For the first time this season Tom Brady conducted his press conference in the media workroom rather than at his locker as he did during the three previous weeks. As the team gets set to enjoy its bye weekend at 3-0, the quarterback says there's always room for improvement.
In past years Brady has explained he often tries to improve on a specific area during the offseason. With the bye on the horizon he was asked what that area was for 2015.
That and other topics highlighted Brady's press conference.
Always getting better -"There are a lot of things I always want to improve on. I watch players around the league at my position and see the things that they do really well. I'm always trying to become a better player for our team. A lot of those things are personal but I constantly work on my mechanics, try to keep my footspeed - not that that's ever been exceptional - but at least try to get in the way of at least one defensive lineman per Sunday.
"Just trying to make a few plays outside of the pocket, which we've done a decent job of, and ultimately it comes down to throwing the football. I'm a big believer in mechanics. If you have poor mechanics then I don't think they'll hold up under pressure."
"Super Bowl not Week 1" -Brady also discussed the mental challenges the team faces every season. "Each year you try to gain more experience. The level of comfort when you play with guys that you've played with for a long time - I don't think that can be understated. Every year there are different challenges. This year the offensive line is going through some of that. Wendy [Ryan Wendell] hasn't been in there. [Dan] Connolly retired. We've had young players up front so I'm sure that's challenging for Nate [Solder] and Sea Bass [Sebastian Vollmer], who've been playing next to guys who are very experienced.
"The way pro football is the burden has to fall somewhere. You can't keep everyone together for 15 years. There's just a constant turnover and one year it may be offense, one year it may be defense. You just have to find a way to keep building.
"It's a long season so you try to do it over the course of the year. The Super Bowl isn't played in Week 1, even though you'd love to be in midseason form at that time it doesn't always happen that way. You just have to believe in what you're doing and your process and I think we've been pretty consistent here for a long time based on what our OTAs and mini-camp are. You gain trust in what we're doing based on the past results that we've had.
"Regardless of who's in there this is the level that we need to get to if we want to be able to compete on a week-by-week basis against really good football teams. We're going to be challenged throughout the whole season, every game has its different challenges. There's different matchups and situations that come up that we have to be prepared for."
Bye the bye -Like Bill Belichick said earlier in the week, Brady was not concerned about the timing of the bye. "Whatever it is, it is. We've had some late ones. Whenever it comes you just deal with it. It actually goes pretty quickly. Before you know it we'll be back here Monday and back to work. It's a long stretch after this. It's a long stretch of games in a row. But that's what you work so hard for."
