Transcripts of conference calls by Tom Brady on Tuesday and Bill Belichick on Monday with Jets reporters:
PATRIOTS QB TOM BRADY
On what he saw from the Jets defense against Tampa Bay…
They've always had one of the best defenses in the league. It's really a challenge every time that we play them. I think they do quite a few things. They have a lot of different looks, a lot of different personnel packages. They really keep things moving on defense. It's a good scheme. They're a very well coached, very disciplined, very smart defense. They don't make many mental errors. It's going to be a great challenge for our offense. They rush, they cover, they blitz. The guys have different skillsets. They can all do a lot of things. It's a very good group.
On how difficult it is to play with injuries on the offense…
Well, I think I have a lot of confidence in the guys that we have on the roster and the guys that have been here all preseason. We've had a lot of running backs, we've got a lot of receivers that have been there. We've got three rookie receivers. Danny [Amendola] did a great job last week, Julian [Edelman] has done a great job. I have a lot of confidence in the guys we're playing with.
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On if it is a strength of his to play with younger players and help them adapt to the system…**
I think I've just been fortunate to play with a lot of really good players over the years. It's really up to them to come in and take the coaching and try to do what we've asked them to do. The guys that line up, that gain the confidence of Coach Belichick and the rest of the coaching staff for them to be put in the game, it's not easy to play here. We run a challenging scheme. There's a lot of terminology. We do a lot with our personnel and formations, shifts and motions and different route combinations. You need to be really a smart, tough player to fit into this offense.
On if he anticipates a more traditional Jets pass rush…
It's a very good pass rush. The linebackers, when they blitz, they're good blitzers. The nickel guys are really good blitzers. They're getting a lot of pressure with just their front. They get a lot of pressure on the quarterback. They've had a great defensive line, a lot of depth, it seems. They're all big and physical, just really good football players. That's what I've seen throughout the preseason and certainly into the Bucs game.
On his negative comments about the Jets in the past…
Well, it's a very good football team. They have a lot of good players. They're very well coached, they're smart, they're disciplined, they're physical. They do a lot of good things and we have a lot of respect for them as a team and their coaching staff and the players that play there. We've had a lot of players that have come to our team from the Jets. I think it's a good rivalry and hopefully we can win a really important game in our division.
On the pace of their offense catching defenses on their heels…
We have different forms of our offense and some are fast, some are slow. I think the important thing is that we execute well. I think when we execute well, it doesn't matter what pace we're going — we move the ball, we score points. I think that's really what we talked about and our focus is trying to execute a lot better than we did this last weekend because we're going to have to do it against one of the best defenses in the league.
On if the Patriots are vulnerable with their injuries…
I think every week we just try to take it week-to-week. We don't really read what people are saying or thinking. It's a long season and it's not even the second week of the year. We've only had three regular-season practices. We have so much to go in this season. It'll all be decided here in the next four months. There's nothing that we can do about what people may say or think other than go out there and try to play well and we're going to go try to play better than we played last weekend.
On Shane Vereen's injury…
Shane's a terrific player and we really rely on him for a lot of things but we have a lot of other guys that are willing to step in and try to do whatever they're asked to do. Whether that's Stevan Ridley or LeGarrette [Blount] or Brandon Bolden or Leon Washington, all those guys are really capable, are tough, competitive guys that look forward to the opportunity. That's just how pro football is. It's a physical sport and when guys go down other people have to step in and do the job as well as the previous guy.
On which AFC East teams will challenge them…
I think all three are challenging. I think it's a strong division. The Dolphins went on the road and won. We played the Bills and they gave us all they could handle. The Jets won their opener. There's good teams, there's good young players on every team. There's established players that are veteran leaders on each team. So it's a tough division. There is not an easy team that we have on our schedule.
On the Patriots defense…
Our defense has always really tried to complement our offense. There's games where we haven't scored many points and the defense has done a great job at limiting the opponents points. Other games where they might have given up points, we try to outscore them. It really doesn't matter if you win by 50 points or one point, it all counts the same. We try to complement each other as best we can.
PATRIOTS HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK (Monday)
On how Geno Smith looked on film…
Yeah, I have seen it and it was good. Good drive that they put together to get down for the first field goal to put them ahead. He made a couple of plays there at the end on the pass over the middle to [Kellen] Winslow and scrambled to set up the second drive. He showed his athleticism and showed good arm strength, good accuracy. He handled the team well.
On Shane Vereen's wrist injury…
Yeah, I'm not sure where we are on some of the guys after the game. We'll have to wait until the end of the day to get a chance to catch up with the trainers and all that, so I'm not sure. (Editor's note: Vereen today was placed on injured reserve with a designation to return.)
On how much different the Jets offense looks under coordinator Marty Mornhinweg…
It's definitely different, the West Coast element in the passing game. They've got a few Wildcat plays. There's some similarities but I'd say there's some significant differences and there's some different personnel, so even if the plays are the same, they're different when they're run by different people, different guys on the offensive line, tight ends, receivers, quarterback. There's some significant difference.
On if Jets week is still special…
I think the Jets are a good football team. We've always played very competitively with them. I've got a lot of respect for Rex [Ryan], his coaching staff, their players, their team. They certainly played well situationally in the game against Tampa. Yeah, absolutely. It's a division game so it's always tough.
On having Tim Tebow in the offseason…
He's not on our roster right now so I don't really think it's appropriate for me to talk about someone who's not on our team. We've got 53 other guys we can talk about.
On the challenges of preparing on a short week…
It's the same for both teams. We both have the same amount of time to get ready for the game. We'll do the best we can with it to be ready to go Thursday night.
On if he was surprised by how much Smith ran against Tampa Bay…
No, he's an athletic guy. We saw plenty of that when he was at West Virginia. He can run if he needs to run, he can throw if he needs to throw. I thought he did a good job of both.
On Rob Gronkowski's injury status…
He's coming along.
On how Gronkowski is coming along…
He's day-to-day.
On if the Aaron Hernandez situation has become less of an issue over time…
I've really said all I could say about that. I don't have anything to add. I said back in July that we've moved on and we've moved on.
On if it is more difficult for a rookie to play on a short week on the road…
I think it's a challenge for everybody this week, for the players, for coaches to get ready. That's all really what we can worry about is what we can do. We'll have to shorten our work week, but it's the same situation we played the Jets in last year on a Thursday game. We'll take the time that we can, try to get the most out of it in terms of our preparation for their schemes, their players, being able to do what we think we can do to win the game.
We'll just take it day by day and do the best we can. We're still kind of in the process of finalizing our game plan and stuff like that tonight. We haven't fully gotten into exactly what we're going to do. We just finished with Buffalo. We've got some ideas but we'll have to pull it all together here and try to figure out what's our best approach.
