Bill Belichick's Post Game Press Conference Transcript
Here is the complete transcript from Bill Belichick's post game press conference:
Opening Statement:
"I thought we gave a lot of guys a chance to play tonight that didn't play us much last week. I thought we played pretty hard. Certainly wasn't perfect, but we had a few guys show up, make some plays so we'll take a closer look at the film tomorrow and see how it all turned out but I thought we had some guys step up and make some plays tonight so that was good. It was a good opportunity to give those guys a chance to play on offense, on defense, in the kicking game, and I thought they responded well. We had a good week of practice and I thought they showed up quite a few times tonight. So we'll just go on from here and follow the decision making progress that we normally do at this time of year, meet the deadlines and the cuts that we have to make. There's no real time frame for that, other than when it needs to be in, we'll see how it goes in the next couple days as we just try to put everything together and make the best decision that we can for this 2013 football team."
On the Rolling Stone Story on Aaron Hernandez:
"Don't have anything to add."
Have you read it?
"Don't have anything to add."
It said in there that...
"Don't have anything to add."
(inaudible - but still related to that topic)
"Next question."
On Tim Tebow's performance:
"I think we had a lot of guys that stepped up and competed well tonight. We'll see how it all looks on film and take a closer look at everybody."
On the guys who played in the second half and if we should read into what it means for their roster status:
"I look at how they play. You can look at it however you want Tom [Curran], I don't care. Look at it upside down or backwards if you want, I'm just trying to look at how they play."
On the fact they've kept two quarterbacks in recent years and what would have to go into keeping Tebow:
"Whatever we do will be whatever we think is in the best interest for this football team, the 2013 football team. Whatever that is at any position. We'll do whatever we think is best for the team."
Inaudible - but still related to keeping Tebow:
"Whoever we keep, it will be because of the value they bring to the team."'
Asking "specifically" about the things Tebow does that could help the team:
"The things that we feel like he can do that will help our team. What he's been doing in training camp."
On the performances of Jake Bequette and Michael Buchanan and if it's consistent with what he's seen from them in practice:
"They both got a lot more of an opportunity to play tonight, they played basically the whole game and that's a lot more playing time than they've had in practice or in games and there were a lot of other guys like that went into that category that played almost the whole game. So it was a great opportunity for them and like I said, we'll take a look at everything tomorrow on the film and see how everybody did."
(Inaudible) but sounded like it was on Marcus Cannon and the fact he played pretty much the whole game:
"Well, he hasn't played much this preseason so it was an opportunity for him to play as well, but this is the first preseason game he's played in."
On the landmark settlement between the league and the NFLPA regarding concussions and his reaction:
"I'm glad it worked out for everybody. That's not really my thing, I mean I don't really know too much about that whole situation. Both sides agreed to it, than great."
More on the Rolling Stone article:
"I've told you I don't have any comment about that, there's nothing more I'm going to say about it."
On how the story may affect his football team:
"Anything else? (looks around the room)"
On how difficult it is to tell a player he's cut:
"This is the toughest part of the job. I mean we go to camp with 90 guys and we go to 53, so we know that we're going to have to tell 37 people that they can't be on the team. I mean, that's the math. So it's always hard when guys work hard, do everything you ask them to do, train hard, put forth all the effort they can put forth and you youstill have to tell 37 guys that they can't be a part of the team this year. So it's always a tough thing. Certainly guys that have been around here and have contributed and won a lot of games for us, which it seems like there's always a couple of guys in that category every year. But whenever that happens, that's even tougher because of the relationship and what they've done. We all know it's a competitive game and a competitive league, and that's what we sign up for. Whoever deserves to make it, then those are the guys we have to keep. The guys that don't make it, sometimes it's hard to tell them that but that's our job."
On when they'll start thinking about the quarterback situation in Buffalo:
"We'll see who they keep on the roster and we'll have to be ready for all 53 players that they have on their roster, whoever they happen to be. I mean until somebody's declared 'OUT', then we have to prepare for them. We know that that can happen on the first play of the game. Whoever we think could be in there, something could happen and the next person could be in there and that's true at every position. So whenever we play any opponent, it's always the same. We've got to prepare for all the people that they could have active against us and whichever ones play, then those are the ones we have to compete against. We can't control it."
