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Pioli's take

Patriots Vice President of Player Personnel Scott Pioli spoke with sports radio WEEI’s “Big Show” as part of “Patriots Monday” programming today.

Pioli rarely conducts interviews during the season. Here is the Q&A:

Bill Belichick has learned a great deal from his father, who people say was a real coach…
“His dad was a real coach and Bill learned a lot from him. And there are a lot of other people who learned a lot from him. Steve was at the Naval Academy for what seemed like forever. It’s interesting, when Bill got the head job in Cleveland [in 1991], Steve was up in Cleveland quite a bit. He’d spend time with our scouting staff, he’d spend time with the coaching staff. He was always around. I was fortunate. My first year in Cleveland, 1992, Steve was around quite a bit. The first road scouting trip that I ever did, I was down seeing Syracuse play the University of West Virginia in fabulous Morgantown, West Virginia, and I get up to the press box and as I’m getting set up -- I’m there real early -- I see the nametag in the seat next to me in the press box –- it says Steve Belichick. The one on the other side it says Jeannette Belichick. So a couple minutes later, in comes Steve Belichick and Jeanette, who I had gotten to know sometime before, and it was unbelievable. It was right down to business. Steve broke out his books, his pens, his paper, and Jeannette broke out her markers and highlighters and they went right to work. He’s calling out names and she’s circling them and highlighting them. It was an unbelievable experience. My first time out on the road, I was uptight as it was. Before you know it, Steve and Jeannette are in there and they’re working faster than me. I had to pick up the pace a little bit.”

Didn’t Steve write a book on scouting, and someone said people are still looking at that…
“I’ve read the book. I have a copy of the book at home. I read it pretty early on from the time I met Steve. It’s mostly on advanced scouting, when you’re scouting an opponent and how to pick things up -- keys to look at, not only just on players and tendencies but how to figure out fronts and coverages quickly. Watching a game and scouting a game live is very difficult to do. It’s a true art. And that’s what Steve used to do. He would scout a game. He would have the preparation done, where he would have seen film before the game, but when you’re watching it live, there is no clicker to play the play back and pick things up and see things. The book is really interesting. Anyone who is ever interested in being a scout, it’s a great book to pick up and read, if you can find copies.”

People say Bill is the best in the league on finding a weakness and being able to exploit it on game day. You wonder how much he picked up from his dad, because it sounds like that was Steve Belichick’s thing.
“It was Steve’s thing. Again, from the time Bill was a kid, he was around it. He was helping his dad break down film. He had a lot of time to spend around it. Bill was an only child, so there was a lot of opportunity. They both love it. They got to spend a lot of time together on the game.”

People talked about Bill going out and coaching the game without saying anything. What is it about coaches that they can stay focused even though they are dealing with so much?
“I think it’s part of the culture we create, and is created, and part of what you’re teaching. It’s practicing what you preach. You’re telling players to stay focused on the task at hand. A lot of things happen in people’s lives and there is a moment in that snapshot in time where you have to stay focused and get things done. It’s a matter of mental discipline. You guys have been [in situations where] there are a lot of people depending on you being focused, you doing your job, and you doing what you need to do. Bill clearly understood, they spent a whole week preparing for this football game and there are a lot of people, 53 guys in that locker room, counting on him. There are a lot of fans counting on him. There are a lot of people counting on him doing his job and doing it the right way. So he needed to stay focused. It sounds very cliché, but it’s a selflessness that goes into being a team player. There are people depending on you and it’s part of the job you’ve got to get done. I’m sure there have been situations when you guys were players where there were things that under normal circumstances maybe would have been distracting, but you had to do everything you needed to do to stay focused. There are a lot of people depending on you.”

As a player you can be more selfish, because a coach has to worry about the overall plan…
“He has an entire organization counting on him doing the right thing.”

The other thing he has is the knowledge that what he did is exactly how his father would want it…
“Absolutely. You are absolutely right. That’s how Steve would have handled it. Bill handled it as his dad would have handled it.”

How did you get into football, was your dad a coach?
“No, I’ve loved football since I was a kid. It’s just something I absolutely loved. I grew up around the West Point area so I saw a couple games at Michie Stadium, a great place to see a game. I saw one [pro] game as a kid when I was 8 years old, it was September 23rd, 1973, the last game ever played by any team in the old Yankee Stadium before they re-did it. It was the Giants and the Eagles. They tied 23-23 and Pete Gogolak kicked a field goal on the last play of the game. And I’ve been hooked for life. I just love the game.”

How much change is it with Bill gone – it sounds like he won’t be back until Wednesday night?
“There will be some changes. Dante [Scarnecchia] is going to lead the meetings and during the week, the roles of the coordinators, the assistant coaches and those people, they all have a lot to do in meetings anyway. They are running positional meetings -- offensive and defensive meetings -- so there is obviously going to be an aspect that’s different but again, Dante has been here. This is our sixth year together. Dante has been in this role before. There have been other times that Dante has had to take over for a day or so, so it’s just business as usual. There are enough professionals here, not only on the coaching staff but in the locker room and all around. People know what the drill is. It will be different without Bill here today and whatever other time is missed, but everyone will do their job and know what needs to get done.”

What did you guys see that Miami didn’t see in Heath Evans?
“I’m not sure what Miami didn’t see. What we saw was a guy who was a big back. We like bigger backs because of the style of offense we run. He’s a guy who had some fullback skills, but also had some running back skills, and he had a style of play, and he was available on the street. What their evaluation was, I’m not sure. We thought he had some of the skills we needed at that point in time. We had a number of backs beat up and it was time to find someone.”

How long was he available for, a week?
“I want to say it was about 10 days, a week and a half, two weeks about.”

So it wasn’t just Miami, it was everyone in the NFL?
“Everyone had a shot at him when he was waived, anyone can claim him off of waivers. Then he was on the street, unemployed for a couple weeks. Again, part of what we do, and part of what our job is [about] is to remember players and know … the players coming up in this year’s draft, we will keep all that information whether they get drafted or don’t get drafted. We’ll have a file that stays with them. Heath has banged around the league a couple of years and is a player we knew.”

He’s a fullback, but he has speed. What is he – a 4.5 40-yard dash guy?
“Coming out [of Auburn], he was right around high 4.5s, low 4.6s. Now he’s up to about 250 pounds. Again, he’s not a pure fullback. He’s not a pure tailback. He’s kind of a hybrid. It’s the kind of back we call a big back.”

He has a lot of Mike Alstott in him…
“I think his body type will sometimes make you think that. There are similarities to how he looks.”

You’ve mentioned you’re always looking for players. How much does that change from week to week, as this team is seemingly adding new players every Tuesday and Wednesday?
“This isn’t the first year it’s happened. We brought in a number of players in 2003 and 2004.”

But not like this…
“Probably not, but I guess it just becomes part of the job where if you stop to think about it, allow yourself to get caught up in it and worry about it, and you fret about it, you’re wasting time and wasting energy. This is part of our department’s job, to be ready and be prepared and try to find players. Like we were just talking about before, each of us has a role within this organization and there are a lot of people depending on us to do our jobs. It’s a different but similar situation that we’re talking about with Bill. When the distractions start to happen, and outside forces start pushing on you, if you spend time worrying and fretting on those things, you’ll let a lot of people down around you. You need to be ready, do your job, and go to it.”

Did you watch the Kansas City-Houston game last night?
“I saw part of it last night but usually don’t make it too late on Sunday nights.”

Is Kansas City that good or Houston that bad?
“Kansas City is a good football team. Larry Johnson is a good back, they have a good offensive line that blocks well. They have backs that understand the system they’re running. Those linemen can block their system, they have guys who can run off the blocks. The quarterback [Trent Green] is a pretty good quarterback and they have some dynamic receivers. And [tight end] Tony Gonzalez. That offense, and their skill personnel, they present a lot of problems for a lot of people. They’re a good football team.”

We’re talking about defensive backs – with Ellis Hobbs, Michael Stone, Artrell Hawkins … some of whom were doing other jobs a few weeks ago. It seems like that group has become more physical.
“Different players have different styles of play. Ellis Hobbs is a guy who has a different style of play than some of the other guys that were in there. You’re right, some of those guys were doing different jobs a couple weeks ago, but a guy like Artrell Hawkins, he’s played in this league and he’s played fairly well in this league. Sometimes, for instance, Artrell Hawkins’s situation, when he ended the preseason, he was injured. So he ends up being hurt, he ends up out on the street, and then he also has a couple weeks where he’s injured. So part of the reason he’s out on the street and doesn’t have a job is because he has an injury and hasn’t been ready to come back. It doesn’t mean that he’s not necessarily a good football player. A lot of times it’s situations and guys not having opportunities and they have that opportunity now.”

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Looking ahead, we'll plan on posting our next update later in the day on Tuesday. There is no media access at Gillette Stadium.

--Mike