Albert Breer’s report earlier this week that Bill Belichick is “mostly delegating all things offense” to Bill O’Brien has mostly been received as a positive development.
But the notion that Belichick is no longer working as closely with quarterback Mac Jones has also fueled speculation about the state of their relationship and raised questions about how successful the Patriots can be if the head coach and starting quarterback aren’t exactly getting along great.
Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston has been outspoken in saying that he doesn’t think it matters, referencing the years of frosty relations between Belichick and Tom Brady as the Patriots continued to win Super Bowls during their second decade together.
Making his weekly appearance on Jones & Mego on Thursday (listen to the full interview below), Curran expanded on that and said that how the offense is operating so far in OTAs is more of a return to normal than anything new or different.
“Does [Belichick] dislike [Jones]? I just find that hard to fathom,” Curran said. “This is the way the offense looked when Tom Brady was here. Bill Belichick divested himself of involvement. He was there for Mac in 2021. He spent a ton of time with Mac. … I don’t think he’s at that stage right now. It needs to be an O’Brien operation. I think we’re fixated on it a little too much.”
That makes sense, but it’s also still hard to ignore the numerous reports about how unhappy Belichick was with Jones seeking advice from outside the organization last season. Christian Arcand asked Curran if it’s possible that that’s still a factor here and that Belichick is still punishing Jones in some form. Why is that so hard to believe?
“Because that’s cutting off your nose to spite your face when you’re already marching around, jumping up and down on a very thin branch,” Curran said, referencing Belichick’s job security if the Patriots don’t start winning more than they have the last three years.
“There’s a different element that’s at play here with Bill getting into a pissing contest – not even a pissing contest, but being extremely and overly penal with a kid who was clearly a pretty good player in his rookie year and regressed in large part because of the decisions Bill made. I mean, we heard what the owner said multiple times about wanting the team to improve, and he also reiterated that he thought it was a bad situation that Mac was in.”
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