Bill Belichick explains -- sort of -- why he won't name Patriots' starting quarterback
BOSTON -- On Tuesday, Bill Belichick steadfastly refused to publicly announce his starting quarterback for Sunday's game against the Giants. A few days later, the head coach's message remained the exact same.
"I've told everybody to be ready to go," Belichick said Friday when asked if Mac Jones was getting first-team reps at practice.
"I've told everybody to be ready to go," Belichick repeated when asked another question about the starting quarterback decision.
"I've told everybody to be ready to go. And hopefully, that's what they're all doing," Belichick said. "I'm not going to announce starters at every position, or backup, or whatever. Hopefully, everybody will be ready to go."
Clearly, Belichick's game plan on sharing zero details on the top of his QB depth chart is obvious. So he was then asked the obvious question: Why not announce the starting quarterback?
"Yeah, then we'll be announcing who's starting this, who's playing that, who's doing this, who's doing that," Belichick said. "I mean, once we get going on that, then I'm not going down that road. So, sorry."
A reporter promised Belichick that they'd only be asking for the starter at one position.
"Yeah, right," Belichick said with a wide smile. "Yeah."
The explanation is fine, but also doesn't match the many times in the past when Belichick has very clearly declared who his starting quarterback was. Whether it was Tom Brady, Cam Newton, or Mac Jones (at times), Belichick has made it a point over the years to not leave public doubt about which player was QB1. The exception to this rule was last year, when Jones was coming back from injury after Bailey Zappe had won a couple of games in his place. That led to a lot of public debate, discussion, and speculation (all deemed a dreaded distraction in the normal world of football coaching) and eventually led to Jones being yanked out of a Monday Night Football game against the Bears.
That decision didn't work -- Zappe threw two interceptions and lost a fumble -- and the scene that played out with the benching rubbed some players the wrong way in the locker room.
It's different this year, as Jones most certainly earned his recent benching against the Colts. But Belichick is still very much breaking from his normal practice of naming a starting quarterback.
"I'm just, I'm not getting into that," he said when asked if his coyness was giving the Patriots a competitive advantage. "Like, whoever we put in, I hope they're ready to go in and play well, whenever that is. Could be the first play of the game, could be the last play of the game. I don't know."
One reporter tried an alternate strategy, asking if the matchup with a certain opponent would factor into the decision at QB. The reporter noted that the Giants are a blitz-heavy team, wondering if that could be a determining factor.
"Yeah, I don't know. You're gonna have to ask the Giants what they do. I don't know. They don't blitz on every play. But maybe they will. I don't know. You'll have to ask Wink [Martindale] that. I don't know. I can't tell you what they're gonna do," a dismissive Belichick replied. "I don't know what they're gonna do. Can you tell me what the game plan is? Because I don't know."
Another reporter went another route, asking Belichick if he always asks all of his players to be prepared to play every single week.
"Yeah, that's right. What do you think, I tell them not to be ready? 'Don't worry about this one, just take the week off?'" Belichick sarcastically responded. "Every day, every game, like, that's what we come in here for every day. We have goals we try to accomplish every day, and we try to accomplish them. Every day."
The goal on this day was, clearly, to not tell the media or the world or the Giants whether it'll be Mac Jones or Bailey Zappe (or Will Grier ... or Malik Cunningham?) under center when the Patriots' offense trots out onto the field on Sunday afternoon at MetLife stadium.
