Bill Belichick Impressed With ‘Professional’ Darrelle Revis

Bill Belichick took to the podium before the Patriots practiced today, and touched on a number of subjects. Among them he spoke about star cornerback Darrelle Revis, and how he has looked thus far in New England. He also elaborates on the new rules regarding practices, and how it is harder to get his team ready with fewer practices.

On Revis:

"Revis has been fine. He’s worked hard; smart guy. I’ve been impressed with him. Very professional. Has a good understanding of the game, he’s a smart player and he’s had a real good focus and instinct. He’s a smart player scheme-wise but he knows how to play. He’s a very instinctive player."

On fewer practices:

"Yeah, sure. You get less looks. But it’s a level field. We’re not practicing any less than anybody else is. When I was with the Giants, we had, I remember going into, that was only four preseason games, we were in the 50s, in terms of practices prior to the first regular season game. Fifty whatever it was, two, three, four, however the year fell, somewhere in that area. We’re about half that now, less than half that now I’d say. We’re in the low 20s, mid-20s, somewhere in there. Yeah, the opportunities are less. But I’d say the offseason is greater. The spring probably takes on more importance; those 13 days of OTAs and minicamp are again, relative to the ‘80s, the time I was with the Giants, that’s more than we did then."

On watching Gronkowski:

"I don’t know. We evaluate every player every day. Rob has been out there. We’ll do what we’ve been doing with him the last two days and what we always do."

It was interesting to me how Belichick noted that the spring practices are even more important now, due to the cutting down of training camp sessions. He mentioned yesterday that the spring is used more as a teaching tool, which has to be a result of placing more importance on those camps than they used to. They can’t get any teaching done in training camp anymore, due to the shortened time, which forces them to teach in the spring.

As for his comments on Revis, I personally think those words were Belichick’s equivalent of “WE GOT REVIS, WE GOT REVIS.”

Well, maybe not that enthusiastic. However it is obvious that he likes Revis as a player (who doesn’t?), and is looking forward to seeing how he performs on the field in the coming months. Every person that has talked about Revis in the NFL world has pointed out how professional he is, which is commendable. You can’t find too many players like him nowadays, so it is nice to see a player that talented, to have class as well.