Patriots
“I don’t think you really know how anybody’s playing in preseason, especially at the quarterback position.”
Former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick made his weekly appearance on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday — touching on a variety of topics including Drake Maye’s preseason, the Patriots’ recent struggles in free agency, and more.
Here are a few highlights from Belichick’s latest ESPN appearance.
Belichick isn’t putting stock in Drake Maye’s preseason play
Count Belichick as the latest in a long line of NFL coaches and former players to give their take on New England’s ongoing QB competition between Drake Maye and Jacoby Brissett.
And while others like Devin McCourty and Dan Orlovsky have focused more on the talent (or lack thereof) around Maye as the primary reason why New England shouldn’t start its rookie in Week 1 — Belichick instead stressed that preseason performance shouldn’t really factor all that much into the Patriots’ decision as to who starts against the Bengals on Sept. 8.
“First of all, I don’t think you really know how anybody’s playing in preseason, especially at the quarterback position,” Belichick said. “The schemes are so simple from the other side of the ball, generally speaking. For the most part, you’re running very basic schemes. You’re trying to evaluate your players. You’re trying to get them to play the good fundamentals that they know how to play. You’re not disguising things. You just want your defensive players to be ready to react and play fast and quickly. …
“I think to come out of preseason and say, ‘This guy’s really playing good, that guy’s really playing good,’ I wouldn’t put much stock in that at all. I’d put more stock in what they’re doing in practice and let’s see what happens in the first three or four regular-season games when the opponents specifically attack certain players based on what they think they can and can’t get on them, and then let’s see how they’re playing then.”
Jerod Mayo himself noted on Monday that Maye has “outplayed” Brissett over the Patriots’ three preseason games. But even with the stats working in Maye’s favor, New England could lean more on Brissett’s experience — and the need to keep Maye away from a porous O-line — as the main factors for rolling with the veteran QB in Week 1.
‘That’s ‘Taxachusetts’’
The Patriots have struggled in recent years when it comes to attracting top free agents to Foxborough — with New England whiffing on offseason targets like DeAndre Hopkins and Calvin Ridley.
Granted, it’s a lot tougher to convince players to sign in New England without personnel like Tom Brady or Belichick already in place at Gillette Stadium.
But Belichick also said Monday that Massachusetts’ state income tax has also been a hurdle when it comes to New England’s inability to outbid other NFL teams — especially in states without income tax like Florida.
“That’s Taxachusetts,” Belichick said. “Virtually every player, even the practice squad, even the minimum players are pretty close to $1 million. Once you hit the $1 million threshold, you pay more state tax in Massachusetts.
“Just another thing you’ve got to contend with in negotiations up there. It’s not like Tennessee or Florida or Nevada. Some of these teams have no state income tax. You get hit pretty hard on that with the agents.”
While the tax rate in Massachusetts could make the Patriots a harder sell when compared to other NFL franchises, the lackluster product on the field in recent years also looms large in Foxborough when it comes to several quiet offseason — especially with Brandon Aiyuk reportedly turning down a massive contract offer by the Patriots.
Belichick confused by Falcons’ approach with Judon
It wasn’t much of a surprise that Matthew Judon was eventually traded by the Patriots to Atlanta amid their extended contractual impasse.
But after relinquishing a third-round pick to pry the star pass-rusher out of New England, the Falcons did surprise many by not tearing up Judon’s current contract and awarding him with a new deal moving forward.
“The (Falcons) know nothing about me as a football player or as a man,” Judon told ESPN’s Marc Raimondi of playing on the final year of his current deal in 2024. “They know my previous resume. I can’t really demand or ask for anything I haven’t worked for. I’m gonna work for it.”
Atlanta’s interesting approach with Judon also confounded Belichick, who signed Judon to a four-year contract in New England during the 2021 offseason.
“I’m kind of surprised that Atlanta hasn’t extended Judon’s contract,” Belichick said. “I think that he’s pretty undervalued for what his contract is, based on the way it was set up there.
“It was kind of a complicated situation. But generally what I’ve done in those types of situations is try to, rather than extend the player — which you can do certainly and there’s times to do that — but I think Judon’s 31, 32, whatever he is. Extending that is a little bit different, so you put an incentive in there and give him an opportunity — maybe he has a good year and gains some money in incentives. There’s a lot of different ways to work around that.”
Belichick’s pointed comments about Atlanta may not necessarily come as much of a shock, considering that the 72-year-old coach was considered one of the finalists for the Falcons’ head-coaching job this past offseason before the team ultimately hired Raheem Morris.
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