On Monday, Bill Belichick held a pre-draft conference call with the media to discuss the upcoming draft.
It was also his first public comments since Tom Brady left New England and signed with Tampa Bay, although he did release a long, glowing statement the day Brady announced he was would not be returning.
Predictably, Brady came up, including by Belichick in his opening statement.
“At the start of free agency I made a statement about Tom," he said. "It would be of course impossible to sum up everything Tom did in 20 years into a comment then or now. I meant everything I said about him and I am sure we will be talking about him for years and decades to come. Right now, we’re moving forward and focusing on the draft for this call.”
The coach was later asked if the team had a desire to bring Brady back?
“I think that is water under the bridge," Belichick said. "Like I said, we’re really focused on this season and trying to look at our opportunities and make decisions, plan and prepare to be as competitive as we can be this year. That is really where our focus has been.”
And was he surprised he left?
“Again, I think we’ve covered all that," Belichick responded.
The 42-year-old came up again towards the end of the 30-minute call when Belichick acknowledged the vast majority of the decisions over the last 20 or so years offensively were based around Brady and his skills. He said the team would "try to take advantage" of the next QBs skills, which could be an indication the Patriots offense could be changing a bit in 2020.
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