Bill Belichick won’t rule out the possibility of a quarterback platoon

[Pat Patriot]

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With no preseason games and no joint practices, no NFL coach will get a chance to see how his players will perform against other teams until the regular season begins. For some coaches, this could mean allowing training-camp competitions to continue into September.

In New England, it could mean using multiple quarterbacks.

Mike Reiss of ESPN.com has floated the possibility of a quarterback platoon, and coach Bill Belichick didn’t rule out using multiple quarterbacks when meeting with reporters on Wednesday.

“Yeah, it might,” Belichick said regarding whether a quarterback platoon would benefit the team. “Look, I always say I’ll do what I think is best for the team, what gives us the best chance to win. Whatever that is, I would certainly consider that. If it’s run an unbalanced line or double-unbalanced line or 23 personnel or whatever it is. If it helps us win, then I would consider anything.”

Winning doesn’t happen only in September. The broader objective is to win as many games from start to finish of the season. If using two quarterbacks in September could better position the team to win more games in October, November, December, and January, why not do it?

Also, it’s possible that Belichick’s refusal to give the job to 2015 NFL MVP Cam Newton could be part of the effort to fully indoctrinate him into the Patriot Way. Belichick acknowledged that, eventually, one of the three quarterbacks will need to get the bulk of the reps in advance of Week One against the Dolphins. For now, however, that’s not the case.

“Well, obviously, there’s some point where that’s going to happen,” Belichick said. “But, right now, we want to try to, like I said, give everybody an opportunity to get the basics, and we’re really doing that at all the positions. I mean, everybody’s rotating through and we’re trying to give everybody an opportunity to run the basic plays, get the basic fundamentals down. Yeah, of course at some point, we’ll have to not equalize the reps — I mean, that’s obvious — but we’re not there now.”

Perhaps the better explanation is that the Patriots are “not there now” when it comes to ensuring that Newton will deal with adversity better than he did in Carolina, a place where some believe he was coddled. Surely, he’s a better option than Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer. But being better than them isn’t nearly good enough; if the Patriots are going to contend at a high level this year, Newton needs to get back to the level at which we’ve seen him in the past. This sense of uncertainty regarding the starting quarterback position in New England could be part of that effort.