What Did Patriots Coach Bill Belichick Have To Say Before Practice Yesterday?
By Cyrus Geller
Q: Kamu Grugier-Hill seems like he has been picking things up well at linebacker. How do you feel like he has progressed?
BB: Good. He’s smart. He’s a smart kid and he’s played; he started off at safety, he’s played linebacker, so he has some experience working on those positions which is a lot of coverage responsibility, a lot of adjustments. You can call him a safety, or a linebacker, or whatever you want to call him but there are certain times when he’s going to be in more of one area than the other even though he might be playing the same position but by formation, by adjustment, or whatever it happens to be. We’ll see how it goes. I think he’s more of a third and fourth-down player. I’m not saying he doesn’t have a role on early downs, but I think he has a bigger role on third and fourth-down at least at this point, so we’ll see how it goes. But he’s picked things up well. He’s been productive. Kind of like Brandon King, he runs well and he has some length at linebacker, or at that position, linebacker, safety, whatever you want to call it. He’s got some length and those things work to his advantage.
Q: Does his versatility make him a little more valuable because you may not have to take him off the field in certain situations?
BB: Possibly. We’ll see. Again, I think he’s got some good skills, some skills that can translate to the kicking game, that can translate to passing situations on defense. We’ll see how it all plays out. I don’t know, I think it’s a little too early to start getting the bust ready for Canton [Pro Football Hall of Fame]. I think we’ll just take it one day at a time, but he has good things to work with. Again, it’s kind of Brandon King-ish from a skillset standpoint, 215, 220 pounds, can run, hit.
Q: There was a player donning the white number 43 jersey [Matthew Slater] out on the field yesterday. What did you think of him?
BB: He looked pretty fast, didn’t he? It was a good shout out to Nate [Ebner]. I hope he’s doing well.