PATRIOTS TIGHT END ROB GRONKOWSKI

Q: What do you say to the younger guys fighting for a roster spot this week and this Thursday night?

RG: Just go hard, play hard. Give it all you got this game. I mean, you're not just showcasing for the Patriots but you could possibly be showcasing for around the league. So just play hard, do the best you can and finish plays.

Q: Do you feel like you have an expanded role in the pass-catching game this season due to the lack of depth at wide receiver?

RG: I mean my role expands depending on my capabilities on the practice field, what I'm showing, what the coaches want me to do, what the coaches have planned for the game plan that upcoming week. So it's up to myself, what role I can create myself and what I can do out there on the field and that's what it basically rolls down to. So if I'm showing them I can line-up out wide, line-up inline, catch a pass wherever I am, then I'm sure the coaches would gameplan me to be wherever I need to be. 

Q: Does the constant changing of wide receivers affect you at all?

RG: No, it doesn't really matter. The coaches are always putting us in the best position to run the best play with the best personnel group that our team has. So all that in-and-out, I mean we practice it every day in walkthroughs out on the practice field so we got that down and it doesn't really affect me. 

Q: It doesn't matter to you who's out there?

RG: Nope, not at all. 

Q: What was your reaction to seeing Shaq Mason's extension?

RG: Oh yeah, I mean he's a great player. His speed is unreal, the way he can close the gap on a small defender and just block him is unbelievable. He's a great player and it's always great to see guys like him get a deal like that.

Q: What do you feel like you've accomplished over training camp and are you happy with where you are right now going into the last couple days?

RG: I mean, I always got stuff to work on big-time, no matter what it is. Route-running, route detail, blocking but I felt like it was a good camp overall. Got a lot of conditioning in, lot of reps in, the passing game, the run game, whatever it is. Now we just focus on keeping on going to the next level, keep on getting in better shape and the next couple practices throughout the next week, this week. So got to keep grinding.

Q: How about the fact that you've been out there every day? Some years you've been slow to come back.

RG: It's good. It's good to be out there every day and get the work in, get the body adjusted. I would say the biggest part is putting the pads on, not just the shoulder pads but the pants, all the pads, and being able to run in it and being conditioned in it. It's good that we were just out there for the last month basically every day getting that in.

Q: Do you feel like your body's in as good of shape as it's been in sometime and are you ready for the grind of the NFL season?

RG: I definitely feel ready for sure and I feel good. But I mean, it's a long season. It's kind of hard to describe the body. I mean you got to go through it in order to understand. It's on every play I would say. One day you could be feeling great and then the next day, you just don't know how you're going to feel. Taking hits, you could take a helmet to the thigh, you could take a helmet to the chest, wherever, and your body could just react differently. The swelling can react differently and then you're feeling like garbage the next day. I can't really ever get up here and ever say that I feel amazing because you just never know. Every single day though, I prepare myself to the fullest so I can feel the best I can feel the next day.

Q: We've talked to Tom Brady about his new helmet. Last week you had a new helmet too. How did you feel in the new helmet?

RG: Felt good. I got the new helmet on too, there's a lot of us with it and it really fits on your head. There's no lagging side-to-side. It just goes with you like it's part of your head. It's a great helmet.

Q: When you see contracts like Odell Beckham Jr. and other receivers got, what's your reaction?

RG: Those are great players. He's a great player. He comes up clutch in many situations and just his talent is second-to-none. It's always good to see guys like that that got that talent - I'm in for the players always. I mean, I'm a player, so it's good to see that. 

Q: Do you want to see tight ends get lumped in to the pass-catcher category?

RG: That would be pretty cool. 

Q: Are you looking to have something new done with your contract in the near future?

RG: I'm always open for that.

Q: Would you like something to be done before the season?

RG: It is what it is. That's not really my focus. I got a long season ahead and just trying to focus on what I need to really do and just let everything else play out.

Q: At what point does the switch flip for you to start focusing on Week One?

RG: We got a game and there's a lot of players on the team that are playing the game Thursday so we got to keep on preparing, we got two more days. But I would say after that it's going to be go time. It's going to be preparation for the [Houston] Texans and it's going to be a grind. It's going to be another year.

Q: You've been in the league a long time. What keeps you playing?

RG: I just love playing the game. I feel good right now. I definitely feel like 100 times better than I did last year during training camp. When you're feeling good, you love playing the game. I feel good enough to where I thought I could come back, go throughout the whole season, go throughout camp and just keep playing the game and be enjoying it. That's how it's been and when you're enjoying the game, when you're feeling good, you just love playing the game. It's just something when you're out on the field, like your mind is just in another place because you're just focusing on what you got to do.

Q: Why do you say you feel so much better?

RG: I've done a lot. Like I said, I just try to focus on my body every single day like after practice now and just try to get better every day and get the recovery going ASAP, right after the meetings and stuff so you feel good the next day. There's times I remember when I was back rookie year, second year, you would just practice, go to meetings and you would do absolutely nothing but as you get older - and I got to say, you got to be on top of the game, you got to be on top of your body in order to be going every day.

Q: Is there anything kind of fun about doing all that work because doing so allows you to unlock your full capability?

RG: Exactly. Yes. It's boring at first but after you start feeling the effects of being able to go again the next day, you unlock another capability, it keeps you going and that's what makes it fun.

Q: Does it ever strike you what a young man's game football is and that you're now a veteran on this team at 29 years old?

RG: I know, that is crazy actually. I know, I am 29 going on my ninth year and it's like I'm like a true veteran for sure now. It's just wild and it just shows how quick it goes, how much you should just appreciate it while you're in it. It's crazy just seeing a couple 21 year olds running around the locker room now, 22 year olds, and just being 29 now. I was always the youngest one on like every team growing up, kind of when I got here too, so it's all so cool.

Q: Where have you found your rhythm in getting ready for Week One?

RG: We've been going out on the practice field and we've been having some good practices, intense practices, versus our defense and just gaining rhythm out there. You got to find a rhythm out at practice because practice execution leads to game execution too. So you go on out on the practice field and right from the very first period going full-speed, getting the routes down, going to the on-air routes, running routes with the quarterbacks and then going to competition with our defense every single day. It's not just making a few plays here and there, in order to find a rhythm for practice to relate it to games, you got to be able to make plays in the first period and then make plays in the middle periods and make plays in the periods at the end of the practice too. 

Transcripts are provided by the Patriots media relations department as a courtesy to the media and are edited for readability. All press conferences are posted and archived in their entirety at patriots.com.