What Did Patriots Coach Bill Belichick Have To Say Before Practice Yesterday?

Yesterday Bill Belichick addressed the media before the Patriots hit the practice field…

Here is the official transcript: (via Patriots.com)

BB: Well, we’re underway here at camp. Hopefully today the weather holds, gives us a good opportunity to work in some inclement weather, which we can always use, so that’ll be good. Again, as I said the other day I think the team is in pretty good condition, saw that yesterday. Hopefully, we can just string them together, which we need to do, string a lot of them together and just take it day-by-day, keep improving every single time we go out on the field. There’s no shortcut to it.

Q: What are your thoughts on Kevin Faulk as the newest member of the Patriots Hall of Fame?

BB: Great choice. Kevin did a tremendous job. He was here when I got here so I didn’t draft him, but he basically spent his whole career playing for me and he did everything we ever asked him to do. One of the most unselfish players I’ve ever coached, a guy who really understood his role, did a great job in his very important role. It was very significant what he did. [He was a] dependable player, unselfish team player, played some of his best football in the biggest games. [He’s] very deserving. I’m proud to have coached him.

Q: You’ve often embraced inclement weather because ultimately it is out of your control. Is that something you developed from coaches that you’ve worked under previously in your career?

BB: We didn’t have much choice. In Detroit we had a dome, but Denver, Baltimore, the Giants; those had no options. I guess there are options now, but football is football to me.

Q: What will change if you end up having to practice inside?

BB: We’re not going inside. Forget about that.

Q: Is everything fine with Jamie Collins after his absence from practice yesterday?

BB: Yeah, he was excused. He’s here. No issues.

Q: How much is your preparation throughout the offseason altered by the limited number of practices you are allowed these days as opposed to years ago?

BB: Well, the way we look at it Tom [Curran] is we have a certain amount of time, whatever that is, and we try and make the most of that time. So, whether that’s in the spring, in the fall, in training camp, meeting time, practice time, whatever it is, we try to make the most of it. A lot of things are considered. We have players at different experience levels. We have priorities of getting individuals ready, getting units ready, getting the team ready. There are certain things that we need to do, there are certain things that we have to prepare for in terms of our opponents. We just try and balance all of those things out and make the best use of the time that we have.

Q: How much does the tenor of practice change tomorrow when you finally put on the full pads?

BB: Again, whatever we can do we’ll try and make the most out of it. It’s no different than in the season when we have padded opportunities and we have non-padded opportunities. Whatever we have, we have and we just try and make the most out of whatever those opportunities are. It’s really as simple as that. If we have 10 days of practice then we spread it out over 10 days. If we have 20, we look at 20. If we have five, we do it over five. It is what it is.

Q: How important is the continuity that you’ve been able to maintain amongst your coaching staff over the past several seasons?

BB: Those guys do a great job, but if you’re talking about success over 15 years you’ve got Charlie [Weiss] and Josh [McDaniels], Billy [O’Brien] and Josh, Romeo [Crennel], Dean [Pees], Matt [Patricia], Brad Seely, Scott O’Brien, so there’s been multiple coordinators over that timeframe.

Q: But this group in particular has been together for about three or four years now.

BB: Yeah look, these guys do an excellent job. I’m very blessed to have an excellent staff. We’ve got some coordinators, we have a good coaching staff, we have coaches that have a variety of experience. Dante [Scarnecchia], Ivan [Fears], Ernie [Adams]; guys like that and then there are other coaches that have only been here for a year, or less than a year, or two years that are in there early to mid-twenties, whatever it is, and many in between. It’s a mix. It gives me a lot of different opinions, perspectives. They do a good job. They work hard. They work well together. They’re team-oriented. The team gets better consistently, so we’re very fortunate to have them.

Q: Has Dante picked up right where he left off?

BB: Yeah, pretty much.

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