| |
BB: Good morning. What are you working on
today? No important announcements from this end.
Q: For this season, what specifically are
you looking for from Tom Brady, at this point in his career, to build off of
and improve on? What should he be working on?
BB: I think at this point every player should
be focused on the same thing, which is [at] the start of training camp
rebuilding and establishing their fundamentals and getting their practice
performance, and ultimately their game performance, up to the highest level
that it can be at. That goes for everybody, rookies, veterans, 15-year
veterans, two-year veterans, six-year veterans, it's all the same. I don't
think training camp is a good time to start talking about career goals and
records and all of that. I think it is a time to learn the plays, get their
footwork and throwing mechanics down, get their reads, start working on
timing with the individual receivers and that transcends into all of the
other positions. I think that is what all of the player's goals should be
right now, is taking yesterday's practices, listening to the corrections,
watching the film, seeing what we can do better going out on the field
today, improving in those areas that we addressed from yesterday. We are
going to be installing new things and different situations will come up,
understanding what we want to try to do in those situations when they occur
and then when they come up in practice today then go out and be able to
focus and execute on those and then start the whole process all over again
tomorrow. I don't think in terms of any long term, 'This is a big goal,' or
anything. Right now the goal is to just learn the system, get our
techniques and fundamentals down and start working with all of the people
that we are going to be working with at all of the positions. I'm not
saying this specifically to the quarterback. Whether it is the offensive
line, the secondary, the linebackers, the snapper, holder and the kicker, it
doesn't matter. It has been six months since we played football really at a
high, competitive level and there is no shortcut to it. We need to go out
there and work on that on a daily basis.
Q: With every player do you think about,
'Okay, he's been here five years. I want to give him something else to keep
him motivated?' Every player should be motivated.
BB: I think the time to really focus on some
of those individual [goals], is when the offseason starts, which is in April
in this case. We sit down with each player and say, 'Okay, here is where
you are, both last year and maybe within your career. Here are the things
that you need to focus on this year in the offseason that you can improve on
specifically, whether it is a technique thing, whether it is learning a new
position.' Whether it is, for younger players, gaining strength. Whether
it is if a guy had an injury problem, maybe it is rehabbing an injury or
doing preventive training to hopefully keep it from occurring again,
whatever it is. For those months, April, May, June and July, although there
is a little bit of teamwork going on in May and early June, but the majority
of those four months, those players can focus on those specific things that
can help them, gaining lower body strength, working on improving
flexibility, whatever it is. Then, put those into place when training camp
begins after those four months of work in those specific areas. I think for
the most part when you get to players who are in the middle part of their
career, years five through 10 lets say, a big part of that is maintenance
and getting back to the level that they were at the year before. For the
most part, everybody can improve and there are always a lot of little things
that every player can do, I'm not saying that. Players that have played
five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 years, it is not a question of, 'You need
to work on some ball drills and start learning how to catch the ball.' If
they can't catch the ball at that point then they wouldn't be at that
level. [There are] a lot of little things, maybe some scheme things that we
are changing that we can look at in the offseason and do some film study or
work some individual routes with receivers and that kind of thing, but it
all really has to take place from here going forward.
Q: Do you have a common way to deal with
adversity or things that could be deemed negative or distractions to the
team? Is there some way that you handle it specifically?
BB: I'm not really sure how you define
adversity. There certainly are changes that anytime you have a large group
of people in whatever you are doing, you are going to have some changes
within that group, whatever they are, not just individually, but somehow in
the interaction within the group, especially if you bring new people in and
take them out like you have in professional football. I don't know if that
is adversity or not. Part of that is just the way the game is. Everybody
goes through it. Just through the decision making process, you try to gain
as much of a knowledge as you can on the situation and get as much
information as you can acquire through your assistant coaches, through what
you see, maybe rely a little bit on past experience if you've encountered a
similar situation. I don't think that is necessarily a prerequisite, but if
it is something that you deal with every year, if it is the same problem,
you can certainly refer back to that as somewhat of a reference point and
make the best decision you can based on the information and the knowledge
that you have. I don't think there is anything scientific to it.
Q: When you are dealing with a team and
there is an issue, whether it be a holdout or something like that, is it
just 'Move on', put it on the 'Pay it no mind list?'
BB: I think there are things that are team
related and I think there are things that are individual related. If you
are injured and have a pulled hamstring, there's nothing I can do about it. You have to deal with it. You have to rehab it. You have to get back out
on the field. You have work with the trainers and the strength coach to do
that. To me, it is not very good use of my time or energy to sit there and
worry about what you're doing any more than it is your job to worry about
whether or not I know my pass protection assignments. That is my job and
there is an accountability to that and there is no short cut to it. So,
every player on the team has to take it upon himself to do the things that
he needs to do to perform well and that is get in condition, know his
assignment, know the proper technique and understand the overall concept of
where he fits in on any particular play or situation. It could be a
substitution. It's not just one play. It could be whatever that aspect of
that game is that we are working on. That all has to be done by each
individual player himself. I wish there was a shortcut to it, but there
aren't any. I get those questions all the time, 'What pill can I take to
pass the running test?' There isn't any. Either you go out and get in shape
and you are in condition to run the test or you're not. If that was all
there was to it, I'd be playing. That is not what it's about. It's about
putting in the sweat equity and preparation to get yourself to a point where
you can compete at a very high level and every single player has to do
that. [Strength and Conditioning Coach] Mike Woicik can't do it for the
players in getting conditioned. The player has to go out there and run and
sweat and get their muscles and their body in condition to go through a
National Football League practice and season. There is no shortcut to it. Coaches can stand there and [Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Line Coach]
Dante [Scarnecchia] can read a guy's assignment to him 500 times, but until
the player applies himself and learns it and knows how to apply it into
different situations that it comes up, it doesn't make any difference
whether Dante knows it or not. It doesn't make any difference if Mike
Woicik is in condition or not. It matters whether the players can take that
and transfer it to themselves so that they can become [conditioned] and give
themselves and opportunity to compete, again, at a very high level. You
have a lot of guys out there that all kind of want the same thing. There
are a lot of guys that want to be at running back. There are a lot of guys
that want to play on the offensive line. There are a lot of guys that want
to play linebacker. The best ones are going to play. It is very
competitive.
Q: You have a group of second year players
who, for whatever reason, didn't get a lot of playing time last year. How
do you view those guys? How do you treat them? They aren't rookies
anymore, but they also aren't really experienced.
BB: I think it's pretty much the way you
described it. They know a little more than the rookies do because they have
at least been through a year and they have some idea of how the program
works, a little bit about the National Football League, a little bit about
being a professional football player for the Patriots, but they don't have
the on field game experience that some of their teammates have. The only
way they can get that is to go out there and earn that opportunity and role
in a practice setting and then when the opportunity comes in game
conditions, to show what they can do and take advantage of it. You're
right. There are a number of players and how much they are actually able to
use what they learned last year and apply it to this year, that remains to
be seen. There is certainly an opportunity for them to do that. Some guys
absorb more than others.
Q: But is there definitely an expectation
of what they should have taken from the year being around and in meetings?
BB: Regardless of what the expectations are,
it comes down to evaluating their performance because, every player that I
think you are referring to, is going to be in some type of competition with
other players who maybe have more or less experience. But in the end, it is
going to come down to what they are able to do and perform out there with
their opportunities. I'm not that worried about the expectations. I'm a
lot more concerned about what it actually looks like they are able to go out
there and do and what their performance is.
Q: One of those guys is Marquise Hill. How
different does he look this year?
BB: I think he is way ahead of where he was
last year. No question about that. He's had a good offseason. He came out
as a junior, so he had one less year of college football than some other
guys. That is just the way it is. I think that he has developed both
physically and from an understanding point of view in this league, that he
has made good improvement. Again, he is going to have to carry that from
the spring camps and the first couple of days of training camp and sustain
that through an extended period of time here in the next five to six weeks,
as they all will.
Q: Have you maturity or a difference in
work ethic from P.K. Sam?
BB: I think P.K. Sam had a really good
offseason. I think that he accomplished a lot and put himself in a much
more competitive position than he was in last year due to his work and his
effort both on the field and in the classroom and in the weight room. Again, he was another player that came out a year early, and so there is
certainly a maturization as a football player in that year when guys are 20,
21 years old. There is still a lot of 'football' growing up to do
regardless of whatever their performance level is. I would put him in with
Marquise, Cedric [Cobbs], Guss [Scott], Benjamin [Watson.] I think all of
those guys have worked hard. I would say every one of them has had a good
offseason, good to very good offseason and that they are way ahead of where
they were they last year and that they should perform a lot better than they
did last year based on the offseason. How that actually plays out, of
course we will have to wait and see.
Q: Can you see some of the work ethic from
Troy Brown and Deion Branch rubbing off on him?
BB: I'm sure it rubbed off on him. Yes. I'm
sure it rubbed off on him. I think from that the time that he spent with
the coaching staff, with [Wide Receivers Coach] Brian [Daboll], and Mike and
[Asst. Strength and Conditioning Coach] Harold [Nash] in terms of his
training and his technique work and again understanding the offense and all
of that, I think that it has been a combination of things. Certainly the
veteran players we have on our team, and at that position, the coaches, the
conditioning and strength coaches, I think that all of those are certainly
good resources for any player to use and the ones that use them will
generally show a lot more improvement than the ones that don't take
advantage of them.
Q: How has the maturity level of Doug
Flutie been so far?
BB: [Laughter] He's pretty mature.
Q: Where does Doug fit as a 42-year-old
professional athlete, still? Is he still flexible and quick? I know you
didn't have him last year.
BB: Yes and that is the tough thing, anytime
we get a new player in, it is hard to measure where they are because we have
no reference point. Again, with all due respect to anybody else's programs
or measurements, whether ours are right or wrong doesn't really matter. What is important is that they are the same. So, however we do it, at least
when we do it year after year after year, there is a relative common
denominator whereas another guy could vertical jump one thing and then do
something else for us and it might look like a great improvement or a real
drop off, but sometimes that is the result of the way the test was
administered or when it was done, whether it was done in March, whether it
was done in June at the end of the training cycle. Again, there are a lot
of different variables there. What we try to do is just do it consistently
from year to year so that we have a measuring stick. Not that that is the
ultimate, but at least it gives you a perspective and it give the players a
perspective, 'Okay, here's where I was in March, this year, the year
before. Here is where I was in June. Here is where I was at the start of
training camp.' Again, it is just a relative measurement. I think that
Doug, as we all know, has a lot of quickness, is a good athlete, for his
age, he is a remarkable athlete. Where he is relative to when he was 38,
when he was 35, when he was 28, when he was 22, that I'm not really sure of.
Q: Even though he has been in the league a
long time, does it surprise you at all that he still disappears behind 6'4
linemen and the play still gets executed?
BB: I don't think he really disappears behind
them though. I think that is one of Doug's real strengths, is that there
are opening there and Doug has quick feet and he has a lot of quickness
within the pocket so that he is able to position himself. He doesn't
always stand at the same point right there at the end of his drop, and he is
able to position himself and see through the openings. Even guys that are
6'3 and 6'4, it's still hard to see over other guys who are 6'3 or 6'4. You
are not really seeing over them. Even for taller quarterbacks like Brady or
[Matt] Cassel or [Rohan] Davey, there is still a part of that that is
finding the opening, because even if you could see over them, throwing over
them is another problem. Ultimately, most of the passes are thrown between
linemen as opposed to over the top of them on any type of short or
intermediate throw. Obviously if it is a long pass, it is a different
story. One of the things that Doug does well is, even though he drops back
in the pocket, he is able to move very quickly and position himself so that
he can find openings and see the field down there, which really in the end,
it is still a different style, but it's not really any different than what
other quarterbacks do. Ultimately, they just have to be able to see their
receivers and find a throwing lane to get them the ball.
Q: Are there things that Tom Brady can get
from Doug's game? Are there nuances in Doug's game that Tom might be able to
pick up?
BB: I'm sure there are. I think players can
learn from other players. How much of that then really becomes applicable to
their game, that I'm not sure of. You can certainly have respect for the
way another player performs or what he does, but then that's maybe not quite
your style and to try to go into that style sometimes is counterproductive. I think more from the standpoint of preparation, more from a mindset, 'In
this pattern, we are reading here, but I'd check him first. This is what
I'm looking for, maybe a progression. I see this, and when I see that, that
takes me off of this receiver and that is when I go over here.' Now, there
are a lot of things like that from a mental standpoint of how to read a
pattern and how to identify a coverage or maybe how to move a defender that
right now is in the way of the pattern, but if you can just relocate him or
relocate the receiver, it opens it up. I think there are a lot of little
things like that now that never grows old and it's not a question of
technique, it's more of a mental process of how to execute the play.
Q: With all of the changes that have gone
on in the offseason with Troy Brown to have him here now, does that give you
or the team some sort of comfort level?
BB: I think Troy adds a lot to this team in a
lot of different ways, both on the field and as a receiver and as a returner
in the kicking game and also just his presence and the competitiveness that
he brings as an athlete and as a football player to the team. Those are all
big positives. The amount of time that he wasn't here, it wasn't like we
were playing games or even in mini-camps. For the most part, he was here in
the team activities. Him being gone or him not being here is more a matter
of semantics than actually him physically not being here in the sessions
that we had that were pretty much team related.
Q: You spoke about Doug Flutie's
accomplishments to this point in his career. Does the same go for a guy
like Troy?
BB: There is no question that Troy has had an
outstanding career. To me, any player that can get up into the double-digit
years, that can play 10 plus years, that is a pretty good career. Regardless of what the circumstances were, what the position was, whether it
was 10 years ago, 20 years ago, or whether it is current, there aren't a lot
of people who can do that for one reason or another, whether it is ability,
whether it is durability, all kinds of different reasons why those things
don't happen, and when they do happen, I think those players are in a select
group. It's a minority group. Whether that is 10, 11, 12, 17, whatever
Flutie is, 20-something including Canada, whatever it is. That is a pretty
select group. I recognize what they've done in their career and the way I
see it, and the way I put it to them is, 'Look, we never know when those
careers are going to end. We don't know if a guy is going to play until he
is 31, 33, 35 or 37.' The only thing I will say is that those players are a
lot closer to the end of the career than they are to the beginning. You
have other players who are a lot closer to the beginning of the their career
than they are to the end. That is how I would classify them and categorize
them. There is a certain group of guys that are about in the middle of the
expectation of their careers. Really, that is kind of the prime of an NFL
player in that four to eight, nine-year range or whatever it is. Once they
start getting up into those double-digits, I'm not saying that they are near
the end. I'm not saying they're not effective. I'm not saying anything. I'm just saying they are closer to the end than they are to the beginning
and that is the truth.
Q: Having been around him for a long time,
what is his secret to longevity?
BB: He's been durable. He trains hard. He
works hard. He is a smart player. He is a very instinctive player that
knows what to do. He seems like he almost always does the right thing. That goes a long way.
Q: When it comes to signing free agent
quarterbacks, how much do you ever have to think about in the back of your
head, a worse case scenario, if Brady were to go down at some point in the
season? Would you have to address that at least in your own head?
BB: We have to have a backup at every
position, every time we play a game, every time we walk out on the field. By the second play of the game, things could change. We saw that in St.
Louis when Asante [Samuel] got hurt in the second play of the game.
Q: But particularly at quarterback.
BB: Well, it could be at any position. Quarterback, kicker, snapper, running back, it doesn't matter what it is. Again, when you only have 45 players active at the game, three of them are
quarterbacks, you have a couple of kickers, you have a long snapper, there
are six guys right there. Let's say you have seven offensive linemen, it
could be eight, but let's just call it seven for right now. That's 13. Now
you are down to 32 players, because those players are all pretty confined in
their role. You are not going to ask your kicker to play linebacker. You
are not going to ask your offensive lineman to play wide receiver. Those
guy's jobs are pretty specific. Then beyond that, you have the offensive
skill people and your defensive players to take care of offense, defense and
special teams. 32, that is just not enough people to have two for every
position. That is where it is important that you have players with
versatility and somehow you build your depth on the roster to handle all of
those different positions. You still have to have a backup kicker, a backup
snapper, but sometimes you can cover those bases with whoever the other
people are on the roster. But, you still have to have them covered. Things
like that play a part. They definitely play a part in your overall
selection of the 45-man roster.
Q: The impact is a much greater one at the
quarterback position.
BB: Well, you're asking me if I think about
it. Yes, of course I think about it. I think about it if we have three
quarterbacks how would that go because you carry a third quarterback into
the game. There are some scenarios where if you got into the fourth quarter
of a game, you might put your third quarterback in ahead of your second
quarterback, because you would still have the flexibility to comeback to
either one or two just based on the way the rules are. You wouldn't always
have to go with who your second designated quarterback is once you get to
the fourth quarter of a game if that is where the substitution were to
occur. Yes, we definitely think about it and there are a lot of different
scenarios. It is important. Every backup position is important. Every
player is important. That is why in those 45 players what we have to
identify as a coaching staff is not who is the best player, but who are the
best 45 players collectively as a group to play against this specific
opponent that we have to play this day. That doesn't mean that somebody
else wouldn't be useful if they were there, but you have to pick the 45 that
you think are going to give you the best chance and part of that is depth. Sometimes a player that can play two or three spots who isn't as good as
somebody else who is better at one spot is more valuable because of the
versatility and the depth that he gives you.
Q: You talked about the pace of training
camp back then to where it is now. What is the difference between a guy
missing one week worth of time in camp now versus in the seventies?
BB: You hit it on the head because the shorter
amount of time you have, the more important those weeks are. So, missing
two weeks out of a four-week camp obviously is a lot different than missing
two weeks out of an eight-week camp. That is important. It is important for
everybody, but it is especially important for younger players who don't have
the experience in the league and for new players who don't have experience
in your system. You really end up, for those players, and we talk about
this, for players like that, [they] then end up having training camp during
the regular season and it is just not the same and it is just not as good. We get into the regular season and we come in Monday after the game and that
is a pretty light workout. The players are off on Tuesday. We practice
Wednesday, Thursday. Friday is a lighter workout. So there are really two
heavy workdays during a regular season week. For a player who has missed
three, four or five weeks of training camp, he's really only getting two
hard work days of practice during the regular season and for him to get 10
practices in, that's over a month. Whereas, in training camp, for him to
get 10 hard, competitive practices in, you could do that in a week. The
time that is missed, it is much more important particularly with younger,
developing players.
Q: Is [Running Backs Coach] Ivan [Fears]
situation looking like a long-term situation? How is it looking with Nick Caserio working with the running backs?
BB: Nick has done an outstanding job from a
week ago working on pro personnel and going through all of those personnel
evaluations and all of that to be able to make the transition. I spoke to
Ivan last night. He is doing well. I think we will see him soon. I don't
know what soon means, as soon as he's ready, that's what it means. He'll be
back. When he is ready, he will be back. I don't think it will be that
long. |
|
