Hyland: For Belichick, the answer was always Mac Jones

Rose was always going to choose Jack Dawson over her abusive rich fiancé.

George McFly was always going to end up with Lorraine, no matter what happened with Marty and Doc's time machine.

And something tells me that Bill Belichick was always going to choose Mac Jones as QB1 for the New England Patriots.

In life and in sports there are always decisions. There are choices that radically shape the outcome of any particular situation on or off the field. So it's very easy to start dissecting the decision hours after it's been made public. But after months of hearing and saying "Cam or Mac" and "Mac or Cam," the following is carefully developed and likely theory on what exactly happened at 1 Patriot Place in Foxborough.

Last summer the New England Patriots bring in Cam Newton, one of the biggest names in football. A Heisman trophy winner. A fashion icon. An electric personality and at one time, an equally as dynamic playmaker. He's everything the bland, lifeless, post-Brady Pats needed to be interesting again. In 2020 Cam struggled, is sort of mediocre-at-best, and New England fails against below-average teams like Houston and San Francisco (we'll get to the Niners in a moment) They miss the playoffs. However, Newton is loved by the locker room and a devoted group of the Foxboro Faithful. "Who cares if the team loses as long as they're having fun?"

Fast forward to the offseason, and old friend Tom Brady has just come off another trip to Disney World and a Super Bowl Parade. It's clear the Pats need a new quarterback to level the Brady-Belichick debate. By the time Tom sobers up, talk of the NFL Draft ensues and rumors start circulating about quarterback preferences as if it is prom season in the suburbs.

One rumor stands out: the San Francisco 49ers random interest in Alabama quarterback Mac Jones - once a third stringer now a national champion. The rumor doesn't make sense. Trey Lance and Justin Fields are athletic machines and Jones is unproven and the brunt of Twitter jokes. Why would San Fran trade up for him? Nevertheless, folks like Chris Simms float this idea into the masses, though others like Ian Rapoport say otherwise.

Looking back, this is a classic case of a "pump and dump." Like in the stock market, investors artificially drive up the value of one asset and sell it off quickly to make money, sometimes while really masking interest in another asset. In this case, the Niners hyped up Mac Jones, only to take Trey Lance at pick number three. And they did so as a favor to Bill Belichick and the Patriots.

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan? He's the son of Mike Shanahan, a close friend of Bill Belichick. Four years ago, Bill did Kyle a solid by trading him a young Jimmy Garoppolo for essentially a bag of footballs (fully inflated). After it became clear that San Fran wasn't going to fully move on from Jimmy this offseason, the Patriots reluctantly re-signed Newton to help attract other free agents. Though in theory, Bill really just wanted to draft Mac Jones. After all, he only went and visited one QB at a pro day, and that was #10 in Tuscaloosa.

In the meantime, the Niners hyped up Mac Jones briefly through the media in exchange - to make it seem on draft day like Belichick wasn't being forced by his owner or anyone else into settling for another average quarterback. Finally, on draft day, San Francisco took Lance as an heir apparent to Garoppolo and New England of course snagged Jones at number 15.

San Francisco got their new guy and kept Jimmy G from going elsewhere as an insurance for Lance. In exchange for that and the move four years ago, they drove up some value in Jones and allowed Bill to take his preferred guy at 15.

Is it sort of wild? Absolutely. But is it possible? You bet. The NFL is full of unspoken alliances and adversaries, and Bill is usually at the center of them. His time as New York Jets head coach was even shorter than a Kardashian marriage and he later found his way to New England in a matter of days. Several years later, the Jets leaked SpyGate. Moreover, coordinators Josh McDaniels and Matt Patricia were re-employed in New England despite failures elsewhere. Mac Jones' former coach Nick Saban and Belichick did a documentary together for crying out loud.

Newton is a tremendous leader and did everything the Patriots needed him to do, but the COVID debacle and a tepid preseason was the perfect smokescreen for the now apparent inevitable. When push came to shove, Jones won the job that Bill said publicly - from both sides of his mouth - was open. Mac Jones comes from a winning culture and Saban. He plays the offense the way the Patriots typically play and he will arrive at a team that Bill rebuilt this offseason, led by Bill's guys.

For many, myself included, this QB decision was a saga that was never going to end. But eventually there's an iceberg or a lightning strike. Today we got just that. Meanwhile, Bill got his guy all along.