FOXBORO, Mass. — After a masterclass in gruff taciturnity Wednesday morning, Bill Belichick was downright loquacious Friday in his final news conference before the start of the 2019 New England Patriots season.
Holding court at the podium for nearly 15 minutes, the Patriots head coach offered in-depth responses on Julian Edelman’s mentorship of young receivers, Elandon Roberts receiving team captain honors for the first time, Josh Gordon’s work ethic and the ways Jamie Collins has improved since the end of his first stint in New England.
It was a markedly different approach from the one Belichick took in his previous presser, which — apart from his brief salute to the start of football season — was filled with one-sentence replies and exasperated gestures.
And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Here are some of the other topics Belichick was willing to discuss at length ahead of Sunday’s season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers (emphasis ours):
On discussing football history with quarterback Tom Brady: “Yeah, Tom and I have talked about that. We meet weekly, and over 20 years, a lot of different things have come up. But certainly historical football and players that I’ve coached or games that I’ve been involved in or football that I’ve been a part of, but also well before that — back into the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, equipment, balls, schemes, strategy, training and so forth. Over the years, we’ve hit on pretty much every subject over 20 years. But yeah, definitely some football history conversations, absolutely.”
On running back Sony Michel’s study habits: “Yeah, the big thing for Sony is just his availability to be on the field and to be a continuous part of the year. So from installation to the spring, even though he didn’t participate fully in the spring, he was able to participate mentally in all of the meetings and walkthroughs and some of the on-the-field things that we did, and then in training camp he’s been out there on a consistent basis, and that’s how you get better. You work on your skills and then you pick up new ones and work on those, and then you pick up new ones and work on those and he’s done that. He’s a good athlete, he’s a very talented player, he’s smart. Football is important to him. He works hard. So if you work hard and you understand what you need to do then you get better, and he has.”
On tight end Ryan Izzo’s potential after missing his entire rookie season: “Ryan’s an extremely hard worker. We’ll see how it all plays out, but he’s certainly come a long way in terms of his physical development. His strength, his conditioning. He trained very hard with Moses (Cabrera) all last year when he wasn’t playing, and he continued that in the offseason program in the spring. So I think physically he’s better, certainly his techniques and understating of the position and the things that he has to do in our offense on certain plays and so forth is much improved. He’s still got a long way to go — he hasn’t played a regular game yet — but he’s made a lot of progress and we’ll see how it all comes together.”
On Ted Karras, who’s expected to start at center with David Andrews on injured reserve: “Ted’s one of our most consistent players. He comes to work every day, first-guy-on-the-practice-field kind of guy. He’s always in tune and alert to whatever you’re telling him, whether it’s field goal protection or pass protection or training or whatever it happens to be. He’s very alert, he takes everything in, works really hard. He continues to do that. His day-to-day performance inside the walls of our building and out on the field is very consistent. He gives you his best every single day. You never get less than that from him.”
On what makes Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt so difficult to block: “Pretty much everything. He’s fast, he’s explosive. He’s very strong, but he’s quick and he can avoid players, avoid blocks. He plays with good leverage. He’s quick enough to move around guys, and he’s powerful enough to play through them. So he has a good skill set. He’s a very instinctive player. He’s a good pass rusher, he’s got a high motor and he comes hard on every play. He does a lot of things well. One of the best guys we’ll face all year.”
On Steelers defensive end Stephon Tuitt: “He’s very athletic, he’s long and he’s big. He’s long, he runs well, he’s powerful. He’s a very talented player. He’s one of the most talented defensive linemen in the league, so there’s not really much he can’t do. Big, powerful, runs well for his size, he’s hard to block.”
On Troy Brown, who’s served as the Patriots’ unofficial assistant receivers coach since the start of spring practice: “Troy was a very smart player, as we all know. Troy played certainly a lot of offense; he was our best offensive player when I got here. But he was also a dynamic punt returner that won a lot of games for us, gave us a lot of field position with his punt returns. But he played other positions in the kicking game as well — field goal block, kickoff coverage, kickoff return. I mean, he was a player who was on the field a lot, and of course, we eventually moved him to defense in ’03 and ’04, and he played over there. So when a player has that kind of versatility — not just physically — but that’s a lot of learning, a lot of instinctiveness that comes into play there because you can’t learn everything when you just move to a position for a short period of time like Troy did on defense. But he picked it up quickly, he was instinctive, productive, had good tackling skills and coverage skills, as well as skills he showed as a returner while running with the ball, and offensively as a receiver. To be able to do all of the things that he did in the slot area, recognize coverages, and when there were very small windows, he always seemed to fit in the right one just at the right time and make the right decision. When you put all that together and then put that on the other side of teaching somebody else how to do it — good communication skills, good personality — Troy’s a very team-oriented person. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s good. He was good and helped players that played his position later on in his career.”
