Bill Belichick Players Quotations

One of the things we wanted to do today was play competitively against a good football team. Obviously, it came right down to the last play. I was proud of the way our players fought. We had a lot of opportunities for a lot of people to play. This was really our last opportunity to do that, so we tried to take advantage of that.

But again, I think that's consistent with his philosophy, ... Whatever Al's philosophy is, it's been pretty consistent through the years, be it the type of players he gets to play corner(back), the coaches, their style of play, what he wears. It's all consistent.

I enjoy the competition of all the games. I love to coach and be in a competitive situation where we're up against the greatest players and the greatest coaches on a weekly basis. It's very challenging but it's very exciting, and that?s true every week.

He had some good players to go against in Kimo von Oelhoffen and Joey Porter. Some plays weren?t so good, but I thought he was competitive. He?s been playing both sides for us all year.

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.

We have to advance scout all three of them. There are other people in the organization that are taking care of that. It's not really something that the coaches and the players are all that concerned about.

He was a guy who was able to go hard and run hard on virtually every single play of the game. It didn't make any difference if it was the fourth quarter, in the middle of a two-minute drive, or the third play of the game. He was always very, very close to his top speed. ... Even if he had good players covering him, he'd wear them down.

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.

That always helps. More importantly than that, I think the players that are playing have played better.

I think, for the most part, you're looking at players who are in roles, or situations, as probably being the swing guys on those numbers. I don't know if the geniuses referred to that or not. Probably not,

We're treating this like a regular week. Put it in the headline. Bold type. It's a regular week. The players know that, the staff knows it.

You can?t create players. You have to draft the board based on what your options are. As soon as you start taking players truly based on need, if they can?t fill that need, then you have to come back the next year or the next pick and you?re drafting again for the same spot and you haven?t filled anything other than putting a name on a piece of cardboard and putting it up on the depth chart.

The running back situation is a good, competitive one. I think Antowain and Kevin are good players, have good, solid strengths. I think both of those players are going to be productive for us. They have been in the past. How exactly it's going to work out, I don't know. I'm sure it will be decided on the field. We'll do what we think is best for the team.

I've told everybody to be ready to go. I'm sure that we'll look at some of the players that didn't play as much in the Green Bay game a little bit more against the Giants and try to get the best evaluation that we can as we make our final decisions at the end of the week. I'm sure that the younger players and the players who didn't play as much against Green Bay will play more than the ones who did play quite a bit against Green Bay. Let's put it that way.

Any players that haven't been in the playoffs need to do everything they've done before and more to try to prepare. You can't simulate a playoff game in practice. You can't simulate it anywhere.

It's hard to get four quarterbacks the amount of reps that are really productive. You know, we've got two players that really haven't played any football at all for this organization and we're going to have to make some kind of evaluation on where they are. And the only way to evaluate them is to see them play.

That is the good news. The bad news is that there are a lot of things that he has to perfect technique-wise to be able to utilize all of those things. We'll see how it all comes together. We'll have to decide exactly what the best way try to use him is and also how that works in with the other skill players that we have on offense and how the whole thing meshes together. It is a long process, but he is a good guy to work with.

I'm proud of the team. The players played hard and I thought they played well and made the plays they needed to make to win the game.

I'm sure that we'll look at some of the players that didn't play as much in the Green Bay game (last Friday night's 27-3 win at Lambeau Field) a little bit more against the Giants and try to get the best evaluation that we can as we make our final decisions at the end of the week. I'm sure that the players who didn't play as much against Green Bay will play more than the ones who did play quite a bit against Green Bay. Let's put it that way.

I'm sure our younger players will play a bit more than they did in the Green Bay game,

I knew we could play better than we did early in the season. It's a credit to the players that they've turned things around.

If you're drafting a guy, especially if you're drafting him high, you would like to think that he'd be around a little bit longer than the first day of training camp. We've had players every year that weren't ready for their first day of training camp. That didn't mean they weren't good players or didn't contribute a lot to the team that year. I don't think that's the final evaluation.

I think all of the players on the team understand that they are going to be called on to do certain things, and for us to win and be successful, they need to do it, whatever it is,

Chad is improving a little bit every day, like a lot of our newer players are, ... I don't think he's ever really played this position. But he's a smart guy. He picked it up well and he's a good football player.

Honestly, we went through this at the end last year with the San Francisco game (and the starters played most of the game). Were treating this like a regular week ... I don't think anybody else really knows any other way to do it around here?. I don't think the players do. I don't think the coaches do. It's football season. Maybe I'll see it differently next week. I don't know.

I don't think Deion has any problem with it. I don't think a lot of our players have a problem with it. They understand what the expectations are of their position and their role, and they want to go out there and fulfill them.

I appreciate a compliment, I'm not saying that, ... But what it comes down to is how our team performs against the opponent we're playing against. There's a lot of things in this game that I can't do. There's a lot of things in this game the players and other coaches can't do, either. They just have to do their jobs, and collectively we have to do ours a little better than Denver is going to do theirs, and that's a big challenge.