Field Yates notes Bill Belichick stressed another "big week" ahead for his team, starting with joint practices prior to Friday's exhibition game in Tampa.

"It’s another big week for us, in terms of working three days against Tampa, seeing the different players, different style of play, working out in different conditions than what we’re used to and all that," Belichick said. "[It’s a] good opportunity for us to improve our football team, and we’ll try to take advantage of each of these days and make the most out of it."

"As a coach, you try to do what’s best for your team," he said [when asked about joint practices]. "And if you feel like you can do something that can benefit your team, then you consider doing it. And [if] it works out, and you can, the logistics and the timing -- whatever other circumstances are involved -- you’re going to work it out to the point that it’s beneficial for your club, then that’s something that I would want to do."

Bill Belichick is asked to assess the center position and Monday night's rotation.

Part of what we look for in the offensive line are some players who have position flexibility and also there's competition for that starting center position. We had four guys play it last year and they all did a pretty good job. We've also worked Donald [Thomas] in there a little bit to give him some flexibility from playing the two guard spots. So it's a combination of all those things – it's a combination of competition for the position and also for flexibility for guys to play multiple positions so they increase their value to our overall team but also to, if they're not starting, to being active for the game as one of the backup offensive linemen that has position flexibility. It's all that's going on.

TEAM TALK

• Erik Scalavino tackles this week's Ask PFW Mailbag: Pondering the preseason.
• Game Preview: New England Patriots at Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Broadcast info, series history, team connections and more.
• The New England Patriots announced today that they have released DL Jonathan Fanene, OL Kyle Hill and K Chris Koepplin.
• Conference Call: Bill Belichick (13.41 min.)
• Patriots Today - The men behind Brady. (1.53 min. video)
• PFW in Progress - The PFW crew discusses the Pats' 27-17 preseason loss to the Eagles. (2 hour program)

LOCAL LINKS

• Jim Donaldson sees NE's fate hinges on keeping Brady healthy. Which, given the performance of the O-line, is a legitimate cause for concern.
• Tom E. Curran notes Brian Hoyer's numbers were not good against the Eagles, but he says he'll learn from it.
• Karen Guregian boldly takes another whack at the Patriots' 53-man roster. Rookie RB Brandon Bolden makes the cut.
• Paul Kenyon notes that with less than one week to the first cut-down day, the Patriots’ roster is beginning to take shape.
• Greg A. Bedard is puzzled by the timing of Jonathan Fanene's release and wonders if his medical issues were more involved than the Patriots knew about.
• Mark Farinella points to the release of Jonathan Fanene as yet another free agency failure.
• Mike Reiss says the clock is ticking for injured players.
• Mike Rodak looks at the curious case of Stevan Ridley's late-game snaps.
• Mary Paoletti notes Bill Belichick is seeing plenty of positives in rookie Brandon Bolden's eventful night.
• Michael Whitmer notes rookie RB Brandon Bolden used Monday night as an opportunity to earn himself a roster spot.
• Christopher Price points out Stephen Gostkowski had one heck of a night against the Eagles.
• Mike Reiss takes a look at the snaps played by offensive skill-position players in the Pats' 27-17 preseason loss. Deion Branch put in a full night.
• Christopher Price gives us a preseason stat check of Pats' QBs.
• Mike Reiss looks at the snaps played by Patriots defenders in the first half of Monday's game and analyzes what it may mean.
• Christopher Price tells us which NE defenders have done the best job of getting after the QB through two preseason games.
• Jeff Howe reports on Chandler Jones and Dont'a Hightower coming back to earth, following the typical rocky road for rookies.
• Mike Reiss highlights the evolving center competition and how the coaching staff split up the reps in the game.
• Field Yates passes along some observations after re-watching the game: First Quarter - Second Quarter.
• Mike Reiss answers his weekly Patriots mailbag: Offensive line concerns and more.
• Jeff Howe Patriots Notebook: Belichick gave a dozen players the night off Monday night, but the rest were sore with the typical day-after-game aches & pains; Brian Hoyer sees the value in having a quick turnaround to "see how tough we are"; Chandler Jones is still searching for his first sack, and working on his dance.

NATIONAL NEWS

• Brian McIntyre (NFL.com) Jeff Demps receives financial commitment from Pats.
• Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) Pats send Fanene packing, despite $3.85 million signing bonus.
• Josh Alper (ProFootballTalk) Andre Carter works out for Raiders.
• John Clayton (ESPN) Week 3: Rehearsal for the regular season.
• Peter King (SI) MMQB Tuesday Edition: AFC South tougher than expected, but Texans are ready; Mail.
• Bob Glauber (Newsday) NFL exec thinks replacement refs will begin regular season.
• Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) NFLPA still concerned about replacement officials, but what action will be taken?
• A.J. Perez (Fox Sports) NFL QBs most under the gun in 2012.