Bill Belichick Radio Interview Transcript

WEEI
August 22, 2006

GO: Back here with Patriots Monday on a Tuesday. We've got the whole gang back. We've got Freddy, we've got Steve, we've got Pete, and of course we've got the coach of the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick. Welcome back to another season of Patriots football, Coach.

BB: It's good to be back, Glenn. Steve, Freddy, Pete—how's everybody doing?

[All answer affirmatively.]

GO: Everybody's good. They've gone to two preseason games, we haven't had any injuries here in the studio, Coach. So we're in pretty good shape. [Laughter] How about you? How do you feel after two preseason games?

BB: Well, I think we've made some progress, and I think we have a long way to go. I think that's about normal at this time of year. You never get everything done that you want to get done. There's always a lot of work to do. It's only been a few weeks in camp, it's not like we've been playing football for a couple months like we'll be saying in October. But we're a lot better than we were. We're getting there.

GO: I know we look at certain stuff like stopping the run, obviously, being able to run the football, various stuff from one week to the next—little things that fans have a tendency to pick up on. But from your point of view, what did you see from game one to game two that showed the most improvement?

BB: When you talk about things like that, a lot of times there are individual things that look good even though the team play might not be great, and vice versa—sometimes the team play looks good but you still have some individual breakdowns along the way. So there's plenty of that that goes both ways. But I thought that our overall improvement was our practice—we had a good week of practice. Our preparation for the game—there were some things that we identified in the game that we needed to do, or what to do in this situation when they give us a certain look, or a certain situation comes up—and we did those, and that was a lot better than the week before against Atlanta. I'd say a lot of little things. And there are still a lot of little things that need to be fixed. I thought our operation—the play calling, getting plays in and out, substitutions, things like that, coaching—all those were a little bit smoother, as well.

FS: After last season you guys had climbed up, and the defense had improved, everything had improved, and after you got screwed in the Denver game... [Laughter] No, after the Denver game—offensively, defensively, some good things, some bad things, some mistakes—you watched the films you break down from last year, then you go into this season and you have your checklist to correct. How much of the stuff from last year's checklist have you corrected—personnel and things of that nature—have you made improvements on?

BB: Well, you know Fred, it's so hard when you come off the game at the end of the year. The playoffs against Jacksonville and Denver—we'd been playing football for over five months at that point, and we were at a point as a team where we could do things that we're just not able to do now. There's no way to take five months of practice and preparation and meetings and games, and then take six months off and come back and start at that point. As much as you'd like to, it isn't realistic. So, we're just rebuilding it brick-by-brick, day-by-day, down after down, and I hope that in five months we'll be further ahead than we were last year at five months. I hope this year we're further along after four weeks than we were last year at four weeks. I think that's what we really have to try to do, is take it day-by-day. There's no way we can be where we were in December of last year, there's just too big a gap there. But we've got to just try to get better every day and put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward.

FS: Just some of the holes that you thought you had, you seem to have made progress in filling them from last year.

BB: I think we'll really find out about that when the regular season starts. There's not a lot of game planning going on right now, and everybody's just kind of running the stuff that everybody's familiar with and get that executed and get the players in shape and those type of things. I think how your weaknesses get attacked and how well you're able to defend them or shore them up, really won't become evident until the regular season starts.

SD: Bill, it seems like the early returns on Laurence Maroney are pretty good. Could you ever envision a scenario where you have a two-headed running attack? Or even with Kevin Faulk, a three-headed attack?

BB: I think all three players have shown they've got a lot of talent and they're very different, but I think that will be a good thing in terms of putting pressure on the defense and making them defend—even though they're the same plays—different styles of running, which then makes the plays different. So, we'll see how that goes. We've only had a couple weeks with it. I think it's interesting to a degree, and we'll see how we can make it work to our best advantage.

FS: Well, Maroney's a guy also with size. He has enough quickness and speed to break that outside pretty easily.

BB: I don't think speed will be a problem with Maroney.

FS: He can move.

PS: Hey Coach, 41 offensive plays in the first half—quite a lot, even for a preseason game. Twenty-eight, though, involving tight ends on the field—a lot of double tight end formations. Can we expect to see a lot of that for the upcoming season? It seemed to work pretty well.

BB: Well you know, Pete, we're kind of a game plan team on offense. Some weeks you see a lot of receivers, some weeks you see empty backfields, sometimes you see two backs back there, one back, so we'll just do on a weekly basis what we feel like's the best way to attack our opponent. I think what we do want to have is some flexibility and be able to create things in different personnel combinations, and be able to attack defenses in the ways that they're most vulnerable. So, a big part of that is getting everybody trained and cross-trained into not only one position, but sometimes some complementary roles so that we don't have to always substitute and we can get in and out of things from the same personnel on the field. So, I don't think we can really commit to, well, we're going to be in this formation or that formation. I think a lot of it's going to depend on...

PS: [Interrupting] We were just talking about Ben Watson again for a second. Obviously, last year we knew he could catch the ball and started to develop as a blocker, I thought, the last quarter of the season, but on Saturday night I thought his blocking—obviously, he's a great catcher—but he was outstanding, I thought, blocking down the field in Saturday night's game.

BB: Ben's worked hard on that part of the game and I think it definitely has improved. Ben's goal is to be a complete tight end where he can do everything well, whatever he's asked to do. That really puts a lot of pressure on the defense, and I think he's done that. I think Dan [Graham] is trying to do that, too. Dan has been much more effective in the passing game this year in training camp than he was a year ago, so I think he's made some strides. And Ben's done the same thing in the running game.

GO: Bill, you were just talking about setting up your offense, many times based on who you're playing, the opponent you're playing, and you haven't really game planned yet, but I wonder, overall, when you're looking at your offense, how much do you put the emphasis on where your strengths lie? Last year when you had some difficulty running the football, you passed the football a lot more. Would you change up if, for an example, your strengths happen to be in another area offensively?

BB: I think you've got to be aware of the strengths you have as a team and what you do best. I think that's where you want to be most of the time. But then, to a degree, there's certain times, if you get a good matchup, you want to try to attack your opponent's weaknesses. But I think you have to make them stop the things that you do well and not take yourself out of those. That clearly is a big part of it. I think it's a combination of those two things.

SD: Bill, because of their strange man-love for Tom Brady, Fred and Pete here [Laughter] have volunteered to donate their Patriots Monday salary to the object of signing Deion Branch. Where does Deion Branch stand right now with the Patriots?

BB: Well, you know, I'd be happy to talk about anybody who's here in camp or about this team that's currently out there on the field. Anybody's that's not here, I think everything's been said about them that could be said. And that's about it.

SD: OK.

PS: How about we talk about somebody who was outstanding, I thought, Saturday night as a receiver? Forget Deion Branch, how about Bam Childress? I mean, I thought he did a lot to make a mark on Saturday. What an improvement on him for a practice squad player to what we saw Saturday night.

BB: Bam's a very competitive player. I thought that he made a lot of improvement last year—we played him at the end of the season and he did a nice job for us against Miami. He's had a good training camp and he's been very competitive out there. He very made a nice catch down the sideline on a ball that was kind of backshouldered, thrown a little bit behind him because of where the defender's position was. Bam's a tough kid, he's got good hands, he's quick, he's competitive and he's smart—he knows how to play.

FS: Bill, last year defensive backs early on had a lot of problems. It seems like they're playing pretty well. Asante [Samuel] made some nice plays, and his coverages look like he had some nice coverages out there. Have the DBs made some strides preseason as far as, you know, you break down the films, I can only observe from TV, but to me it looks like they've been playing pretty well this preseason.

BB: I think they've worked hard and I think that fundamentally we're probably ahead of where we were last year with the defensive backs—their footwork, their position, their leverage on receivers, reactions and those kind of things. I think that Dean [Pees] and Joel [Collier] have done a good job with that group and again, the players have worked hard in a very competitive situation back there. So we'll see how all that shakes out, but I think we've got a lot of guys that are running pretty much neck and neck in one of the most competitive positions on the team.

FS: And you had a great test against Arizona with all those 6-3, 6-4 inch receivers, 6-5, and have ... 6-8 like DeOssie is ... most of those DBs are all under six feet, correct? So it's a pretty good matchup to go against a lot of physical guys in Arizona.

BB: It was. We saw a real good group of receivers there and we tried to play a lot of man coverage in the game so we could get a good evaluation of our players against some of the top receivers in the league. There were times where we had them, there were a couple times where they got us, but I thought that the defensive backs did a good job in that they stepped up, they challenged them, they tried to play physical, and we got them covered a few times. They're a tough group, but it was a good evaluation for us. It was good work, as you said, working against all those big guys. It was a little bit different than the style of some of our receivers, so it was a good experience for them.

GO: Bill, you gave [Stephen] Gostkowski the sole duties this week, and you gave him an opportunity to know days before that he...

FS: Gostkowski?

GO: What's that? You want to pronounce it?

PS: He said it right. He accidentally said it right.

GO: Fred actually said it right? Fred's been trying to get this pronunciation now for weeks, and he's had a little difficulty. But you gave him the sole responsibility of kicking this week. I wonder how this plays out with the remaining two games, and would you be reluctant to give up a roster spot and have two kickers on your roster on opening day?

BB: Well, we'll do whatever we think is best for the football team. My first year here we carried four quarterbacks and a lot of people questioned that, so...

[Whispered by one of the hosts: Borges.]

BB: ...I think we'll do whatever we feel like is best for the football team. If it's two kickers, it's two kickers. But Stephen did have an opportunity to kind of go through the last three or four days of the week kind of knowing what his situation would be, dealing with his teammates and the whole deal, making every kick, not alternating kicks and that type of thing, and I thought he handled it well. We'll take a look at the situation this week and figure out how we want to manage it against Washington. I'm not sure exactly how that will be yet, but that's one of the things we'll talk about and work out this week.

SD: Bill, how is Rodney Harrison progressing and how important is he to the success of your defense?

BB: We'd love to have Rodney back out there. He's a great player for us on and off the field, great leadership and really has a tremendous work ethic and loves the game. It's great to have a player like that on your team. So when he's ready, if he's ready, then we'll put him out there. I think that he's getting better day by day. He's certainly getting closer to being ready to participate in game situations. He's practiced and he's had some contact. When he's ready, then we'll put him out there. It will be great to see that and great to see him return to the form that we've all seen him be at. But we'll just have to see how that goes.

FS: One of the guys that I've always admired around the league, Junior Seau...

[Laughter]

GO: What? You've always admired him?

FS: You brought Junior in, and is one of the reasons that he might be familiar with your system because [he was] under [Nick] Saban down in Miami, and he would be able to simulate your schemes much easier?

BB: Junior and I talked about that. I think the terminology is pretty familiar. We were talking about it and he brought up one or two things here that he hadn't heard down there. But I think, for the most part, there's a lot of carryover in our terminology and I think that's given him a little bit of a quick start on things. But he's a pretty experienced player, he's been in a lot of defensive systems and I think that probably wouldn't matter too much with the terminology, as I think he'd be able to figure it out. But he's had a great career, and I feel like he can add something positive to the team in a number of areas. We'll start giving him some reps this week in practice and just go from there.

PS: Coach, I thought your offensive line, your first unit, was particularly strong on Saturday night as well—[Logan] Mankins, [Russ] Hochstein, Stephen Neal. And the rookie Ryan O'Callaghan, I thought, had a pretty strong game for a fifth round pick. Tom [Brady] talked about him after the game saying he was tough and somebody that is a hard worker in practice.

BB: He is. Ryan's got good size, he's very physical, and it's hard to push him back in the pocket—he's really got a good, strong base there. He's got a lot to learn. We've been through this with some other rookies on the offensive line, whether it be [Dan] Koppen, or Mankins and [Nick] Kaczur last year, that type of situation. So he's coming along. He's got a ways to go, but I think that he's making good progress. He comes from an offense that threw the ball a lot, he's got a pretty decent background in pass protection and picking up games and those type of things. I mean, it's certainly different at this level, but he had a good head start on it in college, so hopefully he'll be able to continue to make progress. You know he's getting great coaching with Dante [Scarnecchia] and those other guys on the offensive line that he's working with are helping him out, as well. So I think if he just continues to work hard and really pays attention to the advice and coaching that he's getting, that he'll come along just fine, like a lot of the other ones have at those spots.

GO: We're talking about guys who know the system defensively. Tully Banta-Cain obviously knows the system. He seemed like he played a terrific game over the weekend, Bill. Is he a guy that you could see that could break into that starting lineup and fill that need for you at that linebacker corps?

BB: We're not all that caught up in who starts and who doesn't. I think the most important thing is for players to contribute and find a way to help us win, whatever that is. But I do think that Tully has continued to improve, and he's gotten some opportunities this year that he hasn't gotten in the past, with Willie [McGinest], Mike [Vrabel] and Rosey [Colvin] kind of all there. So it's opened up a little bit of a crack for him, and he's taking advantage of those opportunities and I think he's played well. So we'll continue to build on that. And again, I think as long as Tully keeps working hard and could keep improving, that he's got some talent, and there are a lot of things that he could do on the field. I think he could help us in a number of ways. He has the ability to help us in the kicking game and can rush the passer, plays pretty strong at the line of scrimmage in the running game. So hopefully the game can come together for him and he can have a very productive season.

SD: Coach, how is Tedy Bruschi coming along, and was the Junior Seau signing anything to do with an insurance policy along those lines?

BB: I think Tedy's—I talked to him this morning—I think he's coming along. We'll just see how it goes there. He's in kind of the day to day situation, as well. He's not going to play in preseason, but we'll evaluate things in another ten days or so, whatever it is, before the start of the regular season, and see where he's at at that point.

FS: Any dark horses that [have] come out that have surprised you? Low round draft picks or free agents that have stepped up and made a name for himself in camp that we haven't heard about?

BB: Well, you know one of our low-round picks was from last year. We've given [Matt] Cassel a lot of opportunity at quarterback. For a seventh round pick, a guy who played behind the Heisman Trophy winner there last week, I think that he's shown some positive things here in training camp and preseason games. I know it's last years seventh round pick, but I think that's a guy who's really worked hard in the offseason and has shown a lot of improvement. I think that everybody's got a lot of confidence in that.

FS: How's his preseason? Is his preseason going well?

BB: I think he might lead the league in passing, Fred.

[Laughter]

FS: No. But I know it's pretty good...

BB: No, I'm serious. I'm not trying to be funny.

[Laughter and crosstalk]

PS: He looked pretty good on Saturday.

FS: Because you hear reports, you know, the first game we looked at here: 225 yards passing. But he made some wrong reads. You can't tell by the paper. I don't know what type of game plan he's looking at.

GO: Let me ask you this question, Bill, because there have been some people who have been critical wondering why the Patriots have not brought in a veteran quarterback to backup [Tom] Brady. It must be obvious that you're seeing something in this guy that shows that he's got a lot more savvy than maybe experience right now in the league.

BB: Right. Well, I'm not saying we will or won't have somebody else, young or old. Again, we'll do what's best for our football team. We just have to try to make those decisions based on what's available and what our needs are and how everybody's doing. But I think the most important thing in this training camp was, not only for the coaches, but the team and his teammates, to see where Matt Cassel is. Where is he when he walks into the huddle in terms of knowing the offense, knowing what to do, knowing what calls to make, and his teammates having confidence in him and him being able to execute the offense. I think that in two preseason games, which isn't a full body of work, but he's had quite a few snaps. He's shown that he's way ahead of last year, and I think that he's made progress, given where he was last year in the Miami game, that that was a good step from what we saw in preseason. And that this year in preseason it's been a move up from the Miami game at the end of the year last year. So I think that's encouraging. Matt works as hard as anybody—Tom [Brady] and Josh McDaniels and those guys that are working with him on a day to day basis. He's been very diligent in his preparation and in trying to improve things and I think that that's starting to show up, or has definitely shown up, out there on the field. Hopefully he'll continue to get better.

FS: Another guy that made big improvements since last year is [Vince] Wilfork. From the beginning of the season to the end of the season, his reads and his ability to get off blocks ... he's as good a nose tackle two-gapping as I've seen at the end of the year.

PS: He abused that center on Saturday night.

FS: Yeah. Abused him. Is he now take the next step to the top of the heap?

BB: He's certainly taken a big step up this year in training camp. He's played for us since his rookie year. He's been a strong player for us and it's just gotten better all the time. We've asked him to do some different things and he's been able to pick those up, but I think that he did a couple things in that Arizona game that were pretty impressive. A little bit unusual, too. Like you said, pushing people around and making plays from the back side and all that.

FS: His hand control off center, he gets them on real well, locks them out. I mean, just fundamentally, real sound.

BB: Just like you used to do it, Fred.

PS: Without the offside...

[Laughter and crosstalk]

SD: With [Eric] Mangini taking off to the Jets...

[Whispered by one of the hosts: He's dead to me now.]

SD: ...you've got some coaches in different positions, different responsibilities. How are they handling their first training camps with new responsibilities?

BB: I think the staff is going well, Steve. I think they've worked well together. There's a lot of carryover from the people here. Matt Patricia was with us on offense and slid over to defense, but again, just has an understanding of how we do things and preparation and break down film and all that. He's right on top of that. I think he's doing a good job with those guys. Some of the coaches like Pete Mangurian, who was here last year, but I think he's done a great job with the tight ends. Especially some of the new kids we've got working there—they've gotten the benefit of a lot of individual and personalized attention. That's been great for them, too. So I think it's definitely coming together. We're not exactly in mid-season form, either. It's only been two games. We've got to keep working on how quickly we make our sideline adjustments and see things and substitutions and situations and all that. That's part of it for us, too. But I feel good about the coaching staff and their work ethic and their preparation of the players.

PS: Coach, coming up this Saturday night against Washington, because you're not playing on opening night for a change on that Thursday, I had heard you might treat the fourth preseason game like you would the third preseason game as far as allowing your starters to play a little bit more. Is that going to be the case on Saturday?

BB: Well, I think that we want to move along in this game against Washington and we'll worry about the Giants next week. But I think that our guys have gotten some ... gradually increased their playing time the first two games. In certain cases I'd like to do that—take a third step with some of those guys in this game. Not necessarily everybody, because I think we have different—different players have different needs. But particularly the younger guys—I think that I'd like to see them play a little bit longer, so I think that we'll definitely see that some this week. And then I think we do have an opportunity next week though against the Giants, because it's still ten days before the opener. It's a little bit different situation than we've had the last couple years where we were on a seven day week and had to make the final cut and all that. It was a little bit tighter than what it'll be this year.

GO: Is it safe to say that Junior Seau would play this Saturday?

BB: Well, we'll see how it goes, Glenn. I think that he would like to play. He wanted to play Saturday against Arizona. But we'll see how things go this week. I think if he gets enough rest and he's ready that I would like to put him in there, but I want to make sure that he's prepared and ready to play before he steps on the field.

FS: In all this conversation we forgot the most important thing. How's [Tom] Brady looking? [Laughter and crosstalk] How has he been looking?

BB: I think Tom's Tom. He's one of our most consistent players. He's always prepared and works as hard as anyone. I think that he's very much in command of our offensive system. He and Josh [McDaniels] work well together on the play calling and adjustments, audibles and things like that. Tom's Tom. There's no quarterback I'd rather have than Tom Brady.

GO: Feel better now, Fred?

FS: I agree with him.

GO: Every week during our conversation with the Coach, we'll feature our Eastern Mass. Volkswagen Dealers' Question of the Week. We don't have one this week, but starting August 24th visit an Eastern Mass Volkswagen dealer, fill out an entry form, or logon to WEEI.com's Football Contest page, you can give your question right there. And at the end of the year, your Eastern Mass Volkswagen dealer will send someone and a guest to the big game in Miami. It's great football season is back. Good to have you back on the program, Bill. We look forward to doing it every Monday. Thank you, sir.

[Thank yous and good byes]

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