Try as they might, the New England media could not squeeze cogent responses out of Bill Belichick regarding his plans for the Patriots' 2022 offense.
"Well, we've had a lot of changes offensively in the last couple years, and it's a good time to streamline things," he said Tuesday at the start of the Patriots' mandatory minicamp. "We did that defensively a couple years ago. We feel like it's a good time to do it offensively. There's an element of that every year."
Beyond saying the plan is to "streamline" the offense, Belichick continued his hazy responses to questions about how the offense will run under the revamped offensive coaching staff. The coach has been consistently vague on the roles Joe Judge and Matt Patricia will be taking on and isn't in a rush to name a play-caller.
Belichick noted Tuesday that adjusting language is part of the process and shaping the offense around quarterback Mac Jones is a given but provided little substance -- as is his modus operandi.
A sampling of the back and forth:
Is it a new system on offense?
"I don't know."
How big are the changes you're making?
"I don't know. You make changes every year. I can't, I wouldn't be able to rank them."
Are we going to see you run an entirely new offense?
"I don't know. I mean, if you think we're gonna run the veer offense, no. That's not what we're doing. Not really sure what we're talking about here."
Neither are we, coach. Neither are we.