The New England Patriots have yet to announce which quarterback will start in Week 1. Coach Bill Belichick said he had not made a decision between starting Cam Newton and Mac Jones. It seems the open quarterback competition could continue for at least one more week.
Jones was asked whether he feels he’s done enough to earn the starting job. The rookie took a veteran-savvy route by channeling Belichick in his response.
“I’ve gotten a lot of opportunities to play, and I can improve on everything that I want to improve on. … There’s a lot of work to do, but I think I’ve made progress,” Jones told reporters after the preseason finale on Sunday.
That’s when it got really Belichickian.
“The only thing that matters is today. Then tomorrow, I’ll focus on tomorrow. But I think the past is the past,” Jones said.
Belichick loves saying “the past is the past.” That’s his line.
Mac Jones went full Belichick on the media — “the past is the past” — when asked if he felt he’d done enough to win the starting QB job. pic.twitter.com/UAd3Q4JjcV
— Henry McKenna (@McKennAnalysis) August 30, 2021
Jones may be a 22-year-old rookie, but he already knows how to evade questions from reporters like a 69-year-old veteran like Belichick.
