PALM BEACH, Fla. — If the 2022 Patriots — after numerous key staff and player departures, and following a free agency period that saw the rest of the division and conference beef up while New England doggy paddled — seemed to be on collision course with an iceberg of mediocrity, you wouldn't know it from Bill Belichick's demeanor on Monday morning at The Breakers in his first media appearance since the day after the season.
Belichick was the exact same way he's always been. Took and listened to all the questions. Answered them the way he wanted to, with nary any specifics. Quickly closed down some more probing queries.
If you think the Super Bowl is determined by which team can keep fans and the media in the dark about such essential state secrets as what exactly will tight ends coach Nick Caley will be doing this year — it's widely assumed he had the best shot of being at least the pass game coordinator, if not the offensive coordinator — then get the Duck Boats ready, Dynasty 3.0 is full steam ahead for Glendale, Ariz.
After a 30-minute Q&A, we still don't know what any of the coaches are doing, especially on offense. Belichick only said the staff is "complete." If you wanted to know who will be working with Mac Jones or calling his plays — kind of essential issues after Josh McDaniels left for Las Vegas — Belichick wouldn't offer anything up. If you're more interested in hearing about how much veterans like Devin McCourty, Matthew Slater and James White mean to Belichick — as if you couldn't tell from his reliance on over-30 players in recent years — oh, and how essential and great Matt Patricia has been to Belichick, then this was for you.
If you wanted to hear the semblance of a plan for how the Patriots were going to ascend in the AFC after getting their doors blown off by the Bills, going 19-21 in their last 40 games, and finishing 5-11 collectively to close the last three seasons ... lol, good luck.
Have the Patriots gotten better compared to last year?
"We'll find out next year," Belichick said. "I think some of the players that we have on the roster, hopefully will take a step up but we'll see and we'll have other players, there will be new players here, we'll see what happens with them."
What about the season-ending loss to the Bills, when Belichick had to figure out if it was a bad day or who they had become?
"We really spent a lot of time focusing on the next season," he said. "And so that's really where most of our attention is gone and trying to put the best team on the field we can 2022 to get ready to review everything that happened in '21 season, which we did. And more importantly, it's about moving ahead. So some of those players that played in that game, or both games, a lot of them are back, some aren't back. There'll be some new players on both sides. Whether we play them, Miami, the Jets or whoever it is again I think more about '22 than '21."
Probably the most surprising nugget had to do with how Jones will be coached. Belichick mentioned himself (as he did last year), Patricia and Judge, but not Caley.
"I think Matt and Joe are pretty good coaches," Belichick said. "Josh is a great coach, but you know, we've gone through that multiple years. So...
"I'm sure everybody will have a role in it. I'm sure I'll work with him like I have before. Matt, Joe ..."
What about Caley?
"I'm sure I'll have a very significant role and like he always has," Belichick said. "As he grows in that experience, you get more responsibility. So that's pretty common the way it works, he would fall into that category.
"Everybody will have a defined role, like they always do. Again, the offseason is the offseason, once we get to getting on the field, coaching the players and gameplan and things like that, then, you know, that'll all work itself out."
What kind of offense will they be running?
"Ultimately it's my responsibility. So whatever happens under that, happens," Belichick said. "We won't be calling any for a while. We're not calling any for a while. So, yeah, I think our staff is complete. I wouldn't rule anything out but I don' think we necessarily have to hire anybody else. But we'll evaluate every situation as it comes."
Doesn't sound like the Patriots will be naming coordinators.
"I mean, I'm not big on titles. So we have jobs to do, we'll do the jobs," Belichick said. "I don't know what difference it makes."
It was pointed, like when Belichick himself was a defensive coordinator, being deemed to be in charge of one side of the ball identifies that person has having added responsibilities, which could lead to a head coaching job — nevermind a higher salary.
"Didn't seem to matter when Joe Judge was hired by the Giants," Belichick said.
Judge was the Patriots' special teams coordinator and receivers coach before he got a head coaching job.
"I don't worry about titles or jobs," Belichick said.
Not sure Bill Parcells would remember it the same way...
Why did the Patriots trade Shaq Mason and not tag JC Jackson?
"Felt like it was in the interest of the team."
Why haven't the Patriots tried to get better this year in free agency after spending so much last year?
"Spent a lot of money last year," Belichick said. "Those guys are all young, they're under contract."
Belichick, who turns 70 in a few weeks, doesn't seem to be worried about being spread too thin.
"I enjoy it. Enjoy doing it," he said. "All parts of it. comprehensive job. So it's a lot but it's fun. Beats working.
"I feel like I have a lot of good people working with me in the organization collectively. You know we do what we need to get done. I certainly don't do it all by any stretch. I rely on a lot of other good people and they do a great job. I'm very fortunate to have people on staff that we have."
On how the Patriots will deal with all the new additions to AFC East and AFC teams:
"Yeah, eventually (we'll prepare) sure," Belichick said. "It changes day to day. It could change day to day so we have a draft coming up and the other players added there. Don't think you spend a lot of time doing that now. There's gonna be a lot of changes. I think you're probably better off waiting until the majority of changes have been made, so you kind of get the full picture and then figure out what if anything how you want to dress it. I mean, I'm aware of Tyreek Hill but I mean, there's there were things that happened down here before traded for Hill.
Belichick confirmed there's no bad blood with McDaniels over him taking some Patriots staffers.
"Yeah, no. I mean, Josh is a great coach and I'm sure that he feels like it's a great opportunity. That's why he took it," he said. "Other than against us, I hope he does well, I'm sure he will do well, he's an outstanding coach. And yeah, some of the people with him are, you know, they're very good too. It all worked out well, I mean, it's an opportunity we couldn't provide and he'd be hard to replace. Like I said, I feel like we have really good coaches on our staff."
Belichick definitely has an opinion on Patricia, who is at the league meetings with Belichick — not sure I've ever seen an assistant coach here before.
"Broad role. Very broad. He does a lot of things. Helps me in a lot of ways.
"Yeah, he does a lot of things. So you know, he has a lot of experience. He's done things, you know, when he was here, and then of course he had experiences in Detroit and then last year things like the COVID rules and that type of thing. So Matt's had a lot of different roles for us. And like I said, it's been a big help to me and the organization.
"We've had a lot of coaches take multiple responsibilities. Josh and Brian Daboll were on defense and they went offense. Matt was on offense and went to defense so forth and so on. So I'm not really worried about that. I think a good coach is a good coach. Matt's a great coach, Joe's a great coach. They'll help us no matter what position they coach.
"(What kind of asset has Patricia been to you?) Great. It's been awesome."
Safety Peppers visits Patriots: Jabrill Peppers, the 25th overall pick in the 2017 draft by the Browns, is visiting the Patriots, according to Field Yates of ESPN.
Peppers, 26, has played the last three years for the Giants where he was one of Joe Judge's favorite players. He plays all four downs and is a versatile player.