Hawg73
Mediocre with flashes of brilliance
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2002
- Messages
- 25,160
- Reaction score
- 11,516
- Points
- 113
- Age
- 68
- Location
- Gumdrop house on Lollipop Ln.
The Belichicoder is a device I invented, patented and regularly polish to a glossy sheen which has the capability of taking the words of Bill Belichick and interpreting them as if he had told the truth. Enjoy.
BB: Just another day here grinding through camp. Working on all three phases. Trying to figure out what the rules of football are this week, but…..I’ve got to admit we're getting better. A little better all the time.
Q: Jonas Gray is a guy who has been in the league awhile but hasn’t played much. What have you seen from him?
BB: First, I think it’s great that you’re asking me about the 63rd guy on our depth chart, instead of what advice I have for Aaron Hernandez’ prison guards or whether you should pick up Gronkowski for your keeper league, so that’s sort of refreshing, but the reality of it is that Gray shouldn’t go out shopping for a new living room set any time soon.
Q: How have you seen the progression between Tom Brady and Brandon LaFell as camp has gone on?
BB: I’d describe their relationship as sort of “wary” at this point. LaFell is just as afraid to piss off Tom as everybody else is, except for me and probably his wife. Brandon’s been in the league for a while now, but hasn’t really spent any time around anybody like Brady. He’ll be walking through the lunch room with his tray and Brady will run up behind him and scream something like: “86 spread Z post counter! Your guy blitzes! QUICK!!!!WHAT DO YOU DO?????”, so it's still a feeling-out process.
Q: What do you like about Brandon LaFell? What have you learned about him over the last few months?
BB: My favorite thing about him is that he hates talking to the media, which impressed me.
Q: Is it more difficult to get a bigger, lankier wide receiver integrated into special teams than a shorter, quicker guy?
BB: Well, that depends. You wouldn’t take a guy like Finch and ask him to take out the wedge and you wouldn’t ask somebody like Jarvis Jones to block anybody on special teams unless it was somebody like Finch who comes up about to Jones’ waist, so I suppose it depends on a lot of factors.
Q: When you’re looking for a kick returner, other than the physical stuff, what are some of the things that make a good kick returner? I imagine vision is one of the first things that pops up.
BB: Sure. Vision is important in that all I really care about is having a guy that can catch the damn ball and put his knee down in the end zone for the most part. If he can’t see the ball coming down then it stands to reason he’s going to have problems catching it, but the way the rules are now worrying about kick returners is a waste of time. I mentioned Finch earlier and we’ve been working with him quite a bit to see if we can give Julian a breather once in a while and because camp can get pretty dull after a few weeks and the guys enjoy watching Roy dart around back there. I’ve seen a lot of smaller guys that are really fast do well at it, but he’s sort of special because his legs are so short that he takes roughly two strides to cover the ground a regular-sized guy does in one. The kid looks like a hummingbird zipping back and forth and I’m telling you the sidelines goes nuts when he’s got the ball. After he fumbled that kickoff vs. Washington one of their guys tossed him backwards like he was....I don't know.....a plastic bag?..a frisbee?.. something like that. I took him aside afterwards and said “that was the funniest looking kick return I’ve ever seen. My sides still hurt. Don’t do it again.” And he said “Yes, sir.” And then “Wait. Don’t do what?” I don’t think Roy will be here much longer, but it’s certainly been fun having him around.
Q: In preseason games, do you stick to the rules you have during the regular season or because they have an opportunity to return the kick is it, ‘Just go do it and show us what you’ve got’?
BB: I tell them something like “Guys, when you’re old and gray and long done with football you don’t want you’re only NFL highlight film to be of you making a fair catch or touchback.” Roy has taken that to heart, I think.
Q: How important are these preseason games for the defensive backs? Obviously with points of emphasis in the secondary around illegal contact, are these preseason games more important than normal to get a feel for what’s allowed?
BB: It’s not all that important if you’re Revis who could go out for a late night at a club, win a cognac drinking contest, get two hours of sleep and still cover whoever needed to be covered, but for most of them, yes, it’s pretty important. That’s why I’ve instructed the rest of them to practice with their arms pinned underneath their jerseys to try to minimize the holding calls and so forth. It’s hard for them to tackle or do anything else that way, but the important thing is to just try to comply with whatever rules the league comes up with, no matter how completely stupid they are.
Q: Devin McCourty told us that’s it a little bit different for a safety as opposed to cornerback right on the line of scrimmage. From what you’ve seen on the film, what is the biggest difference in that rule as it applies to corners and safeties?
BB: That shows that, over the course of his career here, Devin has been paying attention, because the view does look quite a bit different for a safety than a corner, although we don’t really use traditional “free” and “strong” safety labels in our system. We already have a bunch of safeties on the roster, but we’ve been talking with Tennessee about a trade to bring Devin’s twin brother Jason here to convert him from cornerback and have the world’s first identical twin safety combination. Other teams will have to look at a roster just to know who they are throwing at and we could swap their shirts at halftime once in a while just to screw around with somebody like Rex. That would drive him nuts. We’ve offered them Tavon Wilson, Josh Boyce, Roy Finch and a 7th rounder and they said they’ll get back to us on that.
Q: What are your thoughts on the practice squad roster expanding to potentially 10 players this season?
BB: I think it could be beneficial to us because then I’d have more flexibility to sign 3 more Tight Ends and we might stand a significantly better chance of finding two healthy ones to line up and play in a given week.
Q: When you’re making decisions as to who may or may not make that practice squad – from the players that are available to you – do you look at the roster that you have and say, ‘We could use a little more depth here, it would be helpful to have a guy at this position?’ Or do you look at just the overall potential of the player?
BB: All I know is that if it turns out to be Groundhog Day again with Gronkowski this season then I’m going to think seriously about quitting and start selling fantasy football tips for a living, although I’ll certainly miss these press conferences. Look, we keep bringing guys in and I don’t know why we can’t find one that isn’t afraid to stick his hat into somebody and still catch a ball once in a while. We brought Jarvis Jones back this week to see if we could light a fire under his ass somehow by scaring him into blocking somebody. I mean…..how hard is it? He’s bigger than any of the guys he’s trying to block and he acts like they’ve just puked all over themselves. People should keep their eye on him Friday night because I swear if he throws another tranny hooker slap block on somebody then I’m going to walk out on the field and cut him on the spot. I swear I'll do it.
.
Q: You said you’ve never had a good year after a bad camp. What would be some of the red flags or positive signs that signal you’re having a good or bad camp?
BB: I think it’s probably just an overall feeling. Just the way that the team works, but one red flag that you try to avoid if possible in training camp is to have one of your most productive players arrested for heinous, bloody crimes. That’s something we have had a little experience in and it’s not something that contributes a whole lot to improving your team, so, we’re having a good camp just because we’re doing a much better job as a team of avoiding serial murders. I would say that, plus working hard and getting better every day are good signs as we start to wind down the preseason and camp process.
BB: Just another day here grinding through camp. Working on all three phases. Trying to figure out what the rules of football are this week, but…..I’ve got to admit we're getting better. A little better all the time.
Q: Jonas Gray is a guy who has been in the league awhile but hasn’t played much. What have you seen from him?
BB: First, I think it’s great that you’re asking me about the 63rd guy on our depth chart, instead of what advice I have for Aaron Hernandez’ prison guards or whether you should pick up Gronkowski for your keeper league, so that’s sort of refreshing, but the reality of it is that Gray shouldn’t go out shopping for a new living room set any time soon.
Q: How have you seen the progression between Tom Brady and Brandon LaFell as camp has gone on?
BB: I’d describe their relationship as sort of “wary” at this point. LaFell is just as afraid to piss off Tom as everybody else is, except for me and probably his wife. Brandon’s been in the league for a while now, but hasn’t really spent any time around anybody like Brady. He’ll be walking through the lunch room with his tray and Brady will run up behind him and scream something like: “86 spread Z post counter! Your guy blitzes! QUICK!!!!WHAT DO YOU DO?????”, so it's still a feeling-out process.
Q: What do you like about Brandon LaFell? What have you learned about him over the last few months?
BB: My favorite thing about him is that he hates talking to the media, which impressed me.
Q: Is it more difficult to get a bigger, lankier wide receiver integrated into special teams than a shorter, quicker guy?
BB: Well, that depends. You wouldn’t take a guy like Finch and ask him to take out the wedge and you wouldn’t ask somebody like Jarvis Jones to block anybody on special teams unless it was somebody like Finch who comes up about to Jones’ waist, so I suppose it depends on a lot of factors.
Q: When you’re looking for a kick returner, other than the physical stuff, what are some of the things that make a good kick returner? I imagine vision is one of the first things that pops up.
BB: Sure. Vision is important in that all I really care about is having a guy that can catch the damn ball and put his knee down in the end zone for the most part. If he can’t see the ball coming down then it stands to reason he’s going to have problems catching it, but the way the rules are now worrying about kick returners is a waste of time. I mentioned Finch earlier and we’ve been working with him quite a bit to see if we can give Julian a breather once in a while and because camp can get pretty dull after a few weeks and the guys enjoy watching Roy dart around back there. I’ve seen a lot of smaller guys that are really fast do well at it, but he’s sort of special because his legs are so short that he takes roughly two strides to cover the ground a regular-sized guy does in one. The kid looks like a hummingbird zipping back and forth and I’m telling you the sidelines goes nuts when he’s got the ball. After he fumbled that kickoff vs. Washington one of their guys tossed him backwards like he was....I don't know.....a plastic bag?..a frisbee?.. something like that. I took him aside afterwards and said “that was the funniest looking kick return I’ve ever seen. My sides still hurt. Don’t do it again.” And he said “Yes, sir.” And then “Wait. Don’t do what?” I don’t think Roy will be here much longer, but it’s certainly been fun having him around.
Q: In preseason games, do you stick to the rules you have during the regular season or because they have an opportunity to return the kick is it, ‘Just go do it and show us what you’ve got’?
BB: I tell them something like “Guys, when you’re old and gray and long done with football you don’t want you’re only NFL highlight film to be of you making a fair catch or touchback.” Roy has taken that to heart, I think.
Q: How important are these preseason games for the defensive backs? Obviously with points of emphasis in the secondary around illegal contact, are these preseason games more important than normal to get a feel for what’s allowed?
BB: It’s not all that important if you’re Revis who could go out for a late night at a club, win a cognac drinking contest, get two hours of sleep and still cover whoever needed to be covered, but for most of them, yes, it’s pretty important. That’s why I’ve instructed the rest of them to practice with their arms pinned underneath their jerseys to try to minimize the holding calls and so forth. It’s hard for them to tackle or do anything else that way, but the important thing is to just try to comply with whatever rules the league comes up with, no matter how completely stupid they are.
Q: Devin McCourty told us that’s it a little bit different for a safety as opposed to cornerback right on the line of scrimmage. From what you’ve seen on the film, what is the biggest difference in that rule as it applies to corners and safeties?
BB: That shows that, over the course of his career here, Devin has been paying attention, because the view does look quite a bit different for a safety than a corner, although we don’t really use traditional “free” and “strong” safety labels in our system. We already have a bunch of safeties on the roster, but we’ve been talking with Tennessee about a trade to bring Devin’s twin brother Jason here to convert him from cornerback and have the world’s first identical twin safety combination. Other teams will have to look at a roster just to know who they are throwing at and we could swap their shirts at halftime once in a while just to screw around with somebody like Rex. That would drive him nuts. We’ve offered them Tavon Wilson, Josh Boyce, Roy Finch and a 7th rounder and they said they’ll get back to us on that.
Q: What are your thoughts on the practice squad roster expanding to potentially 10 players this season?
BB: I think it could be beneficial to us because then I’d have more flexibility to sign 3 more Tight Ends and we might stand a significantly better chance of finding two healthy ones to line up and play in a given week.
Q: When you’re making decisions as to who may or may not make that practice squad – from the players that are available to you – do you look at the roster that you have and say, ‘We could use a little more depth here, it would be helpful to have a guy at this position?’ Or do you look at just the overall potential of the player?
BB: All I know is that if it turns out to be Groundhog Day again with Gronkowski this season then I’m going to think seriously about quitting and start selling fantasy football tips for a living, although I’ll certainly miss these press conferences. Look, we keep bringing guys in and I don’t know why we can’t find one that isn’t afraid to stick his hat into somebody and still catch a ball once in a while. We brought Jarvis Jones back this week to see if we could light a fire under his ass somehow by scaring him into blocking somebody. I mean…..how hard is it? He’s bigger than any of the guys he’s trying to block and he acts like they’ve just puked all over themselves. People should keep their eye on him Friday night because I swear if he throws another tranny hooker slap block on somebody then I’m going to walk out on the field and cut him on the spot. I swear I'll do it.
.
Q: You said you’ve never had a good year after a bad camp. What would be some of the red flags or positive signs that signal you’re having a good or bad camp?
BB: I think it’s probably just an overall feeling. Just the way that the team works, but one red flag that you try to avoid if possible in training camp is to have one of your most productive players arrested for heinous, bloody crimes. That’s something we have had a little experience in and it’s not something that contributes a whole lot to improving your team, so, we’re having a good camp just because we’re doing a much better job as a team of avoiding serial murders. I would say that, plus working hard and getting better every day are good signs as we start to wind down the preseason and camp process.
