Q: There was a report that you were offered an opportunity to interview with the Indianapolis Colts and decided not to. Why did you decide not to interview?
NC: Yeah, I would just say that I've got a great job here in New England, I work with a great staff – I'm privileged to work for the head coach [Bill Belichick] that I do. Today is no different than it was any other day and I enjoy being here and right now the focus is on getting ready for the Denver Broncos and that's where we're at.
Q: How flattering is it to receive interest like that?
NC: I don't really have anything else to add other than what I just mentioned. I love New England, I enjoy being here, I enjoy the work that I do, the people that I work with and that's not going to change.
Q: What are your thoughts on Josh McDaniels coming back to the organization?
NC: I think it's great and I have a lot of respect for Josh not only as a coach, but as a friend. I've known Josh a long time, it's no secret. I think it's great to have him back. It's great to have him a part of our program and our system again. His goal and our goal is for everyone to work as hard as they can in preparation for this game and that's what we'll try to do.
Q: How confident are you in the abilities of everyone to come together and make it work?
NC: You've got a lot of good coaches in this building and a lot of people have worked together previously. Everybody's going to work with the same goal in mind which is to prepare for Denver and try to put our team in the best position to go out there and execute on Saturday night and that's what we'll try to do.
Q: How much has changed since Josh McDaniels was last here offensive scheme-wise or organizationally or will it be familiar for him?
NC: It's probably something that you could ask Bill [Belichick] or Josh. Things change every year in the NFL – people leave, people come and go. Systematically we've been doing a lot of the same things offensively I would say since early 2001 and each year is its own year and I think things kind of evolve week-to-week [and] year-to-year, so it's probably more a question for Bill than myself.
Q: What are the guidelines you're working under in terms of transactions in the playoffs? What are the restrictions, if any?
NC: Yeah, there are a few restrictions per league policy just in terms of the number of players that you can actually add during the course of the week are limited. You know any player that is released off the roster they're under the 10-day claiming period, so the reality is that if you release a player you're probably not going to see him for the rest of the year. There are some minor things that are tweaked, but you can still add players to your roster. You can move back players from the practice squad to the roster, so you know we'll make sure that whatever transactions take place that we're in compliance with league policy like we always do.
Q: Going back to the draft, you thought highly enough of Rob Gronkowski to trade up for him. What were your impressions of him and what sort of value did you see in trading up to take him there?
NC: Rob was a real productive player really his sophomore year. He played as a freshman as well, but sophomore year he was real productive at Arizona. [He] had his junior year wiped out but was good in the passing game. They used him multiple ways – they detached him from the formation, they aligned him on the line of scrimmage, so he was a pretty versatile guy. They asked him to do a number of different things, whether it was in the run game or in the passing game, so he was a productive player and we went through the evaluation process and we had an opportunity to add him to the team and that's what we did.
Q: Losing that junior year was there any hesitation because you don't know what a year off is going to do?
NC: I think with any player the reality is you really don't know what's going to happen that next year – whether the guy is a four-year starter [or] he played his senior year and didn't play his junior year – until you actually get them here you're really never sure how it's actually going to work out. You try to do you're due diligence, try to do your homework and just take all the information that you have and just make the best decision collectively for the organization that you can. I would say that's pretty consistent regardless of who the player is, how much he has or has not played.
Q: If Ross Ventrone gets promoted to the 53-man roster does that mean he can't be on the practice squad next year due to the playoffs?
NC: Any transaction that we make we'll make sure that we're in compliance with the league and we're really not concerned about next year or two weeks from now. We're just worried about what we need to do to get ready for Denver this week.
Q: Tim Tebow threw deep with some success which is something that I don't think we've seen a lot of this year. In your scouting, did you see him throwing down the field like this?
NC: Really one of the best things that he did or better things he did among a number of things at Florida was he threw the ball down field really well. He has good arm strength, real accurate with the football, and I think there have been a lot of examples this year in Denver, not only in yesterday's game against Pittsburgh, but where they've thrown the ball down the field and been able to get the ball behind the defense. They have players on the perimeter that they're able to get vertical into the defense and down the field. Just Demaryius [Thomas] as an example, I would say that was one of the things despite playing in a run-oriented system at Georgia Tech, that he was a big play receiver for them. I think with their personnel and I think that's one of the things that Tim has done well not only in the NFL, but it was something that he did well in Florida as well. They hit some big plays yesterday in the game which was a big part of his success. I mean any time you have 10 completions and 316 yards passing I would say that's a pretty good day in the passing game.