**

BB:** How we doing today? Got all those bye week stories ripping?

Q: We need some help with that.

BB: That's why I'm here. That's what I'm here for.

Q: Do you ever start to wear down? We take appraisals of where all the players are – where are you?

BB: [I'm] ready for the playoffs. That's what you work all year for: to get to this position [and] be able to compete in the postseason. We're excited about it.

Q: Can you talk about Danny Amendola's recent impact?

BB: Danny has really worked hard all year. He's one of the hardest working players we have. I think he's given us a lot of energy and production in the return game. He's had an opportunity to give us more in the passing game recently. I think he really competes hard. He's a good football player on all four downs and blocks well in the running game. He's been productive for us in the passing game. Obviously the play in the first Jet game was a huge play for us. But he's impacted us in the return game and really competes well on a daily basis. What you see on Sundays is what you see on Wednesday too.

Q: When you have a guy like Josh McDaniels who is interviewing with other teams, how do you feel about it? Are you excited for him or nervous about possibly losing him?

BB: I don't really have any control over it. So, we'll see what happens. We've seen this before multiple times [with] multiple coaches. We'll go through the process.

**

Q:** Is that in any way a badge of honor that a lot of places look to your guys for their jobs?

BB: I don't know.

Q: What's the balance to be struck between those obligations when a coordinator gets an interview at this time of year when the focus is on the playoffs? There's a report of Tom Brady restructuring his contract and looking ahead to next year. Is there a balance to be struck at this time of year during the bye week?

BB: As it relates to Josh, I just answered that. It is what it is. There are a lot of other teams in the playoffs that are going through the same situation. There's a protocol in place with the league. We'll comply with that as we always do. It is what it is. As a football team, we're in business 365 days a year. There are always potentially some things going on. There are other things like you cited, they're occurring on other teams as well. We're not operating in a vacuum. This is the National Football League.

Q: Yesterday Dont'a Hightower talked about Patrick Graham and his cerebral approach as a coach. What is it about Patrick's personality and approach that helps develop players?

BB: Pat's a very hardworking guy. He's had different responsibilities on our staff: the line and linebackers and other responsibilities as it relates to situation presentations or part of the scouting report, that kind of thing. He's pretty well versed in the game and a really smart guy. [He] can comprehend and process a lot of information. Again, [he] has a lot of experience at multiple positions, so [he] can tie it all together, knows what other guys are doing [and] how it all fits together. He works hard. He's bright, he's on top of things and he's a very demanding coach.

Q: Is that more than coincidence that he would have experience at multiple positions? When you hire a coach, do you want him to have experience at multiple positions?

BB: Not necessarily, but I don't think it's ever a bad thing, but not necessarily. Some guys coach the same position for a length of time. Other guys are shuffled around: been on offense to defense. Matt [Patricia] was on offense, now he's on defense. Josh and Brian Daboll were both on defense and on offense. Josh Boyer came in, was on defense and has pretty much been on the same side of the ball, same kind of location. Brian Flores was in scouting and has worked in the kicking game and defense. I don't there's any locked-in formula.

**

Q:** Can you think of any coaches who have advanced very quickly as an assistant on one side of the ball and then maybe got to a coordinator position or they were say a linebackers coach for 10 years and then transitioned to the other side of the ball successfully?

BB: [Raises hand] First year, I was on defense and special teams at Baltimore, coached the tight ends and special teams in Detroit, coached the receivers and special teams in Detroit – Floyd [Reese] was the special teams coach, but I helped in those areas. [I] went back to the defense in Denver and worked with special teams. [I was] special teams coach at the Giants, [then] coached the outside linebackers, [became] defensive coordinator. Josh [McDaniels] was in the scouting department, broke down film on defense, replaced [Brian] Daboll as the film breakdown guy then shifted over coached the quarterbacks the last year Charlie [Weis] was here in '04 – helped Charlie with the quarterbacks I should say. [Josh] took over the quarterbacks in '05, became the coordinator. That's not very many years – five years, six years, whatever it is. Yeah, I'm sure there's – I don't know everybody's professional line of progression, but I think there's plenty of them in our organization. Matt [Patricia] came in, broke down film on offense, helped Dante [Scarnecchia] with the offensive line, shifted to defense, he's worked with all three units; coordinator. So, yeah.

Q: How much can you see or judge from a coach or someone potentially getting into the NFL about their ability to break down film and see things?

BB: It definitely helps. It's a big part of it. Certainly the on the field interaction with the players – teaching, motivation, on the field coaching – that's a big part of it too. Game management, game decisions, adjustments, seeing things during games, it's all important. It's a different skill, a different tool. The better you can be at any of them or all of them, the more value you create for yourself and for your team. I think it's something that as a young coach, you're always trying to improve on. Even as an experienced coach, you're always trying to improve on that too. So, yeah, it's one of many tools – an important one.

**

Q:** Everyone always talks about Jamie Collins' athleticism and what he does in games and practices, but I'm curious about his football intelligence. When he came here the draft people said he was green, but it seems like he's gotten it pretty quickly.

BB: Jamie, he's a smart kid. He's another player that had a lot of experience, just not at the same position. He started off as a quarterback in high school. [He] went to Southern Miss as a safety, then they moved him to inside linebacker, then he played outside linebacker in a 3-4, then his senior year he played defensive end in a 4-3 and was rarely in coverage. But there's not a lot of players at that level, I would say, that have that kind of – from defensive end to safety, a quarterback in high school. Yeah, I would say looking at him coming out of college you wouldn't say that he was overly proficient in any of those areas. But I think you could see a lot of improvement in his play over the course of the year, like as a pass rusher as a defensive end, he improved a lot his senior year. But he only played it one year. Same thing as an inside linebacker, same thing as an outside linebacker. Really even watching him play safety a little bit as a freshman, he was a quarterback in high school. I think you could see that kind of progression, but then every year they either moved him or they had a staff change or scheme change that then precipitated him changing. Of course, as athletic and as a talented as he is, he probably could play all of those positions now to tell you the truth, even at this level. I'm sure he was an easy guy to move depending on what they felt like the requirements were for their team and what other players they had. But he's certainly grown in these two years and become very – again, he's a smart player. He's handled all the communication things that we've asked him to do. He's got a lot of different assignments. He can go from anywhere from rushing the passer to playing in the deep part of the field. He's a versatile player that can handle a lot of different responsibilities and assignments and the communication that goes with that.

**

Q:** With the evolution of defensive football to counteract offenses, is Jamie Collins, to a degree, a prototype of what more players will be? It seems like fewer linebackers will be on the field and there's a greater need for versatility. You played two linebackers for a huge chunk of the season.

BB: Yeah, well two or more, depending on how you classify them. Look, Jamie Collinses don't – it's not like there's two or three dozen of them in the draft every year. We're lucky to have one. Was Lawrence Taylor a prototype outside linebacker? Where's the next Lawrence Taylor? Those guys don't grow on trees. So, I don't know. I think that's part of building your team is trying to anticipate where your team is going and to a certain extent where, especially defensively because you have to react to what they put on the field. Defensively you have to be able to defend those things. How do you construct the defense so you can handle the different challenges that you have? I think if you look at the numbers statistically, the amount of five defensive backs that are on the field, you'll see numbers shift dramatically but particularly this year. You can see a trend, but there's a spike. There's only a very few number of teams, maybe four or five, that were under 50 percent nickel. So, when you talk about what defensive system do you run – virtually every team in the league, the defense they play the most is nickel. Five defensive backs, whatever version it is. There are five DBs, put it that way. Whatever the rest of it is, you can look at that separately. That's certainly not the way it was 10 years ago. I'd say we were in the 30s, 30 percent, high-30s. Now that number is doubled. We're almost, I think we're in the 70 – where's our stat guy [ESPN Boston's Mike Reiss]? But you know, I think we're in the 75 percent range of nickel defense this year. Now you know, we've been ahead some, but we've also played a lot of multiple receiver teams. That's flipped a little bit for us too. We've seen less nickel than a lot of other teams have. We go back to some of our other teams five, six, seven years ago, when we had a lot of three-receiver sets on the field, we saw more nickel than any team in the league. Now we're seeing, I'm not saying less than anybody, but we're certainly in the bottom quarter of teams that play us in nickel because we have a decent amount of two-receiver sets. Or, they just chose to play us that way, whatever it is. But I think the trends are a little bit – we're kind of going in an opposite direction there with what some of the league trends are.

**

Q:** Is that almost advantageous? People used to talk front to back in terms of numbers – 3-4 or 4-3 – now it's from the back.

BB: I think it's certainly something you have to be aware of. When we put in the 3-4 in 2000-2001, there were three teams running it. It was us, Pittsburgh and I don't know where the other team was. So, if you wanted a nose tackle, there were plenty of them out there. If you wanted a 3-4 outside linebacker, there were plenty of them out there. Guys like – [Rosevelt] Colvin was a good example at Chicago or even [Mike] Vrabel, those 3-4 outside linebackers, but there's nowhere to go. New England was a good option for both of them because the guys Mike was playing behind and Rosie was trying to play a 4-3 walked off the line linebacker to a defensive end in sub situations. But it wasn't really a clean fit for him. So he had a much cleaner fit in the 3-4. You look back five, six years ago and you've got 16, 17, 18 teams playing 3-4. You go to the draft board and think, 'Here's a nose tackle. Who needs a nose tackle?' Well eight teams in front of you need a nose tackle and there's two nose tackles. It's something you have to figure out where you can get the players to play in your system. Sometimes you just can't get them so either you have to change your system or modify it or play with lesser players if you want to maintain system. That's definitely a challenging part of it is keeping up with that, trying to stay at least even with it. Hopefully ahead of it, but at least even, but it's a lot easier said than done.

Q: How much can watching the games this weekend live help you?

BB: Less than one percent.

**

Q:** Not a big help.

BB: Less than one percent, I'd say. At the game live we can actually see what's – but then you have to travel and all that. Now you can get the film just as quickly. But I'd say watching it live versus watching it on TV, you would be able to get a lot more, a lot more out of it. Especially if that's all you had, which isn't really the case for us. But there was a time, live scouting –

Q: How has that evolved in your time? The immediacy of the film now.

BB: I grew up watching my dad scout games live. They played on Saturday. Sometimes they wouldn't get the films until Monday. Sunday air shipping from wherever the college team was located – Starkville, Mississippi or wherever the film was coming from. It took two days. So, he had that information pretty instantaneously: "Here are their substitutions, these are the plays they ran diagramed, here's the defenses they ran, here's how they handled these different situations." He had it when the game was over. So learned a lot on that when films weren't as readily available. I'm not saying they didn't have them, but there was a time lapse there. You're trying to make up game plans, you haven't even seen the game film yet, so you had to rely on live game scouting so it was critical. As technology has evolved it's become less so. Certain things you can get from a game live that you don't get off film, especially things like no-huddle and the communication procedures, things like that. Again, as you play teams through the years and coaching staffs remain the same, a lot of times you kind of know the way it was before and it's probably going to be about the same. But when you're facing new opponents like we do in other conferences and so forth, it's good to get a live look at those teams and see how they operate, particularly if it's a new staff or they've evolved to something a little bit different than what you're used to. The less you know a team the better that is.

**

Q:** How has the logging of the film changed? When you broke in you were writing it all done. How much of that is computerized as opposed to what you have to enter in on your own?

BB: You can get a lot of information now that's already preset for you. All the players that are on the field, so if you just want to watch all the plays with no. 79, you can click it and you've got them. Whereas even five years ago, you were, 'Is that 78, is that 79? That's the guy with the tape on his left hand.' You know, whatever picking them out. Things like that are a lot easier now: down, distance, field position, who the ball carrier was, who the penalty was on, all the stuff that basically comes off the play-by-play stats. That's all entered in. It's quicker that way. It's like anything else. The downside of that is when you do it yourself, you really know what it is and you remember it. When you just see a bunch of crap on the page then you kind of skim through it and you get what you want to get out of it, but it's not like detailing it [and] writing it out yourself. So I think there's still a lot to be said for grinding it out, doing the little things and really processing the information internally as opposed to just looking at it and being able to remember everything that you see at one glance. That's the faster way, that's the way to cut the corner in the end. Yeah, it's faster. In the end, is it better? I'm not sure.

Q: How quickly after the games end this weekend can you get the film?

BB: Certainly by the next morning; depending on when the game is, maybe even later that evening. A one o'clock game, you can probably get to it by seven, eight o'clock at night.

**

Q:** Do you spend more, less or the same amount of time as you did three, five, 10 years ago?

BB: I think it depends kind of what my role is that particular year, what areas I'm working with or on. I've worked in all – I'd say since the time I've been here, I've focused heavily on at times one side of the ball or the other or the kicking game, sometimes more spread evenly. Sometimes it varies a little bit from week to week. But I'd say about the same. But sometimes it can be broken down differently. Years that I was working heavily with the quarterbacks, it was a lot of opponent defensive film. Years that I was working more heavily with the defense, [it was] more opponent offensive film. [You're] still seeing the other side, but not in the same kind of depth and detail. The kicking game, that's always a chunk of it. It's just that chunk can vary in size a little bit depending on what the other demands are.

Q: How has Logan Ryan progressed this year?

BB: Good. I think Logan built on last year, which he was a solid contributor as a rookie. [He] had a good offseason and he's played a lot of good football for us this year. [He's a] smart kid, works hard, knows every position in the secondary, has great versatility. He's tough; plays for us in the kicking game. I think he works as hard as he can at the jobs he's asked to do. He's had good production for us on all four downs and I think there's room for improvement.

QUARTERBACK TOM BRADY

**

Q:** What did you guys accomplish in the intra-squad scrimmage at practice today?

TB: It was a lot of fun. It was fun to have a real competitive day. There were a lot of situations we covered and just a great, competitive spirit out there. So, it was a great day.

Q: Is it rare to have that type of a practice during the year?

TB: When you break training camp, there is not much competition between the offensive players and the defensive players. There is a lot of scout team work and stuff like that. Without really an opponent to work on, the only thing you really can do is go up against your own team and see some of the things that they do. So, it was fun. We talked about a lot of stuff going into the day. We talked a lot of stuff yesterday. We had a great day of practice. It's been a great week.

Q: Who had the upper hand?

TB: It was pretty balanced. I could see why it's hard to score on our defense, though, I can tell you that. They've got a lot of good players.

**

Q:** There seemed like there was a lot of trash talk going on, even afterwards.

TB: Guys made plays on both sides of the ball. It's good to see. I don't know if it's good or bad if you have one team that really dominates something like that. It's good to see the offense make some plays and the defense make some plays. That's what we're going to need here in a couple weeks or 10 days or something like that. It's nice to have both phases really playing well and playing with confidence. There's a real great spirit about us, so it was fun.

Q: Can you work on the things you need to work on in a practice like that – like starting fast and execution?

TB: Yeah, starting fast is about execution. They go hand in hand. Whoever we end up playing, it's going to be a good football team. Our execution is going to have to be at our very highest. So when you work on those things in practice, no one is going to make the plays for us. We're going to have to go out there and do it. Whatever your job is, whatever your responsibility is – throwing, running, catching, blocking, tackling – you've got to do it or else you'll be sitting at home watching all the other teams do it the next weekend. It'll be fun to kind of gear up and get ready for that. We've put a lot of work in this year to get to this point, and we've had two good, productive days of practice, so it's been a good week thus far.

**

Q:** Have you found time to admire what Bill Belichick and Matt Patricia have done on the defensive side of the ball this year?

TB: Yeah, they're playing just great football. It's great to see as an offensive player when you have a defense that's playing the way they're capable – rushing the quarterback, covering guys, stopping the run, all those things. They're very good situationally. They're tough in short-yardage situations, goal line situations. They're good when they get to the red area. They've got a lot of guys who can do a lot of things, a lot of guys who can cover and rush. They're playing really well.

Q: How do you balance having confidence going into the playoffs with not executing as well as you wanted to these past few weeks?

TB: You just have to believe in what you're doing and believe in each other and go out there and play with a lot of confidence. In spurts we've done some really good things, and other times our execution hasn't been as sharp. It really doesn't matter at this point what has happened – good, bad or indifferent. It just really matters what we really do from this point on. Every team has the same record. It's one loss for everybody and everybody goes home. I think you try to play to your strengths, and I think we've had a season's worth of stuff to study. And you try to get to the stuff you're really good at. You don't have a lot of time to invest in the things that you haven't been good at to get better at. You've just got to go with what you've been good at, and all the players who are dependable and consistent are going to be on the field, and hopefully everybody is healthy and ready to go and you can be at your best really when you need it the most.

**

Q:** You've heard this question before, but you won three Super Bowls in four years and now you haven't won the last nine years. Does each year that you don't win the Super Bowl motivate you or make it sweeter to think that this might be the year?

TB: I think we always really do feel like it's our year. I think you work pretty hard in the offseason to get yourself to this point. It's tough to do. There's only one team out of 32 that gets to win it. Hopefully, you're the one that gets the chance to do it. I've been fortunate to be a part of teams that have done it. We've got a great football team, so we'll see. We've got to go out there and earn it. Nobody is going to give it to us. You've got to play your biggest at the biggest moments against the best teams in the toughest conditions. You've got to see what you're made of. That's what this tournament all shakes out. It shakes out which team has played the best over the course of this season and put themselves in the good position this season to play your best in the postseason. We've had a couple of good days of practice to prepare for it. We've talked a lot about the things that we need to do better, the things that we needed to be at our best. And then whenever we figure out who we play, then you really hone in on the opponent and go after it.

Q: Does your respect for the three titles that you won in four years grow as you get older and realize that one or two plays can make a difference in winning or losing?

TB: Absolutely. Certain balls bounce your way or balls don't bounce your way or you get a turnover here or they make a play there, and that decides the fate of your season. It could be a third-and-one that you get or you don't get. Every little play becomes a big play, and you never know which play in the game is going to turn it. You always look back and go, 'Man, if we had just made that one play, it would've all been different.' But during the game you don't know that. It's [not] until after the game. I think all the little things are really important. You've just got focus in on what you've got to do as your job and try to do it the best you can. It's just a challenging thing to do. To be that final team is pretty tough as we all know. But we've also put ourselves in a good position, so that's all you can ask for at this point for us. Like I said, we look ahead to it with confidence knowing that we are capable of playing the best teams and playing really well against some of the best teams. All year we've done that, and now we've just got to do it in a single-elimination tournament.

**

Q:** Do you have a greater respect for that time now? Did it ever feel easy?

TB: I think when you're young, there is no perspective. Now that I have a little perspective on it, yeah, it's hard to do. To do what we accomplished in a short period of time was amazing. But we've had a pretty good run for a while now. We've won a lot of games. We've come up short a few times in some big ones, but we're lucky to be in those games, too. I think it's a great accomplishment.

Q: How energized do you get at this time of year?

TB: I think there is a renewed sense of it. Everything means more, so I think the guys have come in this week and put a lot into it. It's been a fun week of practice just to really understand what's on the line. We've got a lot of players who haven't been in the postseason and some new guys on the team who are really excited. So, we'll get a chance to go out there and play, and hopefully we go out and play really well. But it really starts with the practice, and like I said, we've had two good days. I know we practice tomorrow and then we get a chance to regroup a little bit and then figure out who we play.

Q: Reports came out that you restructured your contract again. I think that's the third time since 2012. Why did you do that, and how aware are you of your value to the organization and what it means to help upper management manipulate the roster?

TB: It's been a privilege to play here. I love playing here. It's just been a great experience in my life. Hopefully I'm here for the rest of my career, and hopefully I go out and play really well for this team. That matters more than anything. I'm going to try to be the best I can be. I play with a lot of great teammates, and I've played with a lot of great teammates over the years. I don't take those things for granted.

**

Q:** When you make a decision like that, is it because you're willing to do whatever you can to try to make the team better?

TB: I can only really make personal decisions – things that work for me and what I think is most important in my life. That's kind of what my focus has always been on. The most important thing for me is winning, and like I said, I've been very fortunate to be a part of a team that's been able to do that. It's tough to do in this era. It's tough to win a lot of games. It's just a competitive league, so hopefully we keep doing it.

Q: Is winning everything to you when it comes to your profession? Has your passion grown, or is it simply winning ahead of everything else with you?

TB: Well, I love the game. I love playing. To get a chance to come out and compete…I was a backup quarterback [as a] freshman [in] high school. I didn't even get to play. We were 0-8. I went to college as the seventh quarterback, barely played my fourth and fifth year, got drafted in the sixth round, was the fourth quarterback here my first year. You've got to learn to compete, and you've got to love to win. I think that's a great motivation is to get on the field and try to win. It's fun to do, so I don't think you really take those things for granted, and that's really the motivating factor. And certainly for me, I think the motivation is to never let my teammates down. I want to go out there and be the best I can be for them. Those guys work really hard, and I never want to be the reason why we lose the game. You've got to put a lot into it and try to go out there every day in practice to try to prove yourself. You earn the respect of your teammates by your work ethic and what you're able to accomplish on a daily basis. That's what football is all about to me.

TIGHT END ROB GRONKOWSKI

(On today's scrimmage)
"We're just going out there [to] practice hard, practicing versus each other. [We're] having fun out there – it's football. [We're] just practicing hard, getting corrections done and making plays and running, doing it all. We're just having fun out at practice and working hard."

(On the sense of urgency during the bye week)
"A bye week [or] no bye week, you want to make corrections, you want to go out, you want to execute at practice. Whenever you step out on the practice field you want to practice hard. That's what we're doing. I'm going out there trying to get better every single time I step out on the field."

(On the ability to correct starting fast during practice)
"You just want to go out there and you want to practice. You want to practice starting fast; you want to practice ending fast. You just want to practice everything overall to get better as a team."

(On how excited he is for playoffs)
"Oh, always excited. [I'm] just excited for practice, just practicing going out there is fun, but definitely. Especially when next week rolls around [I'm] definitely going to be mad eager and super excited."

CORNERBACK DARRELLE REVIS

(On this week's approach during the bye week)
"Our whole goal this week is just to get better. You know, go back on past games and just try to see where we can correct things and get better at them. That's all we've been doing, is trying to focus on us this whole week on this bye so that's what we've been doing."

(On what this year's postseason means to him)
"It's great man. You hear a lot of stories of friends that have played in the league and you talk to guys who have playoff experience and guys who never, who've played 12-13 years, and have never even touched the playoffs. It's great man. This is my third stab at it – at the playoffs. It's just something great. We've been working so hard and we've earned it. We've earned it throughout the regular season. Now it's a new season and football starts all over again."

(On if making the playoffs is something he envisioned when he signed with the Patriots)
"I think this was definitely a goal. I mean looking at the history of our organization we're definitely in the playoffs every year. Yeah, this was definitely a goal."

(On any advice he has for players preparing for their first playoffs)
"It takes a lot of hard work. It takes a collective group of guys who have the same vision – that's coaching staff and players – of what we want to do and what we want to accomplish as a whole team. So when you've got guys on the same page I think you see it on the field. When you see how great we play sometimes and that's the message I would have to relay to guys who haven't been to playoffs. You can see it, you can see they ball out on the field."

(On if today's scrimmage was beneficial as a change of pace)
"I think it was beneficial because it was very competitive. I think you've got to give credit to the coaches for seeing that, especially on the bye week. It's really an off week where we're not playing, so I think we did a great job of just being competitive and having that competitive spirit and just trying to work on the things that we've talked about that we need to work on in the past."

CORNERBACK BRANDON BROWNER

(On the upcoming week)
"We've still got one more day of practice, getting our bodies right. We'll watch some football this week to see who our opponent is coming up next Saturday."

(On if he'll be watching the games this weekend)
"Most definitely. I'm into football, so I'll sit around and watch football when I'm not playing anyways."

(On if he watches football games as a fan or as another player)
"You watch as a fan and as a player. You want to see which team you're going to play against, [and for] me personally, what team or what group of receivers do I match up best against."

(On Bill Belichick saying that he doesn't get much out of watching games on TV)
"[That's] because Bill watches it as a coach. He's got to watch 22 guys or 11 guys at one time. Me, I'm watching the receiver and maybe the DBs [defensive backs] at one time, so I can watch my keys."

(On the excitement of this time of year)
"It's very exciting because it's win or go home from this point on, and if you win, you're getting one step closer to where you want to be. So, it's very exciting."

(On if he specifically watches receivers when he watches games on TV)
"You want to key these guys' releases. You've got some guys who are quick at the line. You've got some guys who are big and strong and use their strength as their abilities to win."

(On if he has any New Year's resolutions)
"I want to win it all, to be honest. That's the only thing that matters to me, is winning it all. If I win it all, I think everything will fall into place."