Steve Belichick 9/26: "It's a good problem to have, having a lot of guys playing at a high level"

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Hey, Steve, how are you?

Steve Belichick (0:01)

I'm good, how are you?

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

I'm well. I'm just curious, I know you guys preach the versatility, especially in the back end, but having someone like Christian and his ability to man up on guys and play that way, does that give you more options as a defense, especially based on the way he's played the first few weeks here?

Steve Belichick (0:20)

Yeah, yeah, I mean, when those guys are playing well, it's a good problem to have that, you know, we got a lot of guys playing at a high level. So, yeah, you can move guys around and do different things.

The more versatility and the more depth you have at those spots really applies to any position, front, back, linebacker, all those spots.

SPEAKER_1 (0:45)

Has he surprised you at all? Guys in the locker room keep saying two things about him, how calm he is and, of course, how smooth he is.

Steve Belichick (0:55)

I don't know if I would say surprise, just because we did a lot of work on him coming out of college. So, I mean, you could see a lot of these traits when you watched all the college tape and stuff like that. So, I wouldn't say, like, surprise, but he's been playing really well so far, which is the expectation for all players around here.

But I'm definitely happy we have him. That's why we drafted him and everybody else. So, I'm happy that he's doing well, and I hope it can continue.

SPEAKER_1 (1:31)

Thank you.

Steve Belichick (1:33)

Thank you.

SPEAKER_1 (1:33)

All right, we got Zach Cox.

Zach Cox (1:35)

Go ahead, Zach. Hey, Steve, how are you?

Steve Belichick (1:39)

I'm good. How are you today?

Zach Cox (1:41)

Doing well.

Curious. I know you guys have quite a few ex-players on your coaching staff, but I'm curious what Viangelo Bentley has brought to the staff. Especially this season since Brian hasn't been able to be out on the field, you guys have been a little kind of shorthanded in the defensive backfield coaching situation.

Steve Belichick (2:00)

Yeah, I mean, I think Viangelo has done a great job last year. This year, I wouldn't say... I think he's done a great job with all the stuff he's done. Whether Brian was here or wasn't here, I don't think that that would have, you know, stunted his growth or anything like that. I think that...

I think he works really hard. He's a lot of attention to detail and, you know, trying to think outside the box a little bit and present some ideas that sometimes we're not always thinking about and brings a lot to our staff, a lot to the table, and has a really good perspective on that stuff, which helps us all.

Also, I enjoy working with V a lot, and, yeah, I think it's continued to get better since he came here and being comfortable in the organization and the building and stuff like that.

Zach Cox (2:55)

And I know he wasn't here especially long as a player, but did you ever get any sense during his time here that he could have a future in coaching?

Steve Belichick (3:07)

Honestly, I don't know if I would have predicted that. I don't really think of, like, oh, man, this guy would be a great coach and stuff like that.

There's other obstacles that we're working through during that time. But I guess reflecting back on it, I'm not really surprised. But at the same time, like, he could have chose to do a lot of different things. He just happened to get into coaching. But no, it's been awesome working with V.

Zach Cox (3:32)

Great, thanks, Steve.

Steve Belichick (3:33)

Thank you.