New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick made the head-scratching move of cutting second-year quarterback Bailey Zappe from the Patriots roster on cut-down day. Zappe ultimately came back, signing with the Patriots practice squad, but for a little while, Mac Jones was the only Patriots quarterback on the depth chart.

In a conference call with media ahead of the 2023 NFL season, Belichick (kind of) talked about the surprising Patriots roster move of cutting Zappe.

“All the roster decisions are based on what we feel like’s best for our football team,” Belichick said, per Boston.com. “There’s a number of things involved there. But glad to have Bailey to continue to work with him. Still think he’s a good, young, developing player, so we’ll keep working with him.”

In true Bill Belichick fashion, his explanation of cutting Bailey Zappe — and Patriots rookie quarterback Malik Cunningham — didn’t reveal much. Reports surrounding the matter seem to make things a little more clear.

Apparently, Zappe thrived last season in “offensive coordinator” Matt Patricia’s incredibly basic system. However, now that Bill O’Brien is back and the team has a real NFL offense, the young signal-caller hasn’t been as good.

In fact, the Pats even signed former Carolina Panthers QB Matt Corral to possibly become Jones’ primary backup.

“We claimed him when he was available,” Belichick said of Corral on Monday. “We’ll take a look at him and see how it goes. Had a very good career at Mississippi, and then hasn’t really had a lot of chance to do much in the last two years. Was injured and missed some time, but had a good preseason. So, we’ll see how it goes. Look forward to working with him.”

According to NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport, Corral and Zappe will compete for the backup QB role.