Bedard: Bill Belichick still on top of his game when it comes to revealing nothing about draft plans

With Bill Belichick turning 69 on Friday (Rob Gronkowski is very excited about this), there are some things to question, a little bit, when it comes to the Patriots' grand poobah.

Like ... should he run the drafts anymore, especially when it comes to offensive players? Does Mr. No Days Off still grind away at the job like he did when he built this dynasty? Does he ever plan on drafting and developing another quarterback after Jimmy Garoppolo? What exactly is the fascination with Cam Newton?

After his only press conference Thursday since the season-ender, nobody is going to be questioning Belichick's stamina when it comes to revealing absolutely nothing about the team's draft plans, his performance or how he views pretty much anything.

Hey Bill, did the sun come out today?

"Yeah, I don't know. I think every person has their own vantage point when it comes to viewing the sun and I can't speak for what other people may or may not be looking at."

Okie dokie.

It wasn't contentious or anything — Belichick has had enough time in Florida and Nantucket to recharge his media batteries that are drained during the season — but other front offices just have to marvel at Belichick's discipline when it comes to talking around questions instead of answering them.

I mean, he was asked about Robert Kraft's comments about needing to do better in the draft and he didn't even snort at it.

"Yeah well, we’re always looking to get better, always try to evaluate everything we do and find a better way to do it," he said. "That’s not necessarily an annual process with the draft, but something we do on a regular basis throughout the course of the season, whether it’s whatever period of time it is. Always looking to do a better job. There are some things that last year that were unique to the draft process. As I mentioned, some of those are similar this year, some are different. We certainly use some of that experience to improve the process this year, at least we felt like we improved it this year. But ultimately, we’re still going to try to evaluate the players and make the decisions that we feel are best for the football team. We will continue to do that, and that’s really what we’ve always tried to do. I don’t think the mission’s changed."

Translation: There's no way in hell I'm giving you vultures one ounce of space to think that I'm admitting defeat on anything, and for all Robert knows, guys like Josh Uche, Kyle Dugger and Devin Asiasi could be studs ... maybe he forgot Michael Onwenu already is. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

And, by the way, for Robert's information, we're always tweaking and adjusting what we do in every way, every year. That's how we won six Super Bowls, including one three years ago.

Belichick was also asked directly, a) about Newton last season, and b) whether the free-agent spending spree (two receivers, two tight ends and one tackle) showed that the Patriots didn't surround Newton with enough.

Did you think Belichick was going to admit there were any personnel flaws last year? And, here's the kicker and shows why he's the GOAT of the press conference — he didn't even mention Newton and didn't give any tips on whether he's going to be the starter this season:

"Well again, the process this offseason was to, as it always is, to try to improve the team and do everything we can to make ourselves as competitive as we can this year, which is what we try to do every year," Belichick said. "We had several years in free agency where we were one of the least cash spending teams in the league and then this year that changed and balanced it off. That’s really what you have in the NFL – teams that don’t spend then spend and teams spend and then there are years when they don’t spend. It averages out over a period of time and that’s part of the averaging process came this year."

So the Patriots' spending was just about the law of averages and didn't have anything to do with a talent deficient roster. "We actually always spend the same when you average it out every year. This was just a slightly heavier year, that's all. It says nothing about the roster. And ... what quarterback?"

Yeah, ok.

Back to the spending spree...

"But ultimately, we’re trying to do what we can to improve the team like we do every year and that’s what we’re going to continue to do as we work through the draft process and other team-building opportunities that may or may not come along during the season," he said. "But I’m sure there will be others somewhere along the line. We will evaluate those when they present themselves."

I'm sure people will pour over every Belichick quote and see exactly what they want to see in it, when it comes to trying to figure out what the Patriots will do in the draft, especially at quarterback.

Good luck. The birthday boy gave us — and the rest of the NFL — absolutely nothing. Belichick 312, NFL 0.



Belichick trumpets new player personnel: "In the end we’ve accumulated a lot of information. Matt [Patricia] has rejoined us and has been heavily involved in the process. Dave Ziegler, Eliot Wolf and Matt Groh have really carried the ball on this. They’ve done a ton of work and their respective staffs that they oversee as well. In particular, those three guys have really done a tremendous amount work, evaluation, organization and have done a great job putting things together. It’s been great to spend a lot of time with them and go through the process."

On Julian Edelman: "Julian’s been one of the players that’s probably come further than most every other player that I’ve coached and his development from a quarterback in college to a receiver, a punt returner and even a defensive player, all positions that he never played, I’d certainly take sail as a punt returner as a receiver, for a number of years at those very difficult positions as quite an accomplishment, especially considering he wasn’t trained to do those things in college. His toughness, his competitiveness, his play-making ability certainly is a big, big part of the backbone of our team. I have a ton of respect for Julian and what he accomplished in his career, how hard he worked to accomplish it and a great appreciation for all he’s done for me personally and our organization."