"We all know Tom's age and contract situation."
"We're not talking about open-heart surgery here."
"He's a good player. We have a lot of good players."
For 20 years, Bill Belichick consistently downplayed Tom Brady's greatness, especially in the final seasons of his Patriots career. But to kick off training camp Tuesday, he effusively praised Mac Jones, speaking about the sophomore quarterback in glowing terms that he usually reserves for Lawrence Taylor or some anonymous special-teamer.
Why?
There is always a reasoning behind Belichick's performance at the podium. Usually, he stonewalls reporters in attempts to quell annoying media storylines, such as who will call plays on offense this season. (On Tuesday, he once again dismissed the importance of coaching titles.)
But Belichick is taking the opposite approach with Jones. Belichick is building up his young quarterback — big time.
"He's made tremendous strides," said Belichick. "He did a great job last year, but he's starting from a much, much higher point this year from where he started last year. His offseason work has been significant, and I think everyone recognizes how well he prepares and how much further along he was than a year ago."
There's been a steady drumbeat of Jones idolatry emanating from Foxborough this offseason. We've heard the Patriots are "ecstatic" with Jones' work ethic and believe the Alabama product is "on a mission."
Belichick added more color to those reports Tuesday.
"We're just a lot further ahead in the conversation [offensively]," he said. "The plays that we talk about, or concepts we talk about, Mac has already done it before. It's easy for him to say, 'Are we going to do this on that? Are we going to do this on something else? What do you think about splitting them a little bit wider? Splitting them a little bit tighter.' Suggestions like that."
The verbal slobbering didn't stop there.
"And we have a much better feel for what he can do, what his strengths are, and how to try to play into those. He's self-aware, too. He knows what he does well. We want to try to feature those."
As NFL analyst Ross Tucker tweeted: "Belichick said more good things about Mac Jones than he did about Tom Brady in 20 years."
In fairness, Belichick isn't the only member of the organization pumping up Jones. Robert Kraft set the expectations high at the league meetings, saying this is a "big year" for Jones.
Kendrick Bourne, and other Patriots wideouts, insist Jones is in the best shape of his life.
It certainly seems like Jones is putting in the work. He's held multiple off-site practices with his pass-catchers this offseason, and even hosted a draft night party.
He also looks jacked, if his girlfriend's Instagram is to be believed.
But Belichick usually isn't in the business of heightening expectations. He seems to be putting a lot of pressure on Jones.
Maybe it's about covering for himself. Belichick has been rightfully hammered for entrusting the offense to his under-qualified pals, Joe Judge and Matt Patricia. Championing Jones' incredible improvement before he's thrown a single pass this summer is a way to deflect attention.
Belichick's post-Brady legacy is largely dependent on Jones. Transitioning smoothly from one great quarterback to another — just like the 49ers with Joe Montana and Steve Young and the Packers with Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers — would be quite the capper on Belichick's Hall of Fame resume.
There's also the possibility that Belichick enjoys coaching Jones more than he liked coaching Brady at the end. Keep in mind: Belichick showered praise on Jimmy Garoppolo, too. Remember all of that talk about how the transition from Brady to Garoppolo was "seamless?"
Meanwhile, Garoppolo's teammates were calling him a "b—" behind his back.
Years ago, an anonymous Patriots assistant told sportswriter Ian O'Connor the Patriots could win with "any top-15 quarterback." Seth Wickersham's tell-all Patriots book includes an anecdote about how Belichick used to grumble to associates about Brady's celebrity, wishing he could coach a less glamorous QB, like Philip Rivers.
Now, Belichick has what he wants.
It's been an unusual Patriots offseason for multiple reasons. Belichick's unbridled optimism about his quarterback is at the top of the list.
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Mut's debut in the booth: WEEI's Mike Mutnansky hopped into the Red Sox booth Sunday and provided color commentary for the first time. It was a dream come true for the kid from Pepperell who used to announce whiffle ball games in his backyard.
On my "Sports Media Mayhem" podcast, Mut said he tried to bring more of a talk radio mentality to the booth, and credited his partner Will Flemming for making the job easy.
"He let me basically host a talk show," said Mutnansky. "Some of the stuff we talked about, there are broadcasters in any sport who would've been very sensitive to being a little negative right now, Bogaerts and Devers falling apart. He was great with it. It was a fun broadcast to do being a talk show host, joking about what's going on on the field and a relatively boring game, 8-4, and talk about bigger picture stuff. So it was fun."
For years, we've spoken about the need to make baseball broadcasts more conversational. It's been great to hear that put into practice.
Watch out for Patriots spin: One way to tell whether an NFL analyst is receiving their spin directly from the bowels of Gillette Stadium is how they talk about the Patriots' bizarre coaching staff.
For example: Robert Griffin III keeps talking about how it's an advantage for the Patriots to lack an offensive coordinator, because teams won't know how to prepare for them. To back up his strange thesis, Griffin pointed to the Patriots' previous successes without official coordinators, such as when they went 14-2 in 2010.
There's one problem with Griffin's thinking, though: the 2010 Patriots featured Brady under center. This team doesn't. That's the difference!
Any point of view that ignores Brady isn't worth the time.
When did the Celtics call about Durant?: ESPN's Brian Windhorst said this week Boston's reported offer to the Nets for Kevin Durant was "likely made weeks ago." And he's probably right. We learned that Durant asked for a trade on June 30. So it makes sense that Boston called around that time.
So why is this just coming out now? Whenever news is leaked, it's worth asking whom it benefits. In this case, the Nets might be trying to generate some pressure on the Celtics and other teams in an effort to resuscitate the Durant sweepstakes.
Jaylen Brown's hurt feelings are just an unintended casualty.
