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Bill's take

FOXBOROUGH -- Patriots coach Bill Belichick held his daily press conference (11:15 a.m.) and opened with the following statement:

"OK, Asante [Samuel] came to the facility this morning. I spoke with him and he's going through the normal process that any player would go through at the beginning of camp, in terms of getting his physical and taking the conditioning run, and so forth. That's basically where we are on that one.

"As far as this week goes, I think this is another big week for us in terms of pulling some things together as we finish up our preseason and training camp. We still have a lot of things we need to work on before we get into a weekly game-plan situation, starting with the Jets. This is kind of our last chance on the practice field to get some generic and general things -- specific situations -- and things like that. So that's what we're going to try to do. It's a combination of finishing up our training camp, getting ready for the Giants [Thursday] and trying to get our last look at some evaluations, and at the end of the week, of course, turn our attention toward opening day."

A little bit of the ensuing Q&A:

Being that Asante has been here five years and has experience in your system, would you expect it would be quick for him to work his way back?
"I don't know. We'll take it day to day, like everything else."

Are you glad it's behind you and you have the full roster?
"It's always good to have all the players available, sure."

Did you talk at all about how he's been keeping himself in shape?
"I told you what the extent of it is. That's it."

If he did not report, would you have been comfortable starting the season with the group you had?
"He came in today. The rest of the hypothethical questions, I don't know. It doesn't make any difference. We'll take it day to day and go with the information that's available."

Is it easy for you to let bygones be bygones with a contract dispute?
"All I do as coach is coach the team. Just try to make the team better, try to give the team the best chance to win, and do what I can do to help the football team. That's my job, that's what it's been, and that's what it's going to be."

Will his return allow you to work Brandon Meriweather at safety?
"We'll take it day to day."

Would you like to see Meriweather more at safety?
"Asante hasn't been on a practice field yet. The first thing he's going to do is take his physical and go through the normal process. We'll take it day to day."