Did Belichick Give McDaniels Notice While Giving Newton A Pass?

Head Coach Bill Belichick named Cam Newton the starter this spring until someone could unseat him. Looking at the play of Mac Jones, Jarrett Stidham, and Brian Hoyer in OTAs and minicamp, it's left many wondering how that didn't already happen, and had Mike Florio reporting that there was a split in the locker room over Newton.

Bill Belichick spoke to the media on Tuesday and being a Cam Supporters, it's no surprise that he basically said the spring portion of the offseason didn't really matter. Here's what Belichick said during his press conference.

Bill said, “As I said, every one of us has to go out and establish our level of performance in whatever our role or capacity is. So it’s a new season. You know, we’ve done some things in the spring but this is really the start of football season in terms of the team building part here in training camp. So we all have a lot of work to do. That includes all of us. So until we go out and do anything, then it’s pretty much a clean slate.”

Unlike owner Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick is a fan and is infatuated with the former league MVP. However, the media doesn't let up. They wanted a direct answer and that's just not Bill's thing.

When pressed Belichick said, “Including the coaches and all the players.”

Knowing that Bill is a Cam Newton supporter, and that Newton supporters blame Josh McDaniels for not using Cam properly in 2020. Where they blamed McDaniels for not calling plays that didn't require Newton to throw at feet, above heads, behind backs, and out of arms reach of pass catchers. One has to wonder if this was a message to McDaniels to make Cam Newton look good.

To those wondering why Bill would single out McDaniels. McDaniels said he was comfortable with Stidham's development last season but it was Bill's decision on who starts, throwing Belichick under the bus. And we know Kraft read that. Then there was reports that Mac Jones was a McDaniels guy, that they see things the same. And we all know that Newton is a Belichick guy, appearing to create a rift.

Belichick made it clear in his comments that he doesn't care how bad or how good anyone looked coming into this training camp. Which is odd because the Patriots have always been about what have you done for me lately but again, adding in the coaches, one has to wonder with everything that has been put out there, if Josh McDaniels is the exception to that.

Some are wondering if Bill's comments signified a quarterback competition and what Newton has to do to win it. It didn't seem like Bill said there was a competition but if he did, Cam wins it by Belichick continuing to ignore how bad Newton looks.

Training camp begins tomorrow and we'll see how things play out but for now, there's more unanswered questions than answers.