Bill Belichick avoids talking about Drake Maye’s debut, instead roasts Patriots defense

"Quarterbacks don’t play defense. Some people lose sight of that.”

Bill Belichick has been candid when it comes to sharing his thoughts about the New England Patriots.

At least, when his former team has fallen flat on its collective face.

The longtime Patriots head coach was largely mum on discussing New England on his several media ventures following the team’s upset Week 1 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in September.

But after Jerod Mayo and the Patriots came up short to the Seahawks in Week 2, Belichick was quick to call out some of Mayo’s “questionable” clock management in the loss at Gillette Stadium.

Weeks later, Belichick said during his weekly appearance on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” that he had “no idea what the plan is” with the Patriots and their timeline for rookie QB Drake Maye.

The Patriots’ 41-21 loss to the Texans was more of a mixed bag in terms of takeaways. Even though the 20-point defeat stretched New England’s losing streak to five games, Maye showcased plenty of promise in his first NFL start.

Sure enough, Belichick opted to harp more on New England’s shortcomings on the defensive side of the ball than Maye’s progress in the latest episode of his “Coach” podcast series with Underdog Fantasy.

In a segment focusing in on Maye’s debut in Foxborough, both former Patriots executive Michael Lombardi and longtime New England assistant coach/coordinator Matt Patricia discussed the positives drawn from the rookie’s start.

“He did show enough skills, and they actually moved the football,” Lombardi said of Maye. “They scored over 20 points.”

“I think they’ll try to build on that,” Patricia added on the Patriots’ plan moving forward. “I think that’s something that they make the change of quarterback at this point in the year — they put him out there, ‘Hey, let’s see what he can do.’ Did some things they can build on.”

But when the time came for the conversation to shift over to Belichick’s thoughts, Lombardi quickly pivoted to New England’s struggles on the defensive side of the ball.

“But, all the talk about the quarterback, I mean, you gave up 41 points,” Lombardi noted. “I mean everybody thinks the quarterback’s the magic wand. ‘Well, we just changed quarterbacks.’ That’s what [the Raiders] did. … We’re just gonna change quarterbacks. Pittsburgh scored 32 on them last week. Pittsburgh usually doesn’t score 32 points in two games.”

Belichick finally gave his thoughts on New England’s play after Lombardi’s response.

“Well, quarterbacks don’t play defense,” Belichick added. “Some people lose sight of that.”

That was it for Belichick as far as his thoughts on Maye, who totalled 281 total yards of offense and three touchdowns in his first start with New England.

Belichick was also not asked about Maye’s performance during his weekly appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” Monday.

“Hey, let’s talk about the modern Patriots, shall we? I guess we should have asked [Belichick] with what he saw from Drake Maye,” McAfee noted. “That’s poor journalism by us.”

Maye and the Patriots will have a chance to snap their losing streak on Sunday with a matchup against the 1-5 Jaguars in London.

Despite ducking an assessment of Maye, Belichick did stress that Sunday’s Week 7 matchup should hold plenty of significance to a Patriots team trying to right the ship — while still twisting the knife about the team’s current cellar-dwelling status.

“One thing about Jacksonville and New England – I think both teams feel this is one we can get,” Belichick noted. “They may not feel that way about every team on the schedule, but I think they both feel like this is one we could get. And they’ll probably put a lot into this one, because that goal is reachable.”

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.