New England coach Bill Belichick was there to talk about the Patriots’ second-day draft picks – Georgia Tech defensive end Keion White and Sacramento State linebacker Marte Mapu. But he also got some questions on Friday night about quarterback Mac Jones because the former Alabama All-American seems to be the topic of the offseason for the NFL team.

That hasn’t been for positive and uplifting reasons.

But on Friday night, Belichick said he “absolutely” viewed Jones now the same way that he did last year when the quarterback was preparing for his second NFL season.

At that point, Jones had gone from the 15th choice in the 2021 NFL Draft to the starter in every game as a rookie for a playoff team. He even played in the Pro Bowl.

But in Jones’ second season, New England missed the playoffs as Jones missed three games with an ankle injury and lost eight points off his passer rating compared to his rookie showing.

The offseason that has followed has been filled with speculations and reports that the Patriots were shopping Jones and Belichick was sore at the quarterback for last season’s sideline outbursts.

On Friday night, Belichick said: “I’m not going to respond to the anonymous quotes.”

But on the record, when asked if Jones still had a firm grasp on New England’s quarterback job or would compete with backup Bailey Zappe for the spot, Belichick said at the NFL’s annual meeting in March: “Everybody’ll get a chance to play. We’ll play the best players.”

And Zappe, who played in four games as a rookie when Jones was hurt in 2022, said “If my opportunity presents itself, like I’ve been saying, I’m going to take full advantage of it. I’m going to do everything I can to help the team win. That’s really all I can say from that standpoint. That’s coach Belichick’s decision, whatever he decides.”

On Friday night, Belichick was asked if Jones was the Patriots quarterback “as of right now.”

“I mean, look, Mac’s been our quarterback for two years,” Belichick said. “As I tell the team every year, each player, each coach, we all have to re-establish and prove ourselves every year. That’s what this league is. So that’s for all of us, 2023 is 2023, and we’ll see how it goes.”

If Belichick “absolutely” views Jones the same way this offseason as he did last offseason, then here’s what that means:

“I think Mac’s done a great job,” Belichick said as New England was preparing to open training camp last year. “He’s worked extremely hard. He’s got a tremendous work ethic. In all areas, I think there’s a dramatic improvement – his physical work and conditioning, working on his mechanics, working on his footwork, working on his understanding of our offense, of opponent defenses, of situations, all those things. We’ve talked about all those things in varying degrees, some more emphasis than others, and the emphasis on some other things maybe will come later on. Can’t do it all at once, but he’s worked hard.

“He’s made tremendous strides. He did a great job last year, but he’s starting from a much, much higher point this year than where he started last year. His offseason work has been significant, and I think everyone recognizes how well he prepares and how much further along he was than he was a year ago.”

What happened in between?

New England dropped from sixth in the NFL in scoring in 2021 to 17th in 2022 without Josh McDaniels. After his 13th season as the Patriots’ offensive coordinator, McDaniels left to become the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders last offseason.

Belichick put Jones in the hands of Matt Patricia, New England’s former defensive coordinator, and Joe Judge, New England’s former special-teams coordinator. Both were back with the Patriots after being fired from jobs as NFL head coaches.

Judge worked as quarterbacks coach. Patricia was senior football advisor and offensive-line coach, but he called the plays for the New England offense in 2022, too.

At the league meeting last month, Robert Kraft, the team’s owner, said the setup was an experiment that failed.

The 2022 offensive setup has been replaced for 2023 by Bill O’Brien. Belichick hired the Alabama offensive coordinator of the past two seasons to handle the same responsibility for the Patriots.

RELATED: BILL O’BRIEN GIVES MAC JONES ‘A CLEAN SLATE’ AS PATRIOTS QB

Through five rounds of the NFL Draft, New England’s support for Jones and O’Brien has come on the offensive line. After choosing three defensive players on the first two nights of the draft, the Patriots chose Troy center Jake Andrews, a former Stanhope Elmore High School standout, and Eastern Michigan guard Sidy Sow in the fourth round and UCLA guard Atonio Mafi in the fifth round.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.