What Bill Belichick said about the Patriots’ QB situation following loss to Giants

That was the last question of Belichick’s press conference on Sunday. He took off after a few minutes as reporters tried to ask more questions.

Jones’s status as the Patriots’ starting quarterback appeared to hit its tipping point in their Week 10 loss to the Colts, where he was benched for the offense’s final drive of a 10-6 loss after throwing a brutal interception in the red zone.

But as the Patriots returned from the bye week, both Jones and Zappe reportedly split the quarterback reps in practice, as Belichick refused to publicly name a starter.

Reports first emerged late Saturday night that Jones would be the Patriots’ starting quarterback against the Giants, though there were indications that Zappe could play, too.

However, Patriots tight end Hunter Henry said that the team found out Jones would be their starting quarterback when they went on the field Sunday.

Belichick wasn’t asked about Henry’s comment. But when he was asked when he told the team who’d be their starting quarterback, Belichick replied, “I can’t remember, sometime during the week” before saying the team knew of his decision prior to traveling on Saturday.

Belichick wouldn’t say if the team would take a similar approach to the quarterback decision in practice this week ahead of next Sunday’s game against the Chargers.

“The game’s just over,” Belichick said. “The game was over an hour ago.”

Belichick’s decision to split reps with Jones and Zappe in practice obviously didn’t pay dividends. Jones threw two first-half picks and Zappe threw one in the fourth quarter to set the Giants up for the game-winning score.

As they only mustered up seven points on Sunday, Belichick acknowledged that the offense fell short.

“I think there were too many things that we didn’t expect to happen,” he said. “So, we just need to a better job of, No. 1 taking care of the ball and taking care of our opportunities. That’s all the way across the board. Just too much poor ball security on offense.”

Following the first two games that the Patriots benched Jones this season, Belichick indicated that he’d remain the team’s starting quarterback still. He didn’t make a similar indication following his benching against the Colts in Week 10 and didn’t do it again on Sunday.

Jones has notably regressed as the season’s gone on, throwing three touchdowns to five interceptions over the last four games. His 12 interceptions are tied for the second-most in the league, a far cry from his rookie season when he finished second in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting to help the Patriots make the playoffs.

Belichick was asked why he thought Jones has regressed as he might have lost his starting job for good on Sunday.

“Look, our job is to get everybody to play as well as they can,” Belichick replied. “So, that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

In terms of other roster decisions, Belichick said that the team opted to release third-string quarterback Will Grier on Saturday in order to make room to sign offensive tackle Conor McDermott. He said, “we’ll see” when asked if the team would sign Grier to the practice squad, adding that it can’t add him back until Monday.

McDermott ended up getting the start at left tackle on Sunday over Trent Brown, who later took over after the Patriots’ third offensive drive.

“I think they both deserved to play,” Belichick said when asked why he took that approach at left tackle. He again said “they both deserved to play,” when asked why he felt that way.

Belichick was also asked about the possibility of practice squad quarterback Malik Cunningham’s chances of playing.

“Yeah, I think there’s an opportunity for everybody,” Belichick said.

The Patriots fell to 2-9 with Sunday’s loss, clinching their third losing season in the last four years. If there’s one thing that was clear from Belichick’s brief press conference on Sunday, it’s that he knew the team isn’t performing well enough right now.

“We’ve just got to do a better job, obviously.”