Bill Belichick starts taking off his gloves.

Belichick largely refrained from talking about the New England Patriots on his various media platforms through the first three weeks of the season, aside from a brief dig at his former team's time management in Week 2.

That changed on Monday after the Patriots' lopsided loss to the San Francisco 49ers, when Belichick was brought in The Pat McAfee Show what he thought of head coach Jerod Mayo's “plan” to keep Jacoby Brissett as the starting quarterback ahead of rookie Drake Maye.

“I’ll be honest with you, I have no idea what the plan is,” Belichick responded. “Well, I can’t say anything about that. If Mayo says he has a plan, then I suspect he does, and we'll have to wait and see what it is. I don't know it.”

“I’m not sure what the plan is in New England right now.

If Mayo says he has to plan, then I think he has one.

They had a hard time moving the ball and Purdy had a lot of time to throw.

Joey Slye was a great addition and he is a great kicker” ~ Bill Belichick #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/47IPr5Hpw4

– Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 30, 2024

We understand that Belichick doesn't want to speculate about Mayo's plans for his rookie quarterback — but that's not exactly a clear endorsement from the man who took Belichick's job in January.

Belichick continued his criticism of his former employer by highlighting the Patriots' deficiencies in several areas compared to the 49ers.

“I would say there are a number of issues,” Belichick said. “One of them is that I can’t move the ball and score. I made a 63-yard field goal and then scored a touchdown on the fumbled kickoff, but otherwise had trouble moving the ball.”

“And I don’t know exactly what the numbers were, but the time Purdy (49ers quarterback Brock) had to throw was posted pretty high, had to be the highest in the league or close to it. So I think there's some pass rush issues there, there's some scoring issues there.

One can hardly doubt Belichick's criticism; The Patriots mustered just 216 total yards of offense on Sunday, and their only touchdown came on a drive they started at the San Francisco 27-yard line after the 49ers botched a kickoff. And Purdy actually had the longest average throwing time (3.47 seconds) of any QB in Week 4.

Still, Belichick's blunt criticism of his former team might not go over well with Patriots fans or members of the organization, especially since New England's personnel changes during his tenure in recent seasons are one of the reasons this team has found itself in such a difficult spot located.

However, if you're looking for an admission of guilt, Belichick has pointed out that Patriots kicker Joey Slye is making an admission of guilt a little better than the guy he drafted in Chad Ryland.

“Joey Slye, that’s a great addition for them,” Belichick said. “They have a great kicker; this is a big improvement from where we were last year.”

Whether Mayo's Patriots can improve on their 4-13 record under Belichick last season remains to be seen.