Patriots: Bill Belichick brings up Tom Brady when asked about tailoring offense to Cam Newton

Patriots HC Bill Belichick brought up Tom Brady while discussing Cam Newton after the team’s Week 1 win over Miami.

Patriots fans nervous as to what the offense would look like with Cam Newton under center surely had their concerns quelled after his surgical showing in Week 1 against Miami. It’s clear that offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels catered the system almost exclusively to the three-time Pro Bowler’s mobility.

Though we were marginally surprised with the college feel to the Patriots’ offense — it featured a ton of zone reads, as Newton rushed 15 times for 75 yards and two scores — it makes complete sense to attack Miami that way in the new-look O’s big debut. After all, the Phins have grown accustomed to playing New England with a quarterback in Tom Brady who offered almost nothing from a scrambling standpoint.

Well, in his postgame interview, head coach Bill Belichick was unsurprisingly asked about tailoring the offense to Newton’s dynamism. What reporters weren’t expecting, however, was the coaching legend bringing up his former quarterback immediately.

As appropriate as Belichick referencing Brady was given the context of the question, we honestly weren’t expecting the former to mention the latter this season. When players leave New England, no matter how strong his relationship was with them or how much success they enjoyed together, the 68-year-old hardly ever mentions them by name. And if he does, it certainly doesn’t come this soon into a new season.

This wasn’t Belichick taking a dig at the three-time MVP’s lack of mobility, either. The duo formed one of the most dominant dynasties in sports history with an offense that revolved predominantly around picking apart defenses in the pocket.

As for how the two six-time champions fared in their first game apart, Belichick got a big divisional win, while Brady and Tampa Bay were trounced on the road against New Orleans.

Fans in New England shouldn’t read too much into Belichick’s mention of Brady during the postgame video conference. If it develops into a constant theme moving forward, however, then we would begin speculating that he’s sending a subliminal message to his former gunslinger.

One thing’s for sure, though: We’d rather build an offense around Cam Newton than TB12 so far in 2020.