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New England Patriots Links 5/30/12 - Tom Brady Adjusting to New Receivers

By Marima
<em>Tom Brady during OTAs at Gillette. He says he's moved past the Super Bowl loss, but we know better.</em>
Tom Brady during OTAs at Gillette. He says he's moved past the Super Bowl loss, but we know better.

ESPNBoston posts some highlights from Tom Brady's call-in to the Dennis & Callahan show this morning.

On adjusting to new receivers, as well as new receivers adjusting to the Patriots offense, specifically Brandon Lloyd. "Fortunately I’m very familiar with Jabar (Gaffney) and Donte’ (Stallworth), and Brandon’s going into his tenth year. He’s really a professional as well, he knows how to prepare himself, he’s been in our offense, he has at least familiarity with the things we’re doing. It’s been fun to work him, we haven’t been out there long, we’ve got a ton of practices to go, hopefully we make progress every day. Hopefully when we’re on the field we’re communicating and talking through stuff on the film room and talking through stuff on the game field of things that I see, things that he sees and that he expects.

Ultimately this game is about anticipation, if you’re not on the same page as your receivers or running backs or offensive linemen you can never anticipate and you just react. If you react, you’re always slow. I don’t need to be any more slow than I already am. Hopefully I can figure out ways to anticipate better, that’s part of the process in the offseason. Things that you see that you need to make improvements on, because if you don’t, you fall behind. Everyone else is gaining ground, you’ve got to find ways to gain ground as well."

On how long it takes new players to become comfortable within the Patriots offense. "It’s different with different players. There’s a lot of things that go into be a good player, especially on our team. Coach Belichick always tells us it’s not an easy program that he runs. Some guys come from other teams, and maybe they’re not really held as accountable on a daily basis, but coach Belichick – if I throw an incompletion, I’m going to hear about it. I think guys come, maybe they’ve been in the league for a while, and they’re like ‘Why is he always yelling? Why is he so tough on us?’ He just tries to keep the pressure on us, because he feels that’s the way that he gets the most out of us.

I think that you can tell relatively early the way that a guy responds to that type of coaching, you can look in his eyes in the huddle and see how confident and comfortable he is in what you’re asking him to do. Sometimes you get in the huddle and I’m looking at the guy and he’s looking at me, and he’s got this expression on his face like, ‘Oh God, what’s the play? Am I going to know where to go? Am I going to know how to do it? Am I going to be able to do what the coaches are asking me to do?’ Some guys you know right away, some guys it takes a couple of months. Obviously it can’t take forever. This is a performance-based business, if you’re not on the field performing and helping the team win, you’re not going to be around long, you can’t just think that you’re going to have two redshirt seasons and then you’re going to be the second string behind the fourth year senior and then you’re going to get your chance to play. You’re going to have to establish your own role for yourself. If you don’t, you’re not going to be in this business very long."

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