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Glenn Ordway: Well I guess you're happy with your draft. Is there
any coach out there that's ever dissatisfied with their draft the day after
or two days after the draft?
Bill Belichick: I think just in relative terms, Glenn, you select
players and you bring them onto your team and...everybody feels they've
improved their team. I mean, how could you not improve it by adding some
young players to work with? But the degree that each team improves relative
to the competition, that's another story. But every team got better on draft
weekend, I don't think there's any doubt about that.
Ordway: Going into the draft, people always think that certain teams are going to
do certain things. And then when they don't on that weekend it's always this
question of 'Why?' I think a lot of people felt going into this draft you
would go for defense. Instead, you went for offense. Was it simply a matter
of value and where you drafted? If a defensive player were there in one of
those first two spots, would you have taken him if you perceived that it was
greater value for you?
Belichick: Oh, sure. We've drafted plenty of defensive players since
we've been here. We'll take the player that feels like is the best value to
the football team. We're not going to discriminate on that. No, it's just
that's the way it worked out. We felt like Laurence [Maroney] was a good
value at his spot. And we saw Chad [Jackson] slip a little bit into the
second round and we were able to move up and take him. Those types of things
occur in every draft. There were a lot of other good players up there,
players that we had rated highly, players that are going to be good players
in the league. That's just the way it is.
Pete Sheppard: Coach, can I ask specifically why Laurence Maroney
was higher on your list than, say, DeAngelo Williams?
Belichick: Well again, Pete, I think there's a lot of good
players there. We just felt like in what we ask the backs to
do and with what Laurence's skills are...I
think he's a very versatile player—he can play on early downs
and run the ball, he's a good kick returner, he's got good
hands, he's been durable, he's a smart kid—he
brings a lot of good things to our team. We just felt that
in the end he gave us the most value. Again, that's not to
take anything away from a lot of the other great backs that
were out there, like [DeAngelo] Williams and [Joseph] Addai and [Leon] Washington
and all those guys. I'm sure they'll all do well too. But in
our system we just felt like he was the best pick for us...
Sheppard: He's also caught 17 passes last year. His pass reception [inaudible]
the last three years. I know that's something that you like—to
use the backs as pass receivers when you can.
Belichick: Right. Well, it's been an interesting situation.
Minnesota has historically had a number of good backs on their team. Two
years ago it was Maroney and [Marion] Barber. When those two players were on
the field, Barber was usually the split out guy and Laurence was the guy that
remained in the backfield. It's similar to but different than the Carnell
Williams-Ronnie Brown scenario at Auburn last year when Brown was out of the
backfield a lot. But anyway...and then this year after Barber was drafted
and went to Dallas it was Maroney. And he was in there with a freshman. They
elected to split Maroney out and use him as more of a receiver kind of like
they did Barber the year before, and the freshman got some of those carries
and played in the backfield. So I don't think there's any doubt that
Laurence has some ability to do those things. Again, I think it was part of
the system that they were using and the personnel that they had. It's
interesting how one year he was the guy that kind of stayed in the
backfield, the next year he was the guy that they moved out. So I think that
really is a little bit of a commentary on his versatility.
Sean McAdam: Bill, you talked about sort of the age of many
of your veteran running backs, including [Kevin] Faulk and [Corey] Dillon obviously with
seven and eight years in the league, and the need to get younger at that
position. I'm wondering, was there any appeal to bring a younger guy in to
"push" Corey Dillon a little bit in terms of competition?
Belichick: I don't think that's that big of a deal. Corey's a
hard-working guy and football is important to him. He's working hard and
he'll be ready to go. So is Kevin and so is Patrick [Pass]. So I don't think it's
about that. I think it's just about...you know, when you have a football team
you have to have depth at every position. When you have three backs on the
roster that are primary ball carriers that are in their seventh year or
longer in terms of experience, at some point you want to add a younger
player. It's just normal.
McAdam: In the first round, Bill, did it trend out
exactly or like you thought it would starting at the very top? A lot of
people were surprised about the New Orleans pick. Did it trend out how you
thought it would in terms of the guy and the positions being taken and how
it panned out?
Belichick: First of all, I don't think we were that concerned about the
top part of the round. When you're at 21 like we were, it didn't really
matter whether Hawk goes 3 or 5 or 7, or Bush goes 1 or 2, or Ferguson goes
2, 4, 6. It doesn't really matter where those guys go; we're not going to
see them. I think there was a clear-cut group of players—[Vince] Young,
[Matt] Leinart, guys like that—that were going to go at the top of the
round. That was pretty clear the way that that was going to go. So again,
just in terms of the draft strategy, we don't really worry too much about
that. And in all honesty, I didn't spend a lot of time scouting some of
those players myself because—guys like [Jay] Cutler
and Leinart and Young—we weren't going to see them. We
tried to focus more on the guys we felt like would be, not necessarily
at 21, but at least in range, in the teens, where you could possibly move up
or back in the draft from that point on. Are they good players? Sure. Could
one guy have gone ahead of another one? They probably could have. I don't
even really know that much about it, to be honest with you.
Ordway: Well you obviously moved up 16 spots in that second round
for [Chad] Jackson. I know those mock drafts don't mean an awful lot, but in
many of them he was projected in that first round. Was there any thought
process at all about Jackson when your first round came around?
Belichick: Sure, there were good players up there, but in the end we took
Laurence Maroney because we felt he had the most value and was the best
player for us at that point. But clearly in our move to ascend to a higher
point in the second round we had high-grade values on Chad and felt
fortunate to be able to move up there and select him at that spot. As we saw
him still on the board and we could trade and move into that range then
that's what we tried to do. No question about it, we had a high grade on
Jackson as well.
Ordway: When you go up 16, how do you
determine—if you're sitting there watching and
you're saying 'Man, we want this guy Jackson. We've got to move up'—who
is in line to take him? How do you determine that? How do you process that
to figure out how far you have to go up? Or is it simply a guessing game—this
is a team that looks like they may want a guy like Jackson?
Belichick: I think it's driven more by your evaluation of the draft. If
you see a player and you have a certain value on the player and he's your
last player, or he's either in that grade or at that position, and you see
him still available and you think, 'Well okay, if we could draft this player
at this point, this is something we want to do,' then you just start
shopping. You start walking down the aisles. You call a team and say, 'Okay,
would you want to trade this and this for your pick?' If they say no, then
you go to the next team and say, 'Would you want to trade?' and [they say] 'No.'
And if everybody says no, you don't move. And if somebody says yes, then you
jump in there with them. Some teams that are at 32, 31, 29, whatever it is,
they're sitting there saying, 'We want to pick a guy, we don't want to back
up to where you are at 52.' Or they say, 'Well, here's what it would take.'
And we'd have to determine at that point, well, that's more than we're
willing to give up. Or maybe we would give it up. So that's kind of
how it goes. But it's very fluid and it goes back and forth.
Ordway: Is there a point where you know that this guy is no longer
going to be on the board? That there's a certain team that you figure...
Belichick: Again, I don't think 'no,' maybe, is the right
word, Glenn, but I think we were convinced that he wouldn't have lasted on
the board too much longer. And, in fact, in talking to some of the teams in
there, I feel with great certainty that he wouldn't have gotten more than one
or two picks further down the road.
Sheppard: Bill, is it fair to say that with Jackson and with Deion
Branch, those are arguably the two fastest wide receivers you've had at one
time since you've been head coach of this team? As far as all-out speed.
Belichick: Well I don't know, we've had some guys that could run.
We
had them on the team last year, the year before. I
don't think you're going to find guys much faster than Bethel [Johnson]. André Davis was fast,
Tim Dwight—those guys have been fast. David Patten. So, I don't know. I
think the bottom line is...I mean speed's important, there's no question
about it, and it's a great attribute. But for a receiver, a lot of things are
important: number one being catching the ball, and number two, being able to
get open—whether that's with speed, whether that's with quickness, whether
it's with route running ability and technique. Say a
player like Troy Brown—there's a whole
package. And really all a quarterback wants, all Tom Brady wants, is
somebody to get open.
Sheppard: He also talked about being a little bit uncomfortable
with Urban Meyer as far as last year playing the inside slot and inside
receiver. Will he play in that spot for you or will he strictly be a guy
outside?
Belichick: I think that Chad's shown that he can play in both spots.
He has played outside, he has played inside. We'll work him in our offense
and see how he adapts his skills to our style of play and the routes we run
and the plays and so forth. He'll get an opportunity to work at different
spots and we'll see how that goes. He may be more effective in one spot or
another, or there may be some advantages to playing in multiple positions.
We'll just have to see how that goes. I wouldn't be able to commit
to...really, I couldn't commit to any player's role at this point. But we'll
take a look at him and see how it goes. The one thing about playing
inside like Chad did last year is he caught a lot of balls in traffic, he
caught a lot of balls with people hanging on him and hitting him after the
catch. I think that spoke well to his concentration and his ability to
catch the ball in close quarters.
McAdam: Bill, with the draft over the next thing on the
calendar is guys who might be cap victims in early June. How much
preparation can you do in looking around the league and trying to assess who
might be out there, and are there people that you might expect to be able to
bring in that can help you? Because you are under a little bit.
Belichick: Well, I have no idea whether anybody will work out to come here
or not, but I think you have a sense of players who might—I'd
say might—be available. If the team didn't want them then
they certainly would release them, but I think there are players that teams
may be willing to part with. There were a number of
players during the draft that you saw—some of those draft-day trades over
the weekend where teams traded a player for a draft pick—well
believe me, there are plenty of other players that were being shopped out
there that, had a team that was willing to give up a draft pick,
they could have gotten those players. So there's a possibility that
those guys are available. I think there's also a possibility that players
who went to teams that drafted a guy high, they may have other players
at that position that now they're willing to try to trade because they've
gotten a draft choice to take that spot. So I think we can do our homework.
And again, the personnel situation in the league is a very fluid one. It's
always moving. Scott [Pioli] and the scouts and the people in the personnel
department keep up with each team—just about
every team in the league—and talk to people on a
regular basis. If there's somebody on the market, then we do our
homework on them and see whether or not it's somebody we'd be interested in—whether it's a trade or whether we think that player might be released for
cap reasons or other competitive reasons.
Ordway: You guys have had some good hits after that release on
June 1st. But I'm wondering, since we had a substantial increase in the
salary cap number this year, do you expect that that list will be shorter
than normal?
Belichick: It might be. Yeah, I think it might be. I think teams are
under less cap pressure this year than they have been in some other years—I'm
saying on a league-wide basis. I think that's possible. But again, I
think in terms of managing your team and managing your cap, you still
want to keep an eye on the whole salary structure. I think teams will
still continue to do that even if they're under it because any savings that
you have, if you can utilize it in some better way, then it's worth doing
that. So I think there will still be some players that fall into that
category that financially teams just won't want to carry them.
Ordway: Alright, final question, because I know you've got to go
back to work. Are there free agents right now, guys that fell through the
cracks of the draft, that you've got interest in, that you're bringing in
right now?
Belichick: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I think that this is a very
important time to try to get players who weren't drafted—you
know, it was only seven rounds—players that
weren't drafted that you want to try to bring into your team to compete for
either roster spots or practice squad spots, and players that you want to
work with and continue to develop. We've had a lot of success with players
like that—guys like Mike Wright last year, and
Randall Gay the year before—people like that
that weren't drafted that ended up being good contributors for your team.
I'm sure that in the next couple days...we've
been in that recruiting process now, really since the seventh round of the
draft. I'm sure that in the next few days we'll have some of those players
wrapped up. We've been working on them. Scott and
the scouts and the personnel department were absolutely after those guys to
fill out the depth on our roster and let them compete for a spot and playing
time.
Ordway: How does that scramble work? If two teams, three teams,
five teams are interested in one guy, how do you get that guy?
Belichick: Well, sometimes it comes down to opportunity, sometimes
it comes down to money and contract, sometimes it comes down to a
relationship. Those players that aren't drafted get signing bonuses from
teams. Not all of them, but some of them do. Again, I think that's something
that in terms of managing your cap, managing your team, you have to be aware
of because the more money you give out on signing bonuses to players that
aren't drafted because of the rookie pool, the less money you have to sign
your draft choices. So you've got to balance that. You just can't...it's not
an endless supply of signing bonus money there. But if you really want
somebody—I mean
we've seen guys go for forty, fifty, sixty thousand dollar signing bonuses
in previous years when the competition gets hot and the bidding gets up
there. When it gets up to that point, you can look back in retrospect and say,
'Well, we should have drafted him in the seventh round.' But there are very
few players that get up in the seventh round money. But anywhere from a
couple thousand to ten thousand dollar signing bonus, that's not uncommon at
all.
Ordway: Alright Bill, we'll let you get back to work.... |
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