Bill Belichick explained why he stuck with Bailey Zappe vs. Bears and didn’t sub Mac Jones back in
"This league is about competition."
A day after the Patriots lost 33-14 to the Bears despite entering the matchup as a clear favorite, the discussion has unsurprisingly lingered on the team’s two quarterbacks.
Mac Jones started the game, but Bailey Zappe finished it. Neither played well enough to definitively make a winning case to be the consistent starter going forward.
On Tuesday, Bill Belichick fielded a series questions about Jones and Zappe during his weekly interview with WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.”
Asked if it was accurate that the plan was for Jones to just play the three opening series of the game before getting pulled for Zappe, Belichick disagreed with the characterization.
“No, we were going to play both quarterbacks,” Belichick maintained. “And that’s what we did.”
Belichick’s statement in this case is helped by the fact that, as an example, NFL insider Adam Schefter reported beforehand that New England would likely play both quarterbacks in the game.
Show co-host Greg Hill had a follow-up question: What went into the decision to change to Zappe?
“We made the change. That’s what we were planning to do,” Belichick began. “So we did that, then the game got out of hand there in the third quarter, and so I didn’t feel like it was in the best interest to put Mac back in the game. That’s really it.”
Several Patriots players, including running back Rhamondre Stevenson and offensive lineman Michael Onwenu expressed surprise at how the quarterback situation was handled, admitting surprise at Jones being benched during the second quarter.
Belichick said that he communicated the decision to the players who he felt needed to know.
“I talked to the quarterbacks, talked to the leaders of the team, everybody knew what the plan was,” he explained. “I mean, not every single person, obviously. I wouldn’t talk to every single person about another player’s role in the game. They all have their jobs to do. There was no lack of communication.”
Asked specifically about a postgame quote from Jakobi Meyers — in which the wide receiver said he “didn’t make that call” regarding the quarterback change — Belichick said he “didn’t talk to Jakobi after the game, so I’m not sure about all that.”
Regarding the status of Jones’s future, can it affect a player’s confidence to not be entrenched as a starter?
“Yeah, I don’t know. This league is about competition,” Belichick responded. “We have a lot of competitive players on our team. I never really thought that was the case.”
Going forward, the Patriots still have a simmering quarterback controversy between Jones and Zappe.
New England’s next test will be on Sunday at 1 p.m. against the 5-2 Jets.
Will the Patriots continue to have a quarterback competition “until one player really takes control?
“I don’t think that’s the situation at all,” said Belichick.
“We’ll do what we think is best for the football team,” he later added.
Belichick also addressed the idea of an open “quarterback competition.”
“We’ll evaluate the situation as we always do, see what the options are, take the one that we feel like is best for the football team.”
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