Q: Chan Gailey hasn't been in the league for several years. What sort of challenge does for trying to figure out, how he's going to marry his personnel with his scheme or because he spent so much time with Ryan Fitzpatrick, it kind of gives you a leg up?
BB: Well, I don't know about that. I mean it's opening day; there are always a lot of variables on opening day and there are even more this year for a number of reasons and that would be another one. Chan has had lot of success in this league of running his style offense, but he may modify that some and do something that would take advantage of Miami's personnel or maybe philosophically he has some different ideas, you know, than what he had, when we saw him at the Jets most recently. So we're just going to have to wait and see on that. Now, how he decides to attack us versus how we might attack somebody else, those are all unknowns, so it just adds to the intrigue of the opening day, which, there is always a lot of that anyway but this year, it'll be even harder to really go into the game with a lot of confidence of what your opponent's going to do.
Q: And, with Tua Tagovailoa, obviously, the challenge on him with no preseason tape and he hasn't played a game since last October. I know you always prepare for everybody, but how do you prepare for something like that?
BB: Yeah, you can say that about a lot of their guys. They've had guys they have drafted that I'm sure will play a lot. And then they had other players that they signed in free agency that I'm sure will play a lot. So, we have some guys in that category too, so we'll just have to see how that plays out. Other than having a general knowledge of the player's skills and a general knowledge of what you want to prepare for, you can't prepare for everything, but you pick the things out that you think are most likely or, maybe if you've seen a lot of something from your team, you don't spend as much time on that and spend a little more time on something else you think that you might need to work on. But however that ends up being composed, you just do the best you can to be ready to go and then I'm certain there's going to be a lot of adjustments within the game as things start to unfold, we'll know a lot more at the end of the first quarter than we could possibly know now, but we'll just have to see how that goes. They're in the same boat, so we will see how it comes out.
Q: Kind of in a similar vein about preparing for this game against Miami, obviously their last game was Week 17 last year against you guys. How relevant do you find that tape in preparing for this game, especially considering both coordinators are new this year?
BB: Again, I think everything has some relevance. We'll see how the percentages play out when we get to Sunday but, Miami had some success in some of the things that they did in that game. And so, you know, we'll be aware of that. There are other things that we can go back and look at. I mean, coach [Brian] Flores knows us, obviously very well, probably as well as any coach in the league does. Offensively, defensively and special teams, there are things that, we're going to prepare for but I'm sure we'll see things that we're not working on too. So we'll just have to try to count on our fundamentals and our rules and being sound to take care of those things.
Q: I have sort of a roster-building question. It looks like in Philadelphia they kept an extra quarterback on the practice squad but he's not actually physically going to be with the team. I'm wondering if you and your staff considered doing anything like that given the nature of that position and how important it is, obviously, or are the protocols such that you feel pretty confident that you wouldn't need to do something like that?
BB: Well I think we got Scott Zolak right around the corner if it really comes to that, so hopefully he'll be ready to go if we him.
Q: It might take a while to get that arm warm.
BB: Scott's a big strong guy, I don't think it would take too long.
Q: In all seriousness, when it comes to those guys and they're meeting together, is it just that you guys have a system set up where there's maybe not a ton of contact between them in case anybody did have something?
BB: I mean, Phil {Perry], everybody's in the same boat on this and there are really just a lot of unknowns. You can take several different approaches. I don't know that there's a right or wrong answer. I think everybody is going to do what they think's best based on their situation. We've talked about various scenarios and how to best maintain the depth and quality of our team. But, again, there's a lot of things that we can't predict, so we've done what we feel like is the best we can do in that area but I don't know if that's… and again it will depend on what happens. So we'll just have to see how it plays out. I think we're ready to do some things, if we feel the need to do them. So if that happens, we will react accordingly. At this time, like we're OK for where we are, but that could change, so we'll just have to see.
Q: Just wondering how you feel your players reacted and responded to the unique challenges of this offseason and this camp now that camp's done?
BB: Thanks for the question, Jim [McBride]. I think these guys really handled things very professionally. They understood the things that they needed to do, both individually and what we need to do as a team. There are a lot of new policies, protocols, just the daily routine. Things changed quite a bit from on what guys around here have been used to and guys that were new coming in, maybe didn't know what our routine was but they had to adapt to a routine that was different from wherever it was they came from. So, that includes the coaches and all the other support people and so forth. A lot of things we adjusted as we went. We made some changes from the first day and couple days and first week and so forth, so it's very much of an ongoing process. And that may occur now too, as we get into the regular season. We've tried to take what we did in training camp and modify it so that we can be efficient in the regular season, but might have to do that too, but I think that the staff, not just the coaching staff, but the entire staff that, you know, whether it's handling on our food or equipment or the training room so forth… and then obviously the players. They've all been very professional, handled things well. Made adjustments. Sometimes, not easy adjustments or sometimes things needed to be done very quickly, because we recognize a situation needed to be adjusted or fixed, so they reacted and got those things done. So, I think we've been in a pretty good place; we've gotten a lot done. And we still have a lot more to do. We're not where we would normally be at this time of year but I don't think anybody else is either. So, we'll just have to see all that plays out here once we start competing with other teams on the field, but I couldn't ask for any more than, you know what everybody's given us to this point and it's all the way across the board.
Q: Ryan Fitzpatrick has played more games against you in your time with the Patriots than any quarterback besides Peyton Manning. I'm just curious of your thoughts on his progression from when he first started off to now, and if any specific game or moment sticks out to you when facing him?
BB: Well, Ryan's a, you know, smart player very experienced player and a very instinctive player. He does things on the field that are done through instinct and experience and confidence. Every situation is a little bit different. You have to be careful on kind of overplaying him because he'll do things that, he'll take advantage of those situations where overplay him in one way or another. He's certainly has a great grasp of coach Gailey's system, for the amount of time that they've worked together. I'm sure that he can go in and out of things that they need to do to take advantage of defensive weaknesses and opportunities and things like that. He's, a tough competitor. He's a tough guy to tackle. He's got good quickness and can stay in a pocket, hard to bring down. He's also an excellent game manager and passer, you know, we certainly saw plenty of that last year from him. We have a lot of respect for what he can do and how well he's done it and, and can still do it. He's a little unpredictable, so that just makes it a little more difficult to defend because of its versatility and his ability with confidence attack weaknesses that the defense presents.
Q: What kind of progress have you seen from a couple of the rookie linebackers, Josh Uche, Anfernee Jennings? I know those are two guys who had some versatility coming out of college, have you kind of figured out what role you're going to slot them into as well?
BB: I think that's great question. I think any role that we put anybody into at this point is, is going to be done with…. we'll have to see how it goes. But you're right, those players do have a good degree of flexibility. They showed that in college and they've shown that here in camp. How it actually plays out, obviously remains to be seen. We'll have a plan, we'll have an idea of how we think it will go, or the areas that we, we want to use them and that may change from week to week and so forth. But, as it stands right now we'll have something but we'll have to see how that works itself out. As you mentioned, they have a lot of versatility. There are other players on our team that have versatility too, so when you combine those things together, you just have to figure out what you feel like gives you your best combination from an execution standpoint. But also, what gives you some flexibility to handle the things that your opponent does. And certainly this week with coach Gailey's offense, where they have the ability to run a lot of different personnel groups. They have a lot of receivers, they have a fullback, they have some different types of running backs. They have tight ends and they have different types of tight ends with different skill sets. So when you start mixing and matching those different personnel groups, you can come up with a lot of a lot of combinations and somehow defensively, you're going to have to ready to handle all of them. I don't know they'll do all in the game but, I'm sure they will somewhere along the line and, you know, you just have to be ready for that. So that's a challenge for a defensive system and versatility is a key part of that.
