Bill Belichick’s quarterback answer on Monday did not exactly come wrapped in confidence.
On his coach show, Belichick was asked about the QB competition and said Miles O’Neill and Billy Edwards were the only two in the mix to start. He finished the thought with, “So, we had to go with somebody,” while also pointing to Travis Burgess as a player who had made tremendous progress since spring and flashed some really impressive plays. One name never came up: Au’Tori Newkirk.
That omission matters because Newkirk had once been treated as a validation piece for UNC’s personnel operation. He arrived in Chapel Hill in last year’s recruiting class, well behind Bryce Baker in buzz but eventually bumped up into the four-star conversation.
His other offers were from HBCUs. So when Newkirk moved ahead of Baker on the depth chart, it was held up as proof that GM Michael Lombardi and Belichick had a sharp eye for talent.
That story did not hold up for long.
Once Bobby Petrino joined the staff as coordinator, Newkirk slid quickly to fourth string behind the three newer quarterbacks in the room. During fall camp viewing sessions, he was the one working with the scout team while Edwards, O’Neill and Burgess were doing drills with receivers. By Monday night, he wasn’t even worthy of a mention from Belichick.
The larger picture is even less flattering for UNC’s quarterback evaluation process. Three of the passers in Chapel Hill were brought in entirely by Michael Lombardi. Baker’s recruitment started before Lombardi arrived, while Edwards and O’Neill came after Petrino’s evaluation had been folded into the mix.
Those three quarterbacks tell the story in different ways.
Gio Lopez was viewed as an average talent who could function in a very specific kind of offense, even though UNC was not planning to run that offense. That leaves the obvious question hanging over the fit from the start.
Ryan Browne came over from Purdue during UNC’s first portal window in 2025 after an NIL push from Lombardi. Before arriving, Browne had completed 55 of 92 passes for 636 yards, with four touchdowns and four interceptions.
After spring practices, Belichick and Lombardi absorbed the sunk cost and pushed him back into the portal. His Purdue numbers last season were 199 completions on 338 attempts for 2,153 yards, nine touchdowns and ten interceptions.
Lopez, as it turns out, had the better stat line.
Then there is Newkirk, who spent a year in the program only to be passed by a true freshman for the No. 3 spot.
Put together, Newkirk looks like the clearest example of the bigger problem surrounding UNC’s highest-paid GM. When a personnel boss walks around with the kind of certainty Lombardi has shown - “I know what I’m looking for, and you don’t,” as the logic goes - the standard gets higher, not lower. And when the results at quarterback are Ryan Browne, Gio Lopez and Au’Tori Newkirk, the criticism is going to come fast.
Lombardi is unlikely to return to UNC football, and that has nothing to do with the reason he has been on paid administrative leave. The real issue is simpler: he has not done the job well, and the program is paying for it through wasted evaluations and a self-confidence that has not been backed up by the results.
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