Bill Belichick Year Quotations

We're going to do what we think is best. What we did against Oakland may or may not be what we think is best against Carolina. Last year we played Indianapolis in one type of a defense. We played Pittsburgh in another type of a defense. We played Philadelphia in another type of a defense. We're going to do what we think we need to do to try to match up and stop the opponents. I'm not making any promises to anything or anybody about what we're going to do.

We're on to Jacksonville and we've got our work cut out for us there. Jacksonville's a tough football team. They're physically tough and they're mentally tough. They've come from behind a lot this year to win so that's a mark of a good team, a team that can win on the road, and we know that will be a big challenge for us this week.

I think that Nick has done enough in his opportunities this year in preseason and in training camp to earn some playing time. Whether that continues or doesn't continue, I don't know. That will be determined by the way he plays, the way other people play, and again, that just builds a little bit of our versatility.

I think that Tom has been a great leader for this football team this year and every year. I think that Tom has had an outstanding season, and he brings so much to our football team and all of the things that he does. His preparation, his work ethic, his toughness. His ability to lead this team and lead the offense. He's an outstanding quarterback. I'm glad he's our quarterback.

Really, that's the best we've played in the red area all year long. We made a couple of stops after a sudden change, after we turned the ball over offensively. We came in there and didn't let them score a touchdown. We held them, based on the field position that we had, so, I mean, there were some positives to build on.

We played them last year in preseason (a 31-0 Jaguars romp in an exhibition finale the Patriots' regulars sat and watched). We played them the year before that in the regular season. I think there's some application on those games. I'm not sure how much. We'll look at those But this team is this year's team just like we are and everybody else is.

You can?t create players. You have to draft the board based on what your options are. As soon as you start taking players truly based on need, if they can?t fill that need, then you have to come back the next year or the next pick and you?re drafting again for the same spot and you haven?t filled anything other than putting a name on a piece of cardboard and putting it up on the depth chart.

Wesleyan's variety of curriculum, people and ideas helped prepare me for this aspect of my career, which began in 1975 and has continued to evolve every year since.

We're going to approach this as a normal week. We're treating this week just like every other week this year in terms of our preparation for the game.

Every season undergoes changes. I've been in the NFL over 30 years and it has been like that every single year in one way or another. Sometimes when it seems like we've had the most changes, those have turned out to be some of the better years.

Adam has been making big kicks since his rookie year in '96. He's a pressure kicker. He's really consistent.

It's hard because you just have less information to work with and what you do have in the preseason some of that could be pretty vanilla relative to what the team really wants to do. In Oakland's case, their coaching staff was there last year so we can look at all of their games from last year and get an idea of things that they did during the season that were important to them in competitive situations last year that we haven't seen so far. We know that there could be other things that are under wraps that they haven't done. We just have to be ready to make some adjustments during the game. I think that's the way it always is. There's no question that this is the hardest game.

No. I wouldn't say so. The guys played last year against San Francisco.

They'll be starting from a much higher point in terms of experience and background in our system, knowing what it takes to play in the league and all that. I think they came in at a very mature level. To avoid the second year not being as good as the first, I think they have to maintain their work ethic and attitude, desire, aggressiveness, all of those things that gave them a chance to be successful this year.

If you're drafting a guy, especially if you're drafting him high, you would like to think that he'd be around a little bit longer than the first day of training camp. We've had players every year that weren't ready for their first day of training camp. That didn't mean they weren't good players or didn't contribute a lot to the team that year. I don't think that's the final evaluation.

Honestly, we went through this at the end last year with the San Francisco game (and the starters played most of the game). Were treating this like a regular week ... I don't think anybody else really knows any other way to do it around here?. I don't think the players do. I don't think the coaches do. It's football season. Maybe I'll see it differently next week. I don't know.