Bill Belichick To Give Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe ‘Chance To Compete’

Bill Belichick likes what he's seen from all three Patriots quarterbacks as the NFL preseason approaches.

During a SiriusXM NFL Radio interview before Monday's training camp practice, Belichick was asked what type of growth he's seen from Mac Jones ahead of the QB's third season in New England. The head coach responded by applauding Jones' offseason dedication, then pivoted to praise backups Bailey Zappe and Trace McSorley.

"Mac had a good offseason," Belichick told hosts Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan. "He's one of our offseason award winners -- first in, last out of the building. Really does a good job of being on top of everything we're doing so he can lead from the quarterback position in terms of play-calling and those types of things.

"Zappe is way ahead of where he was last year, obviously, rookie going into his second year. And it's been good to work with McSorley. He has a little bit of game experience, a little bit of NFL experience, but is still a young player."

There's been a clear QB hierarchy in each of the Patriots' first five camp practices, with Jones commanding the first team, Zappe leading the second and the often-erratic McSorley repping third.

Jones has been the one working with New England's projected offensive starters (JuJu Smith-Schuster, DeVante Parker, Hunter Henry, Mike Gesicki, Rhamondre Stevenson, etc.) while the vast majority of Zappe's targets have gone to rookies and roster-bubble players like Demario Douglas, Tre Nixon, Jalen Hurd and Matt Sokol. The quarterback competition many expected to see this summer has yet to materialize, with Jones looking like the clear-cut QB1 at this stage.

But Zappe, who won over a sizable portion of the Patriots' fanbase while filling in for an injured Jones last season, has flashed at times this summer. On Sunday, he connected with Tyquan Thornton for a pair of impressive touchdown passes and hit Hurd for another before closing practice with an ill-advised interception.

The odds of Zappe unseating Jones this preseason are unlikely, but Belichick did leave the door open for a potential QB battle to develop.

"We'll see how those guys do when the real football starts, pads come on, there's a little more pass rush and so forth, but they can all run the offense efficiently," Belichick said on SiriusXM. "They're all smart. They all handle what we do so that everybody else can operate efficiently. So, we'll give them a chance to compete and see how it goes."

Belichick offered similar comments back in March, telling reporters at the NFL annual meeting: "Everybody will get a chance to play, and we’ll play the best players." He's repeatedly turned down opportunities to say Jones is New England's starter, though he was not asked to do so in Monday's interview.