Bill Belichick's appearance on SiriusXM's NFL Radio channel on Monday was highlighted by his comments on the quarterbacks. He offered praise for third-year signal caller Mac Jones but also left the door open for any of the quarterbacks to compete.

Belichick touched on all three QBs, starting by praising Jones, "Mac had a good offseason. He’s one of our offseason award winners, first and last out of the building, really does a good job of being on top of everything that we’re doing, so he can lead from the quarterback position in terms of play-calling and those types of things."

Jones has had a good start to camp and specifically has heated up over the last two days completing 75% of his passes and helping the offense keep the defense on their toes. Zappe has also looked good, having some impressive red zone throws on Sunday. It is important to note that Mac Jones has taken every starter reps through the first six days of practice and the consensus seems to believe he has been the better QB. It is still early, and it will be hard to measure any individual performance or get a good grasp on how much the offense has improved until we see more reps with pads on. 

Belichick also had positive words to offer about Zappe's development going into year two. "Zappe is way ahead of where he was last year, Pat(Kirwan), you talked about that; rookie going into his second year. And it has been good to work with (Trace) McSorely. He has a little bit of game experience, a little bit of NFL experience but is still a young player. So we'll see how those guys do when the real football starts, the pads come on, there is a little bit more of a pass rush, and so forth."

Belichick wrapped up his statement by leaving the door open for a competition saying, "They can all run the offense efficiently, they're all smart. They all handle what we do so everyone else can operate efficiently. So we'll give them a chance to compete and see how it goes." 

That quote is up for interpretation, is there a real QB competition or is that statement more of a formality by Belichick? It doesn't seem like there is a real competition, because all of the starting reps are going to Jones, but there is a portion of the fanbase who believes Zappe is deserving of a chance to prove himself.

Featured image via David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports