Tim Ryan: Welcome back to the program, everybody. The End Zone, right here on SIRIUS NFL Radio. Tim and Pat on a Sunday. We are at the New England Patriot training camp up in Foxboro, Mass. – Gillette Stadium. Pat, let's bring in the head coach. Bill Belichick joining us on the show. Hey, Coach. How are you doing?
Bill Belichick: Good, Tim. Good to be with you. And Pat, how are you doing?
Pat Kirwan: We're doing fine, my friend. We're just in the start of our camp tour. I won't say it resembles going to practice twice a day, but we are out now for 15 straight days. You're stop number two. We were at the Giants yesterday, heading across to the Buffalo Bills next. So…excited to be here. Always get treated great by you and the Patriots people. It's really fun for us. We had a great view of practice and, once again for our listeners, maybe the most efficiently run practices we've seen. Even at the end when you're practicing field goals, when most guys are doing nothing, there was your Rodney Harrison practicing his blitz technique against [Heath] Evans over on the side field by themselves. So you've got them working on their own now, Bill.
BB: Well, you know, we have a pretty hard-working team, Pat. That's a credit to the players. They take their job seriously and try to take advantage of their time out there on the field. But I appreciate your compliments there. I hope that's reflected in our play this season.
TR: Do you continually, Coach, modify what you do at practice? Is it an ever-changing thing? Because…and I'm sure it's a learning process, from where you started to where you are now in terms of organizing practice so it is efficient, so guys aren't standing around. Because today we didn't see a lot of guys standing around out there today.
BB: Yes, it definitely is, Tim. We talk about it each night in our staff meetings and try to maximize our time on the field, and depending on how our team's doing and what areas we feel like we need more work in then we try to schedule things accordingly so we can get some of those things fixed or spend more time on. Sometimes, especially in training camp this time of year, your numbers might run short at a position or two if you get a couple guys banged up sometimes that effects your scheduling as well, just in terms of your depth at certain positions. We talk about that on a nightly basis and try to keep things moving as smoothly as possible.
TR: Good. Speaking of guys banged up, Chad Scott. What's his deal from yesterday? Any update on him?
BB: No, he's right now in a day-to-day category and we'll just see how that comes along.
PK: I don't think anyone's told Junior Seau what a red shirt means.
BB: [Laughter]
PK: We watched him today and the guy is all over the football field. You talk about the consummate pro. You are not afraid – and history bares me out on this – to hire older players. And somehow you find a way to keep them fresh and ready to play.
BB: Junior's like a 23-year old out there. [Laughter] He's got so much energy and enthusiasm. He's been a great addition to our football team the last two years, going into our second year with him here. He's got a tremendous attitude – he's got one of the best work ethics I've seen in the National Football League for a player. He's totally into the game. He's a consummate pro. He's really a pleasure to coach and work with, and he's an inspirational guy. Our players, they love working with him as well. His enthusiasm's contagious for the game. I think that's good for our team.
TR: When you look at the linebackers, Coach, with all the guys around 30 or older – Junior, Chad [Brown], [Tedy] Bruschi, these guys – Adalius [Thomas] is getting close – does it take away at all from the depth on the special teams?
BB: Well, it's something we have to balance, Tim. It's definitely a factor. We have to balance it. Some of those guys are involved in the kicking game. We also have a couple younger players – Pierre Woods last year, Corey Mays, Larry Izzo, guys like that that are kind of core special team players for us. So we have balance that out. But it's something that we're going to have to keep an eye on. When we make our final roster decisions we're going to have to take that into account, there's no question about it.
PK: Let me jump to the other side of the ball. Last year when we sat here with you there was a possibility that receiver was going to be a weak area that had to get rebuilt and restructured. Now we go out and watch your receiving corps and it's deep. Your fifth and sixth receiver can play in the National Football League easily. So it's intriguing to me how you can get that thing fixed. And Randy Moss, to our listeners, was in front of every drill line, leading every drill. Every time it was individual he was the first one to go each time. I have a suspicion you didn't even have to tell him to do that; you didn't even have to suggest. Somehow the culture in Patriot country gets them to want to be like that.
BB: Well. I think that from the people I've talked to about Randy…it was a lot of positive comments and positive feedback. He's been terrific since he's been here. He works hard, football's important to him. He's a very smart individual. He understands the game and he understands adjustments. He really wants to get it right and he works hard to get things done properly. So he's been a good worker. He's been attentive and he's been very productive for us on the field so far. So he's been a pleasure to work with. I think we do have good competition at that receiver position. Last year Jabar Gaffney and Reche Caldwell stepped up at the end of the year, particularly in the second half of the season in the playoffs, and had some very productive games, and we've added a couple new guys, so we'll just see how all that plays itself out.
TR: Where Pat and I were sitting up on the perch watching practice, it looked like Randy's got plenty of juice left in those legs.
BB: I think that he's already shown in a few practices that still can run well, he catches the ball well, he's got good quickness and again, he's a smart receiver – he knows how to get open and knows how to leverage and setup the defenders, so that's been a strong point for him as well.
TR: We look at Wes Welker and we just can't help think of Wayne Chrebet, sitting up there watching him out of the slot, watching him down on the football field.
BB: You know, I think both those players were – are and were – outstanding slot receivers. Wes is probably a little better with the ball in his hands, as a returner and after the catch and that kind of thing. Wayne was very strong for his size and could really bounce off people. He's probably a little bigger than Wes is. Both very efficient slot receivers. We just want to keep working with Wes and get him familiar with our offense and our adjustments and all that, but I think that he'll do a good job for us in there and be very competitive and give our offensive attack some balance from that position.
PK: Break down the running backs for us. We had Sammy Morris on the show right after he signed here, and he said to me 'You know, I'm not surprised I ended up a Patriot. I thought Belichick liked me a lot when he met me in college, and I kind of thought he had his eye on me, and I was looking at him the whole time we were playing in the division. I always said I'll be a Patriot some day.'
BB: Well, you know, we came very close to drafting him. He was one of the guys we were really looking at when he went to Buffalo, and then when he signed in Miami in the last round of free agency I thought we were kind of close on that and it just didn't work out. So it was great to be able to work things out with him this spring. I think that he gives us a lot of versatility on the field – he can play on third down, he can play on first and second down, he can play in the kicking game on fourth down. He's a smart player, he's tough, he's physical…
PK: We watched today his zone stuff – his patience to read the play and take it up the right. I said to Timmy watching him, I said, right there is something that people probably don't even know about Sammy is how good he is at reading that scheme, because he was looking terrific doing it today.
BB: Absolutely. He's a very versatile player that's got a physical presence to him, but also has the skill and finesse to be able to play in the passing game, with his quickness and his hands and his route running. So I think he's going to be a good addition to our backfield group.
TR: Bill Belichick on the program with us – head coach of the Patriots. Coach, let's go to the defensive side of the ball – Adalius Thomas. We saw him lining up a lot in the middle today at middle linebacker. What's the thought process on him? How are you going to use him? Will he be everywhere on the football field?
BB: Well, we'll just have to see how that goes, Tim. Right now the big thing for really all of our players is to teach them our system and have them get a couple things down. As we go through camp – probably not so much this week but by next week we'll start moving people, flipping sides with them, moving them from one spot to another spot so they can get used to playing some different positions. It'll help them and also help our team build some depth in those spots. How all that will play out, we'll just have to wait and see. It could be a gameplan situation, or we can just see how certain combinations work together.
TR: And I can imagine a big silver-lining in that is you teach him all those different positions, now when he maybe locked into one he knows what everybody else is doing.
BB: Right, it helps the player learn the overall scheme and it also gives you some interchangeability. Sometimes we can switch players and move them late in the down and they just switch responsibilities because they know both spots. Especially with linebackers, we have a pretty veteran group there, a pretty experienced group, and they all play well off each other. So hopefully we'll be able to have good versatility and be able to present some different looks to the offense without it really messing us up too much.
PK: It looked like 'Coach Bruschi' was working with him inside there, because he almost went to Tedy every time after the play to check his drops and was he dropping the right way. Ted was coaching it up, having a good time with him. I want to ask you about the corners, because we get a lot of calls about Asante Samuel. Not interested in that as much as what I thought I saw as a battle: Tory James and Randall Gay. And that's just conjecture on my part that they're competing pretty intensely right now for the opportunity to be a starter.
BB: They've had good camps, along with Ellis Hobbs, and then Brandon Meriweather today – we're going to work him in a little bit there at corner, too. So I think all those guys are going to…it'll be a good competitive situation and we've got a good, long camp in front of us and we'll just see how consistent they are for us over the long haul. But Tory has showed up well, made a nice play in practice today on a post-pattern interception. And Randall Gay has done a good job for us in the past on the outside at corner and also in the slot in the nickel. And we got Meriweather into camp, so we'll start working with him and we'll see how all that shapes up.
PK: Let me ask you a question just off last year, maybe two years average, because you have such a good football team, and Brady's going to score points, how much time are you as a Patriot defense spending in nickel and dime because people are playing from behind on you?
BB: Well again, it just depends on the team that we play. A team like San Diego that we played late in the year, not all that much because they really like to be in two-receiver sets and utilize their tight ends and fullback – Lorenzo Neal, guys like that. Whereas a team like the Colts was much more interested in spreading us out. And we also played the Jets in the playoffs, and they were kind of in between, I would say, those two philosophies. So a lot of our defensive matchup depends on what we get from the offense. But we do see some multiple receiver groups and we feel like we definitely have to be ready to play our sub-defenses on early downs, not just on third down.
TR: Coach, staying in the back end, Rodney Harrison coming off his injury. How's he been early in camp? He looked like he was a full go out there today.
BB: Yes, I think he is. I don't think Rodney's having any effects at all from last season's knee injury. He had a good camp, spring camps, for us. He participated in all of them and looked good out there moving around. And he's picked right up in training camp where he left off in the spring, so I don't really see that as being much of an issue.
TR: Talk about the off-season. Did you hook into any big fish this year?
BB: [Laughter] A couple. This wasn't the biggest year for fishing. But they're out there. They're out there.
PK: [Laughter]
TR: Can't catch them if the line's not out in the water, Coach.
BB: You're right. You're right.
[Laughter and crosstalk]
TR: Thank you so much for these couple of minutes. Have a great year here in 2007.
BB: OK. Thanks, Tim. Pat, thank you very much.
TR: Coach Bill Belichick on the program with us on the End Zone, right here on SIRIUS NFL Radio.
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