Devin McCourty passionately makes the case for Mac Jones: "He's the future of New England"

BOSTON -- Devin McCourty isn't sure if he'll be playing football for the Patriots anymore, as he's been spending the offseason giving a real thought to retirement. Yet regardless of whether or not he plays, McCourty has no doubt that the team is in good hands with Mac Jones at quarterback.

Sitting in as a guest host on "Good Morning Football" on NFL Network, McCourty was asked for his thoughts on Jones. McCourty put his full weight behind his endorsement of the QB.

"I'm excited for Mac. I think sky's the limit. I think he's the future of New England," McCourty said. "Any doubts, I think you're wrong if you don't think that. I think he's the future."

McCourty noted that Jones really didn't have an ideal situation last year, with Matt Patricia, Joe Judge and Bill Belichick running the offense -- "all guys who are new to calling actual offense." The hiring of Bill O'Brien, though, has McCourty confident that Jones' third year will be much better than his second.

"[O'Brien has had] great success, has done well everywhere he's been offensively. He gets to come in and now work with Mac," McCourty said. "He's gonna have stability around him. I think the team is gonna go get another guy to be a receiver in that offense, hopefully, bring my guy Jakobi Meyers back and be a part of it. But I'm excited."

A 12-time captain, McCourty certainly understands what it means to be a leader for the Patriots. And he's said he observed Jones essentially being a captain as a rookie before formally getting voted as a captain last year. Despite various reports indicating Jones might have "rubbed some people the wrong way," McCourty said that nobody in the building is questioning Jones' leadership.

"I think some of the rumblings that always come out, we always talk about this, 'Sources say Mac Jones rubbing people the wrong way.' Who? Did he rub somebody the wrong way in a meeting? Probably before. Have people left meetings and said, 'Man, Dev's an A-hole today'? Yeah," McCourty said. "Because what I love about Mac is Mac came into a leadership role as a quarterback, and he speaks to what he thinks. He speaks about, 'Hey man, I don't like this play, I want to do this play.' Same thing when I was in there, when I'm in there and I'm like, 'I don't like this play.' Because we're the guys out there. And I think what people don't always understand in our locker room, Bill pushes that. If you don't like something, we're in a captain's meeting every week. If you don't like something, tell us, we'll throw it out. Because what's the point of players going out there and saying as soon as that call comes in -- Mac wears the green dot, I wear it on defense. I hate when a call comes in and I'm like, 'Hey fellas, I know we hate this call, but the call is XYZ.' Like, no one wants to be out there with that. So I think Mac has all the intangibles and the things that you want in a quarterback. He's only in his second year going into his third year. Third offensive coordinator. Hopefully, Billy O is there for a while, and I think you'll see the true growth."