What Garoppolo, Butler, Bennett And Hogan Said After Patriots Minicamp Practice
BOSTON (CBS) -- Under summer-like conditions in Foxboro, the Patriots hit the practice fields Tuesday for the start of mandatory minicamp. After the practice session, a few players spoke to the media. Here's what they had to say.
JIMMY GAROPPOLO
Garoppolo: "Long time no see, guys."
On how it feels to be on the field...
Garoppolo: "Good, good. Got some gorgeous weather today. We're slinging the ball around, it was a good day."
On Tom Brady's status being up in the air and if this year is any different from last year...
Garoppolo: "No. Pretty much the same. Going about my business the same way. Just coming out here trying to get better every day. We've been pretty fortunate so far to have good weather and everything, so practice has been going well. We've just got to keep rolling the way we are."
Does going through it last year help this year?
Garoppolo: "Obviously, experience always helps. To be honest, it really doesn't change much for me. Whether it happened last year or it didn't happen, I'm pretty much going about it the same way. Just enjoying the process right now and trying to get through OTAs."
On his comfort level this year...
Garoppolo: "I think going the right way, going in the right direction. Obviously there's a long way to go. I'm only going into year three now, so there's tons of things to improve on, so if we keep going in the right way, we'll be all right."
On the improvement of command on the playbook and personnel...
Garoppolo: "I think it's going really good, to be honest. I know all the guys and the guys know me. You're learning defenses -- it's not like you're picking up a playbook for the first time. I mean, I can remember back to rookie OTAs, it was night and day. So it's going well."
On what he's improving in his game...
Garoppolo: "Shoot. We'd be here for a while. Just little things here and there. The quarterback position, it's never-ending mentally, physically. Learning the guys in the locker room, off the field, on the field. All that stuff. So it's a never-ending list, really."
Arm strength?
Garoppolo: "It's going in the right direction."
On his throw that led to a highlight-reel grab by Aaron Dobson...
Garoppolo: "It was a heck of a grab. I couldn't really tell if he was getting held or not. It kind of looked like he one-handed it for a little bit, but he's one of our fast guys on the edge and he went up and made a play for me. You like seeing those things as a quarterback."
On everybody learning the offense...
Garoppolo: "Yeah I mean, coming into this, it's a tough offense to learn. I've never been with another offense, but just talking to guys from other teams. So any bit of knowledge that you can help give to those guys and help them out is just going to make the offense run that much smoother."
How's Tom Brady doing?
Garoppolo: "You should ask him that."
Is your relationship with Brady strong?
Garoppolo: "Yeah. We're all good. All good."
Is it frustrating to be a backup QB?
Garoppolo: "It's different, but we're not even into the season yet. So we've got a long way to go out here. There's no starters, no backups out here. We're all just competing, trying to win a job."
Were you surprised when the Patriots drafted a quarterback?
Garoppolo: "Not really."
What are your impressions of Jacoby Brissett?
Garoppolo: "He's a good kid. He really is. He can sling it around. He's coming along. We've all been there in that rookie situation, so I know how he feels."
MARTELLUS BENNETT
On getting extra practice time with Tom Brady...
Bennett: "It's been fun. It's a lot of communication. Sometimes we go full-speed, other times it's just him telling me what he sees, and I tell him what I see. So that way if I'm like, 'Hey I thought that was back shoulder,' or 'I thought this,' we just make sure that we're on the same page."
On people giving him praise for his OTA performance...
Bennett: "Oh a lot of fans were hitting me on Instagram and stuff like that, and I was like it's just OTAs. Every day you're just trying to work to get better. Right now, the plays in the season are made in the summer. Whether it's workouts away from here or workouts with the team, that's when you train to make plays during the season. Being a star at OTAs doesn't really mean anything. It's just that you're constantly working and trying to be the best player you can be every single day."
On working with Rob Gronkowski...
Bennett: "Gronk is awesome. I like him. He's funny. We're funny together."
On seeing big media crowds and understanding how much the Patriots mean to people in New England...
Bennett: "I've been to a lot of places. I was with the Cowboys and with the Giants and Chicago, but you guys are pretty cool, too. So it's a big group right now. So it's exciting."
On reaching his full on-field potential and whether being in New England is the best place to achieve that...
Bennett: "I think football is a sport that you can never really fully reach your potential, because there's always something -- it's very aggravating -- because there's always something that you could do better. I was fortunate to play with Jason Witten and Terrell Owens and a lot of guys like that early in my career, and just the way they worked and the way they constantly tried to get better, find one thing to get better. I think you can never truly be all that you can be, because there's always something that you could be doing better."
On how much fun players can have under Belichick...
Bennett: "I guess so. I don't know. I tend to have fun everywhere I go, so I don't really know. Football's fun. I play football not because I have to but because I want to. I enjoy playing football, so football's fun."
On what it's like being coached by Belichick...
Bennett: "It's fun. He's straightforward. He tells it to you like it is. And that's all you can expect from a guy."
On the value of getting in extra work with Tom Brady...
Bennett: "It's just like the student-to-teacher ratio. When it's lower, you have a better chance of learning the material. So it's always fun."
On entering the last year of his contract...
"I feel like every year is the last year of my contract."
MALCOLM BUTLER
On his OTA absence...
Butler: "Oh yeah, big misunderstanding. I had some off-the-field issues. That's that."
Any details...
Butler: "You know, family issues. Something like that."
On whether it feels good to get back out on the field...
Butler: "Most definitely. It feels great. Trying to get out here, get better, do anything to help the team win."
On putting into words the feeling of getting the competitive juices back...
Butler: "It feels good. We got a good group of cornerbacks. Everybody's out there competing. Nobody for sure has a job, and that makes the competition a lot better. And we're just out here competing, trying to do whatever to make the team better."
On whether he feels he has something to show the team...
Butler: "Most definitely. I'm pretty sure everyone feels that way."
On feelings about his contract situation...
Butler: "It is what it is. I'm gonna play hard no matter what. So it is what it is."
On whether any conversations have been held about a new deal...
Butler: "I'm not sure about it. I can control only what I can control, just out here playing football."
Are you deserving of a new deal?
Butler: "I've got no comment on that one."
On what he deserves to be paid...
Butler: "That's not my decision. All I can do is go out there and play football and make plays and just do whatever to help the team win. That's all I'm about."
On whether the field can be a sanctuary from contract talk...
Butler: "Most definitely. That's how you stay here."
CHRIS HOGAN
On OTAs and minicamp...
Hogan: "This is competition for us. Guys are out there trying to prove themselves. [They can't] necessarily make this team in OTAs and minicamp but they can definitely set themselves up going into training camp."
On being suited to succeed in this offense...
Hogan: "Like you said, it's early. Right now I'm just trying to take advantage of all this time that I have. We have obviously the OTAs and I had a lot of time to sit and learn the playbook, because it's a lot. But for me it's fun coming into a new offense and learning from Josh [McDaniels] and Chad [O'Shea] and Tom and Jimmy and all those guys, and Julian [Edelman], and just being able to learn this offense and just be a part of it come training camp and the season."
On the enticing idea of Patriots WRs thriving in this system...
Hogan: "I mean, it's intriguing, definitely. You know, you see how well these guys do during the season, and they're very successful. Yeah, definitely."
What does the Patriot Way mean to you?
Hogan: "Accountable. You're playing 100 percent every single down. And do your job. That's kind of stressed to us every single day. One thing that Coach Belichick's been saying is that you have to keep from losing before you can start winning. And I think that's what we're doing out here. We're learning and we're trying to hold ourselves accountable so that when it comes time for the season, we're ready to go."
On what's the most important element of being a WR in this offense...
Hogan: "Know your job. Know your job. Know where to line up and be able able to play fast."
On any concepts that might carry over from the Buffalo offense...
Hogan: "There's always carryover in the league. Every single team kind of does variations of the same thing. For me, we call some things differently, and I just have to learn the different verbage and be able to know where to line up and know my job."
On the demands of working with Tom Brady...
Hogan: "I think they all do, and I think it stems from working with Josh, and Josh has high expectations and that carries over for us. We have high expectations for ourselves as receivers. So we hold ourselves accountable to everything that we do here on the field, and that's all of us out there. Tom, Jimmy, Jacoby and all the wideouts."
