Brian Belichick 10/24: "We have to be a versatile defense"

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Hey, how's it going, man?

Brian Belichick (0:05)

Pretty good.

SPEAKER_1 (0:07)

I wanted to ask you about Miami's team speed. Might be sort of an obvious one, but how unusual is it, their team speed in your opinion, Brian? And how does that alter the way your group has to play as sort of the last line of defense?

Brian Belichick (0:25)

Yeah, I'd say it's unusual in that, you know, every team in the NFL has fast guys, but pretty much every guy on their offense is fast. So yeah, it's a little bit of a next level speed. And then obviously having two of the fastest guys in the league period with Hill and Waddle, you know, brings it up a notch. So yeah, certainly a big challenge dealing with a team that's that fast because they can stretch the field horizontally to create space and vertically to create space in a hurry. So yeah, hard to handle. So we got our hands full.

SPEAKER_1 (1:10)

Just to follow up quickly, Brian, is... Bill, I think we lost you.

You.

Brian Belichick (1:31)

We'll come back to Phil, does anyone else have a question for Brian? We'll come back here in a sec.

SPEAKER_1 (1:52)

I text them to see if we could get them back on. There we go, fill you back.

Bill, I think we're still losing you here.

Bill, if you could hear me, I think you might need to drive to a better location. Yeah, can you, is this any better, guys? Yes, gotcha. Sorry about that. In the car. Yeah, sorry, Brian. It just looks like, to the lay person, right, between guys like Kyle and Jabril, you know, like aggressive downhill guys that obviously have no problem with the contact aspect of the job. When you play a team that has as much speed as Miami does, though, do you have to emphasize, you know, the importance of maybe playing a little softer, for lack of a better term, just so they don't get those explosive plays that they sort of live off?

Brian Belichick (3:11)

Yeah, I mean, I would characterize, you know, our defensive players, you know, we want them, and, you know, they play this way as fast, physical, aggressive.

And so, you know, I wouldn't try to box them in with terms like that, you know, we want to, they, you know, we want them to be able to play a little softer, you know, we have to be a versatile defense that can play different ways, depending who we're going against and what we need to stop. So we need players who can implement that.

And thankfully, I think we have enough to do that and get that accomplished. So, you know, whatever a certain player's strengths are, you know, thankfully, I think the guys we have are versatile enough to get get done what we need to get done. And so we're, you know, I think they're, you know, the two guys you mentioned, Doug and Pep, I think both play play fast and are, you know, as well as physical players. But there's a lot of guys in the defense that are involved in, you know, covering team speed. So won't just be guys won't just be them. It will be the whole defense and how we can leverage speed, you know, protect space and tackle. And, yeah, it'll be it'll be everything together. And like I said, we'll have we'll need every, you know, positive attribute we can get this week to stop these guys. So we're looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_1 (4:54)

I don't know if anybody else has a question here, Aaron.

So we have time for one more. Go ahead, Phil.

Brian Belichick (5:01)

OK, great.

SPEAKER_1 (5:02)

I did just want to ask you about your drill, Brian.

What kind of emotion does he bring to your group? Maybe even behind the scenes when we see him on the field, he looks like he's an emotional, energetic guy. So what does he bring to your group and to the defense as a whole, you think?

Brian Belichick (5:23)

He brings a lot of a lot of energy and everything he does. And, you know, he's a guy like last year, he was he was coming off a serious knee injury. So in the spring, he was, you know, couldn't get on the field.

And, you know, that that energy and passion he has, has to has to come out. You know, it can't it doesn't stay in there. And so it was it was fun and good in the meeting rooms, even last spring when he wasn't on the field, you know, he was getting that energy out with the guys and asking questions and getting excited when we would, you know, do competitions and stuff in the room.