissals from New England than what Belichick dispensed regarding Newton.
“I'm not going to go through all the different things with any player on that, so we'll just leave it the way it is and go from there,” Belichick responded when asked if there was any desire to keep Newton around in a backup role.
Was it a difficult decision to make? Certainly a quality question given that Belichick himself early in camp projected a “hard decision” would come at the quarterback position.
“Well, I mean, I don't rank them,” Belichick answered, pulling out one of his classic avoidance measures. “We make decisions, and then we execute them and go on and take it from there.”
And apparently don’t answer questions about them.
How about the key final week of the competition, when Newton missed five days due to COVID protocols, leaving Jones extra reps with the top offensive unit in joint practices against the Giants? How much did that help Jones beat out Newton?
“Yeah. I don't know,” Belichick barely bothered to answer.
Who would know? Who should the media ask?
The only time that Belichick conjured up much of an answer regarding Newton came regarding questions of the quarterback’s vaccination status and how that might have affected the decision. As he’d done earlier in the week, Belichick emphasized a number of times that vaccinated personnel in the NFL is testing positive for COVID at “a pretty high number.” For whatever that’s worth, at least it’s an answer.
Even the wily veteran money question -- why was releasing Newton in the best interest of the team? – couldn’t break Belichick’s answerless, information-free stance in what’s expected to be the coach’s last media availability before turning his attention to the season opener against the Dolphins next week.
“That's our decision, and we've had weeks of meetings on all players, so it'd be impossible to rehash everything that happened at that position or any other position, but ultimately there's a lot of factors that are involved, and we made our decisions,” Belichick said.
Everything? We don’t need or even want everything. How about just a morsel? A nugget of explanation even? But apparently Belichick doesn’t plan on sharing even a hint of the reasoning behind the decision with anyone at this point.
Why is Cam Newton no longer the starting quarterback in New England? Why is Newton no longer even on the Patriots roster?
Great questions. Legitimate questions. Fair questions.
Just don’t ask Belichick those questions. They are apparently beneath him at this point. Or just not worth his time.
