With Tom Brady, center, out for the season, Matt Cassel, left, is going to be relying heavily on his mentor for advice.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

In the days leading up to and in the moments after his first career start, quarterback Matt Cassel spoke of Tom Brady and the advice Brady had been giving him.

The tutoring isn’t likely to stop anytime soon.

On his conference call yesterday, Patriots coach Bill Belichick said that while Brady’s main focus in the weeks and months ahead will be on rehabbing his left knee, he’ll be around Gillette Stadium to dispense advice to Cassel and the other quarterbacks.

“Tom’s always been great about helping other players and being part of the team, or being part of whatever we’re doing,” Belichick said, adding that Brady was in the quarterbacks’ meeting on Saturday, as the group made its final preparations for the Jets game.

One of the things Brady told Cassel in the days leading up to the game was to have fun.

“We had many different conversations on many different aspects of the game,” Cassel said after leading New England past New York, 19-10. “His big advice was to go out there, manage the game, be smart with the football, and that we have enough good players on this team to win if I do that.”

There won’t be a set schedule for Brady, but Cassel seems glad to have him around, as is Belichick.

“I’m sure that Tom will continue to be involved like he always has. To what degree, what the time frame is and the structure of it, that’s not in place and it will change during the course of the year,” Belichick said. “The things he’s doing now — there will be different points in his rehab where there will be different areas it will be focused on, different time frames and so forth. We’ll just have to take it as it comes.”

Having Brady with him in the film room as Cassel prepares for, say, the Chargers in Week Six, will likely be invaluable.

Quick kicks

Fans weren’t the only ones impressed by Adalius Thomas’ 20-yard sack of Brett Favre. Belichick said he thought it was pretty impressive, too. Thomas “is a strong, powerful guy and I think it showed on that play.” …What makes Wes Welker so tough to bring down after the catch? “He has good balance and he’s a hard guy to wrap up and tackle. He’s similar but different from Troy Brown, who was another smaller type of guy who was hard to tackle. It’s a combination of quickness, running style and vision.” … Belichick has checked in with friend and former New England offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, who tore his ACL and MCL after being taken out on the sideline by one of his own Notre Dame players on Saturday. “That was a tough hit,” Belichick said.

smanza@projo.com