BB: A really good week for us, important week for us working against Jacksonville. Doug [Marrone] and his staff have been great to work with, and I feel like we got a lot done yesterday. Hopefully we're going to get a lot more done today. But they, obviously, do some things differently than we do, so it's great for us to see different schemes, different players, different matchups. I thought it was very good for us yesterday. We can correct some of the things that came up and hopefully do a better job on some of those today. We'll just kind of keep moving through this week with Jacksonville, increasing the situations, increasing the game-like conditions, so that we can prepare the best that we can for true game conditions and situations, some of which will come up Thursday. Others won't come up until the regular season, but this is a good chance for our team to prepare against another team for those things. Good day yesterday. Look forward to today.
Q: Yesterday, Vince Wilfork creatively announced his retirement. Tomorrow, the Patriots will host him here for a press conference. What are your thoughts on him announcing his retirement?
BB: Yeah, great. Vince is a great player, had a great athletic career, great player here, did a lot for our football team in a lot of different ways on and off the field. He's a special, special player.
Q: Jason Taylor, in his Pro Football Hall of Fame speech, mentioned you and talked about the respect he had for you. What was your reaction to his remarks?
BB: Tremendously flattering. Believe me, he doesn't have nearly as much respect for me as I had for him. There hasn't been a player that we've game planned for like we did Jason Taylor. Tackles were an issue, tackles for a loss were an issue, but the bigger issue was tackles for loss that caused fumbles and then scoop-and-scores off of that. In the passing game, sacks were an issue. It was the strip sacks and the scoop-and-scores off the strip sacks that were even a bigger problem. Batted balls - they were a problem - tipped balls that went for interceptions, tipped balls that went for interceptions that were run back for touchdowns, those are the kind of things that just kept you up all night during the week that you played Taylor. Jimmy Johnson did a great job with drafting him and developing him. I thought that Coach [Nick] Saban in the two years down there when he was Player of the Year - I mean, hell, half the reason he's in the Hall of Fame is because of what he did against us. He was a tremendous player, very, very disruptive and literally a guy that we had to account for on every single play - goal line, third down, first down. I can remember with Charlie [Weis], with Josh [McDaniels] always making sure that we accounted for him on every single snap. Certainly appreciate the compliment that he threw my way last week in Canton. Appreciate it very much.
Q: In these joint practices, how much do you learn about how other teams conduct practices? Do you ever borrow things that they do and use it for your team?
BB: Yeah, sure. We always can take something from everybody. Jacksonville, obviously, is very well-coached. Coach Marrone, I have a lot of respect for what he has done in his career as an assistant coach, Syracuse, Buffalo, Jacksonville, New Orleans - as an assistant coach, as well, but as a head coach at those two programs. And watching some of the things they do out here, definitely, we've already talked about some of them. But, the bigger focus is just for us to move our team forward and try to do better at the things that we're doing. There's certainly a lot of room for improvement there, but Coach Marrone does an excellent job. He's got a great staff, and we certainly will take things from what they do and somehow incorporate or modify our program with them.
Q: Have you taken a look at the regular season schedule?
BB: Right now, we're really just focused on trying to have a good practice out here and improve against Jacksonville.
Q: For you, does the game in Mexico City mean something special?
BB: Well, it will maybe when we get there, but we're a long way from there right now. Right now, we're focused on this game and our preparation this week and our team trying to get better. I'm not really too worried about a bunch of other games that are going to happen some other time. I can't even think about those right now. They don't mean anything. The only thing that means anything is where our team is right now.
Q: Has it been good catching up with Tom Coughlin the last couple of days?
BB: Yeah, I saw Tom on the field before practice yesterday. Good to have him back, not that he was out of the league, but he's in the league with a team now. He was in the league office last year. Tom and I worked together. We talked about some things back when he was in that capacity, but good to see him back with Jacksonville.
Q: How beneficial is it having officials out at practice watching drills and calling penalties?
BB: Yeah, that's certainly helpful. They see it the way they see it. That's all that really matters. It doesn't matter what we think. It's how they view it. It gives us a good opportunity to have the game officiated impartially by them, not by a coach or somebody else, but just the way it's really going to be. We had several situations come up yesterday that we can learn from and plays that were called tight that we've got to be ready for them to be called tight and plays that maybe were called a little looser that maybe that's going to be the definition of it. We'll try to understand the rules properly so that we can play within them and continue to be one of the least penalized teams in the league.
Q: What have you seen from Jacob Hollister in the spring and through two weeks of camp?
BB: You know, Jacob's worked hard. He's done a good job of picking up our offense - smart kid. Special teams and his role and offense will all play together. We'll see how it all comes together, but he's worked hard and he got a lot of opportunity, a lot of reps. He got them yesterday. He'll get them this week and we'll see how he does.
Q: How important is this first preseason game for the evaluation of guys that are trying to make the roster?
BB: Well, every day is an important day in preseason, training camp, preseason games. They're all important.
Q: Is there extra emphasis on evaluation during these joint practices because it's more of a game-like situation?
BB: Everything's important.
Q: How would you describe how Brandin Cooks has fit into the culture here and his work on a daily basis?
BB: Very hard-working kid. Brandin works hard on the field, off the field, in the classroom, in the weight room, training, conditioning, practice tempo. He's a very hard worker, diligent, wants to know the right way to do it, wants to try to do it the way you want it done. He's been a pleasure to coach.
Q: Have you thought about quarterback reps at all on Thursday night and how you will split playing time?
BB: Yeah, we'll make that decision later on in the week. I mean, right now, we're just working on getting through this practice and tomorrow. You know, we'll figure that out.
Q: What are your thoughts on the development you've seen from year one to year two with Jacoby Brissett?
BB: Well, it's a work in progress. We'll see. We're a little over a week into training camp - 10, 11 practices - so we've got a long way to go. We'll see.
