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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Tom Brady will be back under center for the New England Patriots (3-1) Sunday afternoon in Cleveland against the Browns. We know that because head coach Bill Belichick uncharacteristically offered up that information at the unfathomably early date of July 27, as the notorious information vice mapped out his plan for the quarterback position for the summer and early season in light of Brady's four-game Deflategate suspension.
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But, now that the return of the four-time Super Bowl champion and future Hall of Famer is here, few in Foxborough seem to really want to talk much about his return.
In his early-week conference call with the New England media, Belichick said it would be "pure speculation" to predict what Brady's impact on the team might be.
By midweek, with Brady not yet technically back on the roster and forgoing his traditional Wednesday press conference as the team's starting quarterback, Belichick was asked seven specific questions about his quarterback and deflected each. The coach only mentioned Brady by name when asked if Brady seemed ready, saying, "You'd have to ask Tom how he's personally feeling. That's something that I can't answer." Which wasn't actually an option open to the media.
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels was a bit more willing to acknowledge Brady's return.
"It was four weeks and it felt like it went fast and Tommy is ready to go and looks ready to go," McDaniels said. "Like I said, we'll see how everything goes tomorrow at practice and kind of just build one day at a time as we go through the week."
It can't hurt that Brady returns against a winless Browns squad that has the NFL's 25th-ranked defense. The hope is that the veteran passer can slide right back into his comfortable role leading an offense that has familiar weapons like tight end Rob Gronkowski, wide receivers Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola as well as newcomers tight end Martellus Bennett and wide receiver Chris Hogan.
"It's going to be as normal as it could be," McDaniels said of the work week. "The biggest thing is to go through our preparation as we normally do to prepare for the opponent and to prepare for what our game plan is and how we want to execute it, and go out there and use our opportunities on the field to execute and to get back into playing football. And being around his teammates and running our offense and doing the things that we ask the quarterback to do here. I don't see it being much different in terms of a normal game week.
"We're going to do the best we can to prepare and take every opportunity in practice and take advantage of all the reps that we have in the periods that we can be out there working together to just make sure that Tom is as capable on Sunday to do his job."
Team captain Gronkowski stood in for Brady doing a press conference at the podium in the quarterback's stead, and said he expected the same old guy he's worked with for seven years to be working this week in New England.
"It's just like any other time, man," Gronkowski said. "He competes no matter what, no matter who he is playing, no matter who it's against. If it's just practice week at camp or he's going against an opponent, he's ready to compete at any time, which makes him so great. And it's just like any other week now. We have to prepare for the Browns as an offense and we have to go out there and execute as a team."
Clearly, though, Gronkowski is happy to see his offensive leader return to the huddle, especially after dealing with his own hamstring injury and catching just a single pass in the first four games.
"It's always exciting. He's the leader of our offense. He's a great player, and it's exciting to get TB back, man," Gronkowski said. "We've got to prepare every single week to the max, so it's just like any other week, except Tom's back at quarterback baby!"
Getting Brady back is a positive, but certainly not a cure-all, which Belichick is clearly trying to impress upon his team and the media.
"We have to continue to approach this game like we always have. I don't think the approach is going to change at all. It's no mystery what Tom means to this organization, but that guarantees us nothing moving forward," safety Devin McCourty said. "This is the ultimate team sport. As a team, if we don't prepare and play well, it doesn't matter who we have on the team. This is about all 53 guys on the active roster and 10 men on the practice squad doing what they need to do in order to give us a chance to compete week in and week out."
Regardless of what Belichick will or won't admit, Brady's return should have a positive impact on his team and its chances to win games, beginning with the issue at hand that the coach is fixated on this week.
"We're focused on Cleveland this week, period; Cleveland," Belichick declared.
--Tight end Rob Gronkowski missed the first two games of the year to a hamstring injury suffered in joint practices with the Bears on Aug. 15. He returned to see just 14 snaps, primarily as a blocker, in a Week 3 Thursday night win over the Texans. Last weekend, his snap total increased to 39 (70 percent) in Sunday's loss to the Bills, when he notched his first catch of the season for just 11 yards.
"Obviously, it's holding me back," Gronkowski said of the injury. "I missed the first two games, didn't play that much the third one, and played more the fourth one, so I've been progressing every single week, every single day, and hopefully this week now it's go time.
"Coming back, you just can't go full speed, 100 percent. I mean, I wish I could. I wish it was like that, just boom, I'm healthy. Boom, go out there and run full speed. But I've just got to take it slowly, make sure I'm coming back strong, coming back the right way so everything on your body feels good. When I can get rolling, I'm gonna be rolling."
