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Do the Patriots believe in Mac Jones? It depends who you ask. On one hand, the team has shied away from pursuing former MVP Lamar Jackson in order to give Jones another opportunity as the starting quarterback, apparently with plans to keep bolstering Jones' supporting cast this offseason. On the other, coach Bill Belichick has suggested Jones isn't guaranteed the Week 1 job. And now there are additional hints that Belichick is deeply discontent with the former first-round draft pick.

Months after NBC Sports' Chris Simms suggested tension between the coach and QB got "personal" when Jones sought offensive advice from outside the Patriots' staff in 2022, Tom E. Curran reports Belichick remains "agitated" at his signal-caller.

"The yelling and the gesticulations during the games was irritating enough," Curran told WEEI recently, "but going outside the building for counsel, that really pissed Bill off. ... Disloyalty, in Bill's mind, is almost worse than bad play."

Jones was especially frustrated at the Patriots' offensive structure in a sloppy, injury-riddled 2022 season, Curran noted, and may have spoken with Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, Jones' former offensive coordinator at Alabama, in an effort to improve.

"(Bill)'s still pissed about it," Curran said. "How well are they gonna be able to bury the hatchet on Mac's perceived and presumed disloyalty? And does (new Patriots coordinator) Bill O'Brien rectify that? Or is Bill still itching to teach the kid a lesson?"

Jones reportedly wasn't the only Patriots QB to verbalize frustration with the system and staff, which was guided in part by maligned assistants Joe Judge and Matt Patricia. Veteran backup Brian Hoyer, who was released this March, "was not sold on what was going ... (and) let that be known, that Mac was up against it on a weekly basis," per Curran.