By now, you’re probably intimately familiar with Bill Belichick’s laissez-faire approach to most of his press conferences. Regardless of how his team fared in its most recent game or any notable recent updates from an upcoming opponent, Belichick is notorious for seeming disinterested (and almost entirely neutral, for a good reason) when standing in front of a microphone.
That doesn’t make Belichick’s comments about current New England Patriots starting quarterback Mac Jones any better. With Jones finishing up a relatively disappointing sophomore campaign in 2022 — filled with incidents of dirty on-field play — Belichick was asked about his young quarterback’s future prospects as a starter, specifically, whether Jones would start in 2023.
In trademark Belichick style, he kept it hilariously vague, and he didn’t exactly sing the praises of Jones:
Does Bill Belichick envision Mac Jones being his starting QB next season?
"Mac has the ability to play quarterback in this league…"
via @Patriots pic.twitter.com/TJsRyzZJc2
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) January 9, 2023
Honestly, I can barely tell if those are Belichick’s words or if he was reading Jones’ Wikipedia, knowing he’d be asked about the signal-caller. Because there’s really so little substance there, I’m not sure if Belichick loves Jones or wants to jettison him out of New England as soon as possible. Given that the Patriots haven’t won a playoff game since Tom Brady’s departure in 2020, anything might be on the table.
And leaving everything open to speculation about Jones is probably just the way Belichick likes it.
NFL fans thought Belichick's vague, non-endorsement of Jones was hilarious
Classic Bill here https://t.co/73AYE8IfTm
— Steve Bunda (@SteveBunda91) January 9, 2023
That was a “vote of confidence”.
— Rocky Lum (@RockyLum) January 9, 2023
That’s not a yes. Which means Bailey Zappe season!!!
— Michael (@mariasmora11) January 9, 2023
What an enthusiastic endorsement:
Like saying, "this pen has the ability to write on paper". https://t.co/UdO9Ly41RV
— JesusLife12 (@JesusLife12) January 9, 2023
Bill hit us with the Wiki entry https://t.co/OQRZymn9gc pic.twitter.com/n39vCPcs6Z
— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq) January 9, 2023