Aside from Wednesday, when he was chatting up Utah State’s defensive coordinator for over an hour, Bill Belichick was highly engaged during Patriots spring practices.
And New England’s players loved it.
Devin McCourty and Malcolm Butler both praised the 70-year-old Belichick for his consistent intensity during recent OTAs practices. And, following a busy two days of mandatory minicamp that saw Belichick line up at center, among other things, quarterback Mac Jones offered thoughts on his ageless head coach.
“He’s very hands-on,” Jones said Thursday during a virtual news conference, which took place after the Patriots canceled their minicamp finale. “Last year, he was more with the defense and stuff, but now it’s like ‘OK, let me show you this.’ He’s coaching us and coaching the running backs in that drill (when he was playing center) about the way they need to get through the line of scrimmage. He’s very hands-on.
“I feel like we’ve made a lot of growth together as an offensive unit with him, then obviously personally with him, and as a quarterback group. We’re all on the same page. He’s seen the most amount of football of any of our coaches. He’s seen defense, offense and special teams.”
Jones added: “So having his input is always going to be very beneficial to me because he knows what puts stress on the defense. And now with him being very hands-on, he knows how we can stress a defense and how it’s going to play into our hand.”
New England was scheduled to hold two more voluntary practices next week, but Belichick canceled them as a reward for a strong offseason. So, we’ll have to wait until training camp to see Belichick mix it up in more practice drills.
The official start date for Patriots training camp has not been announced, but fans probably can expect it to begin in late July.
