FOXBORO, Mass. — Given the struggles of the Patriots’ offense and the fact there only are three preseason games, many thought Mac Jones should’ve suited up last Thursday night against the New York Giants.
However, New England’s franchise quarterback joined a slew of offensive and defensive starters who sat out the preseason opener, watching mostly backups perform in a last-second loss. The decision proved controversial, with the Ted Johnsons of the world thinking Bill Belichick made the wrong call.
So, what was Belichick’s reasoning? He offered insight ahead of Monday’s training camp practice.
“Well, the players that played a lot in the game did less in some of the practices leading up to the game, and the players that played less in the game or didn’t play at all in the game, did a lot more,” Belichick said during a news conference. “So, I think when you look cumulatively, over, call it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, which actually we have — the volumes are pretty close. So, some guys played a lot in the game, but really didn’t get a whole lot of practice reps.
“Now, they did in the stadium practice, where everybody got a lot of reps in, so those were split up pretty evenly. But from that point on, I would say the overall number is sort of the same, but some of the numbers were a lot higher in the game, some of the other numbers were a lot higher in practice. Both in terms of number of plays and actual volume of what the player did, I think it balanced out. Not perfectly, but it balanced out.”
While Belichick surely was looking to give opportunities to players who haven’t done much during practice, he likely had more reasons for sitting starters — particularly Jones.
New England’s offensive line hasn’t been able to block anything during training camp practices, especially when working on the new, Shanahan-like scheme. Additionally, the Patriots reportedly feared the Giants would bring an inordinate amount of pressure in the game — and they were proven right. (Belichick seemed miffed about it, too.)
Ultimately, given those factors, Belichick might’ve deemed Thursday night’s game too risky to mess with. The risk of playing Jones and the starters outweighed the reward, despite how much work the Patriots’ offense needs. The New York Jets probably are wishing they’d gone a similar route in their preseason opener.
Thus, all eyes are on this week’s joint practices and preseason game against the Carolina Panthers, who’ll give New England its toughest — and most legitimate — test of the summer.
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