Skip to main content
Advertising

Official website of the New England Patriots

replay
Replay: Patriots Unfiltered Tue Dec 03 - 02:00 PM | Wed Dec 04 - 11:00 AM

Bill Belichick Press Conf. Transcript

Belichick: it will be good to just be able to go out and play the Bears and not really have to worry about seeing them again in two or three weeks

            [
listennowicon.gif

]()

            **BB:**  Go ahead.  I've just got a minute here.  Final questions?  

**Q: What is this time of year like for you?

BB:** It has a lot going, a lot going on. We just finished up with the Philadelphia game, trying to get ready for the Bears, thinking about roster cuts, trying to get ready to work on Buffalo. So we've got a lot of balls in the air. Short week. But it's training camp. It's like this every year at this time of year.

**Q: On roster cuts and choosing this player or that player?

BB:** Well there is some of that, trying to balance it out. We've got a couple of people who either didn't play in the game or have something that is not a season-ending injury or something like that, but, 'Is it a couple more days? Is it a week?' You have a lot of phone calls from other teams about, 'Do you have interest in this guy, or just in that guy or what are you going to do with this guy?' That guy kind of thing. So there is a lot of that type of thing going around the league now as well. Personnel talk, from a football standpoint, trying to put the Eagles game to bed, which we have them the second game of the year, play Chicago and then get ready for Buffalo. Other than that, we are just kind of hanging out.

**Q: How does this year compare with you in terms of having a pretty good feel for the team?

BB:** We'll know at the end of September, October. Things will start to take shape then. There is not a lot of game planning going on now, on either side. You go out there and run your stuff, and they run their stuff. Sometimes it matches up good, sometimes it doesn't, but when you get into the regular season, things are a lot more specific. People are trying to attack your weaknesses and you are trying to attack theirs. You are trying to enhance your strengths, so we'll just have to see how that plays out when it becomes a 60-minute game and you get that kind of strategy going all the way through.

**Q: Are you glad to finally have a preseason opponent you aren't going to face in the regular season?

BB:** Yeah. It's a nice switch. Yeah. Looking at last year's game against the Bears, down 27-6, you keep watching it saying, 'How are we going to end up on top on this one?' You know the ending, but you still wonder if it is going to happen that way. But no, it is…it will be good to just be able to go out and play the Bears and not really have to worry about seeing them again in two or three weeks.

**Q: David Patten has had an explosive camp hasn't he?

BB:** David has had a good camp, but you know David's had a good camp every year. He comes into camp ready to go and every year now he's shown up positively in training camp. Made plays down the field. Made some run-after-catch plays. Hustled. Made plays in practice. Made plays in the game. So he's been a good camp player and he's gotten off to some good starts early in the year.

**Q: With Troy [Brown], Daniel [Graham], Deion [Branch], all those other guys on the field, does it make it difficult for the defense to deal with him?

BB:** I think the more balance you can have offensively, the better off you are. That's really the way we are looking at it is to try to be able to take advantage of the different match ups we get, where they rotate the coverage then there has to be a weakness somewhere else, and hopefully we can win over there and take advantage of it. But it is good to just not feel like the ball is going to have to go to one or two guys, and if they gang up on them then you are…down a lot of options.

**Q: Any cuts today? Or are you going to wait until after practice?

BB:** No, I don't think we are going to make any cuts today. We'll probably make them tomorrow by 4:00 p.m.

**Q: Are there any positions that are the toughest decisions to make right now?

BB:** I think there is going to be a lot of tough decisions, a lot of that has also to do with the practice squad, has to do with the fact that we have some guys on the PUP list. When will we get them back? What do we have to do until some of those guys are able to come back? Whether they figure into maybe practice squad considerations or roster considerations. So there is a lot of balls in the air. We spend a lot of time on football, we spend a lot of time on personnel on both on our team and with other teams in the league, either looking at them or talking to them or them talking to us however you want to call it.

**Q: What are your options for Mike Cloud?

BB:** What will end up doing is we will carry him on the 53 and he'll go onto the NFL list at that point. He will count momentarily and then he won't count at the 53. The other option would be to put him on some kind of injured list.

**Q: But he is more likely to stay on the 53 at this point?

BB:** He'll temporarily go to the 53 and then the NFL…they'll take him at that point.

**Q: On Antowain Smith and Kevin Faulk…

BB:** I'm sure they'll both play. I don't know what a lot is, but they'll both play. As I have said all the way through camp, I think they'll both be productive players for us. I think they'll both help us offensively. How exactly that gets broken up? We'll have to wait and see. But I think you'll being seeing both of them this year and I think you'll be seeing both of them Wednesday night

This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be missing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an issue.

Related Content

Advertising

Latest News

Presented by
Advertising

Trending Videos

Advertising

In Case You Missed It

Presented by
Advertising