Bill Belichick Defensive Quotations

A big part of Al's involvement with the team is on the defensive side of the ball. ... I'm sure his philosophy and impact on the defensive side of the ball has been very noticeable.

Maybe they played on their feet in high school, or as a freshman or sophomore in college, and then they got bigger and went down to the defensive line. Sometimes there is something to go back on there -- not always, but occasionally.

He's probably as good as there is in the game, ... not just on defensive backs, but also coming in and getting linebackers, which is unusual for a lot of receivers.

I think we have some players who are versatile. We have some depth at linebacker, on the defensive line and in the secondary. What we need to do, hopefully we'll have the flexibility to be able to try to do it.

Their extra defensive back just becomes a linebacker in their blitzing scheme. In sub, it becomes the same blitz, but it?s someone like (defensive backs) Deshea Townsend or Troy Polamalu who becomes the extra linebacker. It?s really a linebacker blitz. It?s the same two guys they?d bring in on regular defense, but they?re actually defensive backs because you have receivers in the game.

The guy can certainly play outside linebacker. We know he can play defensive end. I imagine he can move inside and play defensive tackle. There's no question he can play tight end. He probably can play offensive tackle. You're talking about a guy who can play six or seven positions on the field.

What you need to think about it is, 'How do I defeat the guy who is assigned to block me?' That's what defensive football really is about,

I learned a lot about receivers working with him and likewise. We tried to talk a lot about defensive backfield play as he was teaching the receivers how to beat the techniques that they were using, that type of thing.

They've taken their other defensive ends and put them to outside linebacker. You're really looking at what amounts to a 6-1 (six defensive linemen and one middle linebacker).

We didn't want to play him on defense last year. That was an emergency, desperation type of situation and of course Troy handled it wall...But he's a better receiver than he is a defensive back.

He does a great job from week to week of matching up his players against your defensive weaknesses. And he also adds little, different wrinkles to it.

I think he's been very productive in preseason. He's shown a lot of explosion and power. He looks a lot better in three-technique than he did as a 3-4 defensive end last year. He's probably playing with more confidence and maybe a little bit more energy. But when you have Ted Washington on one side and Kelly or Hamilton on the other side, (Sapp's) usually isolated on that guard and he's a handful.

Football's a contact sport. Tackling, that's what defensive football is, getting the guy with the ball on the ground.

Al's never really hired a defensive coach, Al's hired offensive coaches. That was the first question I asked him when I came out here was, 'What am I doing here?' A big part of Al's involvement with the team is on the defensive side of the ball.

Al's never really hired a defensive coach, Al's hired offensive coaches, ... That was the first question I asked him when I came out here was, 'What am I doing here?' A big part of Al's involvement with the team is on the defensive side of the ball.

Al's never really hired a defensive coach, Al's hired offensive coaches,

They do what they need to do. They can play their ?Cover 2? and they play it well. They play some zone and they can pressure. They probably don?t pressure as much as some teams, but they can definitely bring it. It?s a good defensive football team. They do everything pretty well.