In his weekly Wednesday press conference with the media, Patriots coach Bill Belichick touched on a number of topics, including Denver's staunch defense, prolific Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall, and his relationship with first-year Denver head coach Josh McDaniels, who spent the previous eight seasons with the Patriots.

Belichick was asked about Broncos outside linebacker Elvis Dumervil, who is tied for the league lead with eight sacks, all coming in the past three games. Dumervil was a defensive end in college, but has moved to outside linebacker in Denver's 3-4 defensive scheme.

"I think that whole 4-3/3-4 thing is way overrated and overhyped. Essentially, players that play in the position that Dumervil plays or our outside linebackers play, there's a lot of similarities to a 4-3 defensive end," Belichick said. "We've seen Jason Taylor play on the edge in a 4-3, we've seen him play in a 3-4, we've seen him be the defensive player of the year in a 3-4. You decide when you're coaching that position and coaching that scheme you know how your players fit and where you want to play them, but somebody has to play on the end of the line."

Belichick was asked if he's had any conversations with McDaniels this week, even in a quick, "Good luck" kind of way.

"Right now the communication is between all the people that are involved with this team trying to get ready to play our opponent. That's the way it is every week," Belichick said. "Whatever conversations going on between Josh and I or any of the coaches I think are really personal and I don't think they're for a public forum. I think we all have those personal relationships, that's the way I think it should be, and that's the way they're going to stay."

Asked specifically about possibly acquiring Junior Seau, Belichick wouldn't bite. "Right now he's not on our football team, so it would be inappropriate to even be discussing it."