What They Said: Choice cuts from the Patriots' first media availability of the season

Some of the more interesting quotes from Cam Newton, Jarrett Stidham, Brian Hoyer and some assistant coaches from today:

CAM NEWTON

How are you meshing with Bill Belichick?

"Listen, listen. There's a lot of things that I say that if there's a perception, but at the end of the day, it's football. I've loved it ever since I've been here. I've been here, going on a week, now and you hear rumors about certain things, but once you finally get settled in on things like that, none of that really matters. It's just all about finding a way to prove your worth on the team.

When was the last time you had to compete for a job?

"Well, as far as compete, you compete every year. Doesn't matter how much a person's paid, doesn't matter how much a person is experienced, doesn't matter how much a person knows or doesn't know. I think we all are competing each and every day. I've been competing every single day. It didn't matter what the team was because at the end of the day, you're one game away, as I've learned in this past year. At the end of the day, it's just about, like I said, proving your worth and doing your part."

How much would you say you have to prove, if anything, heading into the season?

I don't have to prove nothing because at the end of the day, especially not to nobody. I have to prove to myself. That's a daily challenge. I don't think nobody's expectations will every surpass my expectations for myself. I'm just looking forward to the challenge and knowing and picking up this whole system; not only the philosophical way of the office, but also how things are run. This is a new team. I've only been geared towards one particular team and one particular city, but now moving to a whole nother residence has put the onus of trying to captain. That's something that has been rather the interesting part.

What were the workouts with Patriots receivers like for you?

Rather interesting. Just to see how their movements are from in and out of cuts, in and out of breaks and to actually break the ice. I wanted to get a head start on [them] at that particular time. Just get on the same page and expectation because let's be honest, it's not much that you can learn from a person more than you can learn from out of the facility interaction. I just wanted to see from personal things to even professional things as well.

What's it like to come here, with that elephant in the room you mentioned too?

All right. I mean, it's a breath of fresh air, to be honest with you. It's a challenge that I had to accept each and every day, but no challenge is ever going to be greater than the personal challenge that I challenge myself, personally. Yeah, we all know what that was and what it is and it needs no mention, but yet at the same time, I think I've got my hands full with trying to learn as much as I can in a short period of time and that's what I'm trying to do. I approach this day to day. Those guys have been unbelievable throughout this process. Also, just leaning on guidance from the teammates as well.

What was it like to pull into Gillette Stadium for the first time as a member of the Patriots and when I say the words New England Patriots, what it means to you?

Man, listen. I'm still constantly, I don't want to say in disbelief at this particular point in time, but it's just a surreal moment. Nobody really knows how excited I am just to be a part of this organization in many ways than one, just following up such a powerful dynasty that is rich in so much prestige and lineage of success that for me, a lot of people would hide from the notion to do certain things, but for me, I think this is opportunity is something that I wake up pinching myself each and every day. It's so surreal coming down One Patriot Place every single day and seeing the whole ambiance. Not only that, but seeing so much support around the city of Boston and Foxborough. It's just such a great environment for not only myself, but players included. It is crazy. I just found myself putting on shirts and say, "Oh, my God." I don't know when that moment is going to be, but I'm just going to keep doing what I'm supposed to do while I'm a member of the Patriots, so that somewhere it will click that this is the norm.

After two surgeries, when you guys get to those two weeks of practices that's all you're going to get before the season, are there any restrictions on you? Are you going to need maintenance days or anything as far as the shoulder or are you good to go?

At this particular point in time, sir, I’m full go.

JARRETT STIDHAM

Do you view yourself as having ability to start?

“Absolutely. I think I am definitely ready. I put in a lot of work this offseason to really improve mentality, physically, in a lot of different areas. At the end of the day I am extremely excited to compete with Cam and Hoy as we go forward in training camp and getting to the season and things like that. I am really looking forward to the competition. I love competing in whatever it is. I am really looking forward to it.”

Working with Cam/QB room

“It’s been really great. I have a pretty good relationship with Hoy just because of last year and getting to know him. I have known him and with Cam, he came down to Auburn I want to say my last spring there and him and I actually went to lunch after practice one day. Just talked about Auburn football and his experience and stuff. I had a relationship with him in school. But, ultimately all of us together it is a really great room. Hoy, who has a ton of experience at a lot of different places and a lot here. Cam, who is MVP, played in the Super Bowl. A great player in himself. It’s a great room to have a lot of experience. I am excited to learn with these guys and compete against them.”

Reaction to Cam signing

“I was actually back in Texas visiting some family when everything happened. Honestly, I was excited. What a great opportunity to compete with another great player — compete with Hoy and Cam. I was actually really excited for the opportunity ahead.”

BRIAN HOYER

On the QB room and QB competition:

It’s exciting for all of us just to get back to being in the building and being with new guys. Obviously, Cam joining the room and me coming back after being gone for about five months. It’s been fun. It’s been exciting and with this offseason that we had just starting from scratch this late in the season, it’s just a different timetable, a different scenario. We’re just trying to adapt and get used to it.

On returning to Patriots:

It was an easy decision for me. For me, my wife and my family we actually decided to make New England home last fall. We bought a house here last November. We were moving back here and I planned on kind of commuting if I was still with Indianapolis. When this opportunity came I was obviously eager to jump at it.

Why make NE home?

We just felt like throughout my career even though it’s been all over the place, this just felt like home. After coming back in ’17, ’18, ‘19, my kids have their friends, my wife has her friends, we all love living here and it was just a decision where as my career gets closer to the end, the last thing I want to do is have my career end and have to make a decision one more time where to move. So we wanted to put some roots down. We’re happy about that. When I had the opportunity to come back to the Patriots, things just kind of fell in place.

 

 

His agent said this would give him the opportunity to compete for the starting job. Does he still feel that way with Newton coming in?

For me, you’re still competing every day you go out. Regardless of what the spot is, it’s always a competition. Bill said that numerous times, you’re going to earn what you get. For me, it doesn’t matter if there’s 15 guys in the room. I’m always competing. When Tom was here I was always competing for the starting job, too. Now, I was probably never going to get that but I always competed like I was going to try to beat him out. That was the only thing I could do to try and make myself better. I think the more good players you have in a room, a group, offense, defense, team, it’s always going to rise the level of everyone else up. It’s something I’ve taken a part of before and it’s something I look forward to.

On working out with players outside of Gillette and how the dynamic came together after Cam signed:

I moved back here in January with the idea of moving into a new home and planned on going back to Indianapolis. When I came that I was able to sign back here, I was in the area and Jarrett and I talked. We were having these virtual meetings and said, ‘look, if anyone’s in town normally we’d be doing this right now and we have to be smart about it.’ So we kind of put that together. Once Cam came along we had one or two more sessions with people coming back into town. Now, we’ve been back in the building. It’s been good. Look, this is the NFL and teammates change from year-to-year. There’s always additions, subtractions. People come into the room, you embrace it and you move on. You’re teammates and one day at a time.

How strange is it going into a season knowing that Brady won’t be here?

That’s the way the league is. Obviously, he was here for 20 years. He was here the first time I was here, there were five years in between, I came back and he was still here. It is what it is. We all have to step up and do our jobs the best we can to replace him. I think maybe having the scenarios we’re in right now takes a little bit off of that. You don’t notice it as much. We’re socially distanced. There’s fewer people in the locker room. For me, it was great to come back and see the guys that I didn’t get to say goodbye to last year when I chose to go to Indianapolis. I’ve been excited about that. To see David Andrews back has been awesome. James White, all those guys, the McCourty’s, it’s been awesome. I had to do it like this for a while and then finally last week to be able to come back in and see those guys, you just want to give them a big hug. Unfortunately, you know you can’t do it. It’s definitely a challenge and we all have to do our jobs the best we can to be able to replace that.

 

JOSH MCDANIELS

What have you seen from Cam Newton? Are you excited to have a mobile quarterback?

Yes I have obviously had a chance to meet and get to know Cam. I think it’s like all new relationships, you kind of go through a process of kind of learning each other and we have a lot of players that, honestly, we kind of met in person for the first time in the last few days, Cam being one of them. It’s a different challenge, it’s a new year. Having coached Tom for a long time, there’s going to be a great competition, there’s a great energy right now in our room and within our offensive group just to get out on the field and do our walkthroughs and do their working out and all those things they’re able to do now and I think there’s an anticipation and excitement for us to have an opportunity to actually practice. We haven’t seen anybody do anything relatively speaking from a football perspective yet because we’re not at that phase yet of training camp but it’s been good getting to know everybody. Cam has come in and tried to just put his head down and work hard. I think the rest of the quarterback room is doing the same thing. Our offense and defense and special teams are all basically excited to be here. It’s almost like kids at recess. So we’re thankful for the opportunity to have a chance to work together and I’m looking forward to training camp to seeing a lot more things.

Jarrett or Cam … how about the idea of having more mobility?

It’s certainly not something I’m accustomed to using a great deal but you use whatever the strengths of your players that are on the field allow you to use, to try to move the ball and score points. So whatever that means relative to mobility at the QB position, size and power, quickness, length, height with receivers … you go through the same thing many different times. I remember when you get a new receiver group … our receivers have changed quite a bit in terms of some of them were bigger … Randy Moss was a bigger guy and then we’ve had some smaller guys like Wes Welker and Danny Amendola, and then you have tight ends that are more fast straight-line players and then you have guys like Gronk and those kinds of players. Regardless of what the position is, I think you try to use their strengths to allow them to make good plays and if that’s something we can figure out how to do well and get comfortable doing and feel like we can move the ball and be productive then we’re going to work as a staff to figure out how that works best, and try to utlitize it if we can.

Getting reps in camp for the QBS

There’s no question the more players that you’re trying to rep and get, lets just call them similar looks, the more difficult it can become. You’ve got to be creative. We’re use every period in practice, I know that for sure. You use every period in practice and whether it’s a group period or 7 on 7 or team periods, we’re going to have to evaluate everything we do and it goes from the QB position all the way through the offense on my side of the ball. We have a lot of new faces, a lot of new players that are learning things in our system and giving them opportunities to go out there and try to learn the fundamentals required to do those things well is really the most important thing. I think at the end of the day, when you go into a season the way we’re going into it with a truncated offseason, a truncated training camp, I think you really want to try to be as good as you can fundamentally and not worry about volume as much as possible. It doesn’t matter how many things you can teach, what matters is what we can do well. So we’re going to have to try to get all our QBs to do things the right way within the scheme of the offense and then let the competition play out and then at some point, that will kind of declare itself.

Cam’s experience vs what Stidham might have and how you evaluate based on experience.

I’ve seen the things that everybody … Brian has played a lot of football for a lot of different people. Stid’s played in college football and played a preseason for us and not much else. And Cam’s had a longer career and he’s been very successful. What really matters to me and us and what we do this training camp moving forward here and now, and how we evaluate what they’re doing on a day by basis in our offense with our players and our system and can they take care of the football, move the ball and score points when they’re out there and that’s really what all our competitions are based on … being able to do good things and help our team win.

Is there any way to help Cam adapt with this crash course or is it just something he’s going to have to do on his own?

I think it’s our job to help every player figure out how to process the information and go out and be able to play fast and be aggressive on the football field. I know we’re asking a lot about the QB position but it applies to all the new players. I mean, if we can’t figure out a way to get a bunch of different players in the same room to learn the material then we’re probably not doing a great job of what we’re tasked with. We have a whole bunch of guys on our offense and in our room and they don’t all learn the same and they’re not all obviously at the same point in terms of how much of this have they been subjected to. I think what’s really important for us to figure out how they learn best and then to make sure that we’re teaching in that direction when we’re speaking to them and we’re putting them in situations to try to improve and get better. WE have to do that in all our rooms, honestly. We have offensive linemen that haven’t been on the field, haven’t done anything. Same thing with the receiver room, tight ends, we have a lot of young TEs so we all have to be able to be adjustable, and the goal is for our group and then our offense to go out there and know what to do and be able to execute and play well. We’re going to have to figure out ways to do that, regardless of the position.

Have you gotten any sense of Cam and his learning process yet?

He’s a smart football player. He’s played a lot of football. He’s seen a lot of stuff. Guys in our league rarely have the type of success that a player like he has had and this fast without understanding the game. He learns well and we’re in the middle of this process of trying to get him caught up along with a lot of the new guys to learn what we want him to do, we’ll just keep working at it every day. I know they have a great spirit and demeanor about themselves and they’re working at it really hard and we’ll see how far we can take it by the time we are ready to play. I think the other thing is, whatever we don’t do well, we don’t do it. That’s really an important thing and an important factor for us to keep in mind. Doesn’t matter how much I want to do well, what matters is what we can actually do well. Whatever that is, we’ll try to win that way.

Related to the opt-outs … what can you tell us about Cajuste, Cunningham and how you see right tackle, Vitale … seemed like you were trying to get a little bit more athletic at FB, can you still do that? And losing LaCosse at TE …

I respect all those guys for making their own decisions, it’s their choice and we all have to do what’s best for our personal situations and family. We love those guys and have a great deal of respect for them so we’re going to miss them.

I think what we’re doing now is without having been out on the practice field and done much work where we can actually see anybody do much, we’re teaching a lot of guys different spots. All the tackles … we rarely teach somebody one spot on the line. Guys are trying to work in their mind mentally LT, RT, walkthroughs, to prepare for the coming days and weeks when we actually have an opportunity to go out there and practice and see how it all shakes out. I think our goal is always to put our best five linemen out there. Whoever that person ends up being at RT, I just hope he’s the best player because our evaluations should be, how do we put the best group of five out there that can play well together. Yodny hasn’t practiced here. Korey didn’t really have a training camp last year. Jermaine Eluemunor didn’t have a training camp last year … you know what I mean? We’re going to get to know these guys along with the guys we just drafted and figure out kind of how do we need to slot them eventually and what’s the best fit?

There’s no question in my mind that you have to have some versatility, and that’s what we’re really trying to traing them to be able to do now so that they have more chances to compete at multiple spots on the front. If we just plugged them into one spot only, we’d probably limit their opportunity to play. So we’re going to teach them a lot of different spots and Carm and Cole are doing a great job of doing that and trying to get those guys ready to go when we’re able to practice.

Do you have to reinvent yourself in a sense with Tom operating this offense you’ve built?

Try to get it the same mentality, but adapt it to the players that we have. I’m thankful for the experiences that I’ve had when I didn’t have Tom. Believe me, no one was happier to have him out there when he was out there for all the years I was fortunate to coach him. But I would say I did have some experience with the Matt Cassel year, which I learned a lot about how to tailor something to somebody else’s strengths, we had to play that four-game stretch a handful of years ago with Jacoby and Jimmy, I thought that was helpful. And I was away for three years. So trying to really adapt … it’s not changing your system, it’s adapting your adapting your system to the talents and strengths of your players. So, again, you just have to keep telling yourself, ‘Do I really want us to be good at this? Or are we good at this?” There’s things … there’s a fine line between really pushing hard to keep working at something that you’re just not showing much progress in vs. ‘hey, you know what, we’re a lot better at A, B and C then we are D, E and F, why don’t we just do more A, B and C?” I think as a staff we’ve really had a lot of conversations about those kinds of things. Again, we can’t make any declarations about what we’re good at yet because we haven’t practiced. I think everybody’s chomping at the bit, eager to get out there and start to make a few decisions about some things that we want to try to get good at, and if we’re just not making a lot of progress then we just have to shift gears and go in a different direction. But I’m going to lean on my experience and then I’m going to lean on the staff, coach Belichick, just to, you know, ‘Let’s be real with ourselves,’ you know what I mean? “Yeah, we used to be good at that. We’re not doing so hot at it so let’s just scrap it for now and move in a different direction.” We’ve tried to change like that. Even though we had the same QB for many years, our system wasn’t always the same. Some years it was 12 personnel, some year it was regular personnel with a FB, other years we were no huddle. So we’ve tried to do that with our system and our players in the past. I’d say the same thing is going to applied this year.