PATRIOTS DEFENSIVE END ROB NINKOVICH
Q: What do you feel like the team accomplished over the last two days?
RN: It's good to go against different competition. Again, when you get in that second and third week of camp, it's nice to see some opposite color across from you. It's two good teams out here trying to get better and work on the little things and really just trying to work together to get better.
Q: How important are the one-on-one drills with linemen from other teams?
RN: Every person has a different set and they use their hands differently. Like I said, when you're going against your own teammates you can kind of know what they're going to do. And then you go against another team, it's a completely different person, different technique, different style. It's good to just have that change up so you can work on your techniques and adjust to what they're doing.
Q: What is it like for you to go against Aaron Rodgers and then Drew Brees? How much does that help you in terms of preparing for a regular-season tempo?
RN: It's great to go against those great quarterbacks. Aaron Rodgers, obviously his career speaks for itself. Drew Brees, again, one of those guys that's an unbelievable quarterback, and he can do it all. Game planning against those guys and trying to understand what they do best on the field and just do your best against those guys – it's definitely going to make the team better.
Q: Drew Brees seems like one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL at looking off the defense. How does facing him in practice help you?
RN: Definitely. We have a guy on our team that's pretty good as well. Going against Tom, going against Drew, those are the two best in the league at what they do as far as look-offs and understanding what the defense is trying to do to them. The more you can work against those guys, the better you're going to be.
Q: Does Drew Brees do things in practice that are different from Tom Brady?
RN: It's two different types of styles. Drew, he's a good moving quarterback in the pocket. He understands the rush concepts and he's able to step up and get out of trouble with his pocket awareness. So again, he's a guy who has great pocket awareness, he knows where to go, and he's a little bit shorter than Tom, so him looking down the field is a little bit different. He's got to get up on his toes to see down the field. So, understanding the rush concepts when going against Drew versus a guy like Tom – it's two different quarterbacks, different styles in the way that they sit in the pocket.
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PATRIOTS OFFENSIVE LINEMAN NATE SOLDER
Q: What do you feel like the team accomplished over the last two days?
NS: We got a lot of good work. It's been real competitive against a good team. It's a good challenge for us to go against some other scheme, some other defenses and things, and I think we've been able to improve and we plan to continue to improve moving forward.
Q: How good has Tom Brady looked under center, and how important is it for you to see him as effective as he was today and what it does for the offensive line?
NS: Yeah, that's totally out of my lane. I think Tom's great, he's been playing great. I think that we're all just working to improve and take one day at a time.
Q: How has the offensive line been coming together?
NS: We're working one day at a time. A lot of young guys are improving, a lot of old guys are getting better at their craft, and we're working all pretty well together right now.
Q: How will the chemistry of the offensive line change as you guys work in younger guys?
NS: I don't know. We're all just working together trying to improve with everybody that's in there.
Q: How important are the one-on-one drills you do with the defensive linemen from the Saints compared to when you do them back in Foxboro?
NS: It's always good to see new people – different moves, different styles – because that's what you're going to see every week, and I think that that's a good replication of that coming down here with these guys and getting a lot of good work with them.
Q: Matthew Slater mentioned that each day is about building bricks as a foundation moving forward. How important are these practices come November, looking back at the conditioning you're getting done in these tough summer months?
NS: We have an opportunity to work on a lot of technique and fundamental stuff right now that you might not have an opportunity to work on during the season, so I think that's the foundation that I think he's talking about.
Q: What kind of different looks are you seeing from the Saints? How does it help you as an offensive lineman to see different front looks from another team?
NS: Like I said, with the season as it goes, you're going to see different looks every week, so being able to adjust on the fly, being able to see new looks, things that we may not run that they run and just adjust to that and be able to perform with that.
Q: Over the course of the last two days, how do you balance preparing for Saturday's game with focusing on yourself and your own improvement?
NS: It's a matter of improving. We take everything that we do, [and] we do it as competitively as we can because that's the mentality that we have about everything we do. If it's a preseason game or the first game of the season or whatever it is, we're just working hard to improve.
