Bedard: Belichick won't elaborate on Brady, says there will be a QB competition

Bill Belichick made his first comments to the media since the conclusion of the season — and since Tom Brady went to the Buccaneers — to talk about the draft.

Belichick made it pretty clear early on that he wasn't going to be discussing Brady very much. And he held true to that.

"At the start of free agency, I made a statement about Tom," Belichick said. "It would be of course impossible to sum up everything that Tom did in 20 years into a comment, then or now, but I meant everything I said about him and I’m sure we’ll be talking about him for years and decades to come. For right now, we’re moving forward and focused on the draft here for this call, and that’s really where our attention has been and will continue to be is to put the best team [together] in 2020, to do all we can between now and the start of the season. Our preparation is to have our team in the best position to compete in 2020."

He later shot down a good effort by Mike Giardi:

Q: Did you guys have a desire to bring Tom Brady back this coming season?

BB: Yeah, that’s water under the bridge, Mike. Like I said, we’re really focused on this season and trying to look at our opportunities and make decisions and plan and prepare to be as competitive as we can be this year. So, that’s really what our focus is on.

Q: Did it surprise you at all, him leaving?

BB: Again, I think we’ve covered all that.

But there were a few notable portions of the conference call:

With the draft changes this year, Belichick is learning to MyFace and InstaChat...

"Still have some work to do in that area in terms of just seeing exactly how everything’s going to function. We’ve talked about it and have an idea, but we’ll actually put it into place early next week and just see exactly how it’s going to go. But, I’m sure that it’s all well thought out and organized from a league standpoint, and we’ll just do our part when we’re involved in the process.

"... I’m certainly better at (the technology) than I was four weeks ago. I mean, I didn’t know what half of this was. But, at least now I can do more than I did, let’s put it that way. So, I get a little better every day – learn a new button or learn a new thing to click on and see what trick that does. ... Dan Famosi has done a tremendous job for us because he’s had to navigate a lot of this. I mean, there’s the coaching side of it, there’s the scouting, there’s the playbook and preparing for the offseason program side of it, meetings and so forth. Just to be able to deal with so many people that are – some are very proficient at some of the things we’re doing, and others, like myself, are remedial. And so putting things together on a lot of different levels for multiple groups and interactions that cross over different connections and needs and ‘can we do this with this type of meeting and this kind of conversation and can we do something else’ – you know, some are one-on-ones, some it’s five people, 10 people, 20 people, and we’re preparing for larger groups than that. So, there really are a lot of moving parts, and Dan’s done a tremendous job for us and tried to pull a lot of things together and remotely help out people like me that need a lot of help.

Belichick seemed to be OK with the Sanu trade...

"So, we have a lot of draft picks. Some of them are kind of more in a certain area. As you said, we have a little bit of a void there in the second round, although that player – [Mohamed] Sanu – filled a need for us, so that’s OK."

With the pandemic, the team is comparing it to the 2011 lockout but there's an advantage in being able to virtually teach this year. In '11, there was a mad scramble signing draft picks and free agents at the same time.

"If you compare this year to the lockout year, everybody had a lot of facilities available and they could work out wherever they wanted. That’s more limited this time, but we weren’t allowed to have any contact with the players. We couldn’t talk to the veteran players, we couldn’t talk to the first-year players, and in fact we couldn’t even sign the players that weren’t drafted until right before training camp. So, the opportunity to communicate and teach was very, very limited then.

"Now, I’d say we’re looking at a situation where the opportunity to train for some players may be more limited, but our opportunity to communicate with them and teach them, even though it’s remote, is infinitely better than what it was during the lockout. So, we’ll just have to see how all that plays out, but I do think that from a teaching standpoint, we can get a lot of teaching done that we weren’t able to do nine, 10 years ago in a similar but different situation. I think with the teaching part that we’ll hopefully be OK. I think the fundamental part of it, the execution part of it, the timing and so forth is going to be probably similar to what it was in the lockout in 2011 when you’re just dealing with training camp and you have to really accelerate the teaching or the execution and the teamwork and so forth – you just don’t have that good base to fall back on that we’ve been used to in the spring. At least, it doesn’t appear that way now."

Belichick admitted all decisions previously on offense were made with Brady in mind.

"Over the last two decades, everything we did, every single decision we made in terms of major planning, was made with the idea of how to make things best for Tom Brady. Now, with that being said, we’ve had several situations where we had to play and we knew Tom wasn’t going to be the quarterback. So, that would go back to [Matt] Cassel and Jimmy [Garoppolo] and Jacoby [Brisset] and situations like that. ... Cassel would be a good example – we geared everything towards doing what was best for him, just like we always geared everything for doing what was best for Tom and to help our offense there.

"I don’t really see that changing. Whoever the quarterback is, we’ll try to make things work smoothly and efficiently for that player and take advantage of his strengths and his skills. Each of us has different skills. Each quarterback has a different skillset, and whatever things that particular player does well, we’ll try to work towards and feature, or at least give him an opportunity to do those. And the things that either he doesn’t do well or needs more experience at or whatever the case might be, then we’ll try to minimize or until those things improve, work around them.

"So, I don’t see it being any different, the process, than what it’s ever been. It’s just we know the situation we’re in now is different than the year when we had to plan to play four games without Tom at the start of the season, but he would be back after that. This is a little bit different than that, but along the same lines as we get whoever is the quarterback ready, ready.

A new QB does not mean they're looking for different players at other offensive positions.

"I mean, not really. Again, we know the things we need to do to have a good team. We have to be able to protect the quarterback, we have to be able to run the ball, we have to be able to get open and catch the ball with whoever the receivers or tight ends or running backs are. We have to be able to play defense against all the teams we have to play against. So, I think those things will come into play more as we get on the field in training camp and start game planning and being more specific."

There will be a competition for the QB job ... at least that's what Belichick is saying publicly.

"Well, we’ve spent quite a bit of time with both Brian [Hoyer] and Stid. I think we have a pretty good – Josh [McDaniels] and myself – certainly have a pretty good feel for both those players. The circumstances will be different this year and we’ll see how everything plays out. But again, to start with, I think the main thing is to give everyone a chance to compete, to get people comfortable with the position and the skills that they’re playing, the communication that’s involved. We’ll evaluate the players as we get an opportunity to evaluate them. So, right now, the spring will be about teaching the best that we can. At whatever point we get a chance to get on the field and participate and play, then that’s what we’ll do. But, not sure exactly how that’s going to go. Once we figure it out, then we’ll work from there.d, if we’re in the second round. Right now, we’re not even in the second round. But, whatever rounds we’re officially in, we’ll try to maximize the value and help our team the best that we can."