Q: After one full training camp practice in the books, how's it going?
MP: I think it's just good to get going. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do. It's good to have everybody back and just trying to get better every day. Obviously it was good to be out here practicing.
Q: For the rookies, is it that they hit the ground running as hard as they can and you try to get them up to speed, even though they're swimming with all the information?
MP: I think for everybody, we just have to go. Training camp has started, everyone is here and we're going as hard as we can across the board to learn and improve every day. Try to learn as much as we can and get better and take it one day at a time.
Q: Can you talk about your relationship with Jerod Mayo?
MP: I'd like to say I'm pretty close with all the guys on our team in general, including the coaches. Jerod is an excellent player. He's a great role model for our team. He's a leader of our team. But like everybody, he's out here just trying to improve every day and make himself better and obviously we're all just trying to make the team better.
Q: At the draft, Bill Belichick spoke about the realization that you guys were in sub about 60 to 65 percent of the time and how you guys decided to get some better fits if that's what you're going to do. Is there going to be a lot of tweaking, installation and new stuff going in, despite the fact that there's quite a bit of carryover from last year with coaches and personnel?
MP: You know, I think our installation is what it is as far as what we're trying to get done. We're just trying to get it in every day and try to look at it and what it looks like and improve it the next day. I think whatever tendencies are in the game league-wide, that's what the league is doing and we'll try to handle it the best we can. No matter what personnel we have out there, everyone just kind of running they defense that we've got.
Q: For the lay person, is it going to look drastically different by the time September rolls around?
MP: I don't think you can really give a grand scheme picture of what it's going to look like. It's going to be an improving thing every day where we're just trying to get better. I think in general, we're just going to try to go out and run our defense and evolve it every day.
Q: Obviously there's a lot of work to do, but is it fun to be out here on the field again?
MP: I think it's great to be out here on the field and working and doing what we love: coaching and playing football. I think that's a great thing, absolutely. We love to do that every day.
Q: Can you talk about Dont'a Hightower? You had him on the inside a little today. Does he have that kind of flexibility?
MP: I think everybody out here is trying to learn their position and do the best job they can with that position or multiple positions if that's what they're doing. I think we have a philosophy of 'the more you can learn, the more you can do,' and just try to go out and do it every day.
Q: Does it feel different having a different hat on this year?
MP: I think we're all just trying to come out here and do our job and really focus on getting the team ready to go for the season. We all honestly really just work excellent together and we all really just do a great job and everybody just divides the pie up and we all work together really well.
Q: How happy are you to have Josh McDaniels back in the mix?
MP: Yeah, Josh McDaniels is a good friend and a good football coach, so [I'm] glad to have him on board and we're just looking forward to practicing against those guys every day.
