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

Q: What allows Rob Ninkovich to be such a versatile player and play both on and off the line of scrimmage?

BB: Rob’s got a great feel for the game. First of all, he’s got great physical skills. He can run, he’s athletic, he’s strong, so he can hang in there against the big guys but is athletic [enough] to play in space. Whether that be in the kicking game or as an off-the-line linebacker; you can drop him into coverage from the line of scrimmage. Mentally, he sees the game as well. He can move around, do different things. He doesn’t get bogged down. He has the ability to play in coverage, which means you have to see the game a little bit behind you in pass coverage. It’s not all in front of you, especially in zone defense. There are plays behind you. You have to have an awareness for where receivers are, where people are on the field. Mike [Vrabel] was able to do that. Junior [Seau] was able to do that, although Junior primarily played inside linebacker, but he played on the line quite a bit, rushed quite a bit. Tedy [Bruschi] certainly did that over the course of his career even though the majority of his college career was down and the majority of his pro career was up, but he showed the ability to do both of those things at a very high level. You get players that do that. Not everybody can do it but when you have one that can it is a big advantage.

Q: Is that a skill set that improves over time?

BB: Yeah, probably. Again, Lawrence [Taylor] did that, Carl [Banks] did that, Pepper [Johnson] did that in New York. I don’t think you really usually ask that guy, guys like that, to do it all at once – ‘Your first year you’re going to do all of this stuff.’ Usually it’s a progression over time due to either the player’s development, or possibly injuries or game plan situations where you need to make some variations like that. So, I’d say generally it’s a buildup over time but that’s kind of the way, but that would be kind of the way it would be anyways. Again, I don’t think there are too many players that you would want to bring into the league in year one and give him that kind of multiplicity defensively in a pretty short amount of time. I guess it could happen. I haven’t seen it too often.

Q: What went into the decision to give Shea McClellin more work on the defensive line and how do you expect him to perform there?

BB: He’s been a versatile player. Shea’s a four-down player. He’s done a good job for us at defensive end, pass rushing situations. He’s got good quickness and strength in the running game, as well. Again, you don’t need to move everybody. I don’t think you need to have six guys that all play a bunch of different positions and move around a lot. That’s kind of counterproductive, really. You need somebody that can move, or you’ve got to find your depth somewhere, but if it’s a player that has multiple position versatility then great. Then you use that player. I don’t think you need four of them.

Q: How important is it to get players working with different players and more specifically how important is it for Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppoloto be rotating who they are working with?

BB: It’s just part of training camp. There’s a balance. Players that will probably play together, you let them work together, but you never really know how that’s going to go. And in the end everybody’s got to work with everybody until those things get worked out, get declared. I don’t think we’re really in that spot yet. But, you know, you get into the season and you want a certain receiver running a certain route, a certain situation, that’s who it’s going to be. I don’t think we’re really there. Offensively, we’re just installing our offense. We don’t even have 50 percent of our red-area offense [installed], and that’s what we worked on yesterday so we’re a long way from really trying to nail down a lot of specifics. But you saw some times in practice where the quarterbacks would be working with an individual receiver, maybe during a special teams period, things like that. There’s some of that but we’re not in that full-scale mode yet.

Q: Is the idea then to get everybody working with everybody at some point over the course of camp?

BB: Yeah, definitely. Now, you know, again, there are some players – everybody can work with everybody, that’s not a problem – I’d say the knowledge base, the overall level of execution of certain things is higher in one group than it is in another group. We have some players with less experience spending more times on the basics and the fundamentals, Not that they don’t practice some of the little more sophisticated things, but that’s not the point of emphasis for them. It’s for them to work on their fundamentals and more of the basics first. But it’s a balance, it’s a tough thing in camp that you’ve got to balance, and at some point you’ve got to turn the corner and get your players that are going to be ready to play, whoever those are, ready to play. We’re not there yet, but there comes a point in camp where you have to turn that corner.

Q: Can you think of an occasion where you’ve ever clarified a starting quarterback this early into camp?

BB: I don’t know.

Q: What happens if Jimmy Garoppolo plays better?

BB: Look, I told you what’s going to happen.

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