What Mac Jones Said About Off-Field Relationship With Bill Belichick

FOXBORO, Mass. — Bill Belichick was hands-on with the Patriots offense throughout last summer and the regular season. Clearly wanting to assist Joe Judge and Matt Patricia, New England’s head coach regularly was seen conversing with Mac Jones during practices and games.

But this year is a different story. With Bill O’Brien now leading the Patriots offense, Belichick rarely, if ever, has been spotted speaking with Jones during spring practices.

And that, along with the well-documented drama from the last nine months, begs the question: How much do Jones and Belichick interact off the field? Do they still meet weekly, as Belichick did with Tom Brady for nearly two decades? Are the franchise’s quarterback and legendary head coach on good terms?

Jones on Monday offered some insight into his off-field relationship with Belichick. However, as you’ll see in the transcript below, the vagueness of his answer leaves much room for interpretation.

Question: You and Bill O’Brien are getting the offense ready to go. How much are you working with Bill Belichick behind the scenes?

Jones: “Yeah, I think we have a great coaching staff. Been really blessed to work with some great coaches. I always talk about high school and college and here. I always try to learn stuff from everybody and ask questions. And (O’Brien’s) done a great job with that; Coach Belichick’s done a great job. So, definitely just want to learn and be a sponge. That’s all I can do, right? And just pick (Belichick’s) brain about defense because he’s really good with the defensive side of the ball. And learning that part of it, because, you know, that’s really what he does really, really well. So, it’s been great to learn from him. And the players, too. Like, you learn so much from guys like (Adrian Phillips) and the older guys, (Kyle) Dugger, and everybody. Just talking with them, like, ‘Hey, did that trick you or not?’ You know, it’s OTAs, so you kind of just play around with some things and try new things. Kind of just take a little bit of everything. So, yeah, it’s been good.”

Jones isn’t one to go into great detail with some of his answers. We shouldn’t read too much into what he said.

Still, it’s hard to read those remarks and not wonder whether Jones and Belichick now spend less time together than they did the previous two seasons. Again, they almost never crossed paths during the first four spring practices open to reporters.

New England is scheduled to practice again Tuesday and Wednesday before going on its annual summer break.