The owner’s meetings are underway this week and both Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft spoke on Monday.
Bill was in midseason form, clearly getting annoyed with questions while Kraft was his usual calm, cool and collected self. A number of things were discussed by both guys, but the most important thing discussed was the future of Mac Jones as the Patriots quarterback.
It seems as if Belichick and Kraft are still very much split on who the QB of the future is. When the HC of the NEP was asked if Mac is the starter heading into OTA’s and training camp or if it would be more of a competition, just like the end of regular season press conference, Bill wasn’t so quick to talk up Jones.
“Everybody will get a chance to play. We’ll play the best players,” he said. When pushed a bit further about the competition aspect, Belichick stood his ground. “Everybody will get a chance to play. Every position, everybody will get a chance to play. Everybody that’s on our roster, if they earn the opportunity to play, then based on what they do in practice and all that, they’ll get an opportunity to play. Certainly, veteran players that have been on the team before, if they’re still on the team, they’ll get an opportunity to play.”
When asked about what he’d like to see improve from last year with Mac, it wasn’t any better,
“Yeah, we talked to all the players individually about what they can do and things we can do and so forth, so I’ll just keep that between myself and the individual players,” he said.
When Robert Kraft spoke in the afternoon, he was much more willing to praise Mac and his work ethic, but also made sure to clarify it’ll still be Bill’s decision, as it would be for any position on the field.
“I’m a big fan of Mac,” Kraft said. “He came to us as a rookie and quarterbacked his rookie season, did a very fine job, I thought. We made the playoffs. I think we experimented with some things last year that frankly, didn’t work when it came to him, in my opinion. We’ve made changes, I think, that put him in a good position to excel. But, in the end, Bill is in charge of my football team and makes the decisions of who should start and who should play and he’s done a pretty darn good job of it, for the past…when you think about it, 24 years. I had peach fuzz when that started.
“I don’t know. For me, I think, I see him as a very hard-working young man. He’s in the stadium almost every day now in the offseason. I think bringing in Bill O’Brien will work to his advantage. I’m very positive and hopeful about this upcoming year. I personally am a big fan of Mac.”
As it stands today, March 27, 2023, the Patriots as an organization seem undecided on whether or not they have a quarterback of the future. Now four years removed from the Tom Brady days, that’s a pretty big problem.