Belichick checks in

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- In a story that will run in Tuesday's editions of the Boston Globe and was posted on Boston.com Monday night, Patriots coach Bill Belichick touches on the Matt Walsh situation and his thoughts on a proposed rule change that would allow defensive players to have a communication device in their helmet.

The Patriots will be voting in favor of the proposal to allow defensive players to have a communication device.

In addition to the thoughts shared in the article, here is more from the Q&A with Belichick:

A change to playoff seeding is a rule that’s being proposed. What are your thoughts on that?
“We’ve just heard the proposal, kind of as is, ‘this is what’s being proposed.’ I can see good arguments on both sides. Maybe at the meetings tomorrow we’ll have discussion on it, and there will be some compelling points made one way or the other that maybe I haven’t thought about enough or maybe haven’t come to light. I think there are good reasons on both sides to have it seeded by record or to do it by division. I would say if you really wanted to do it by record, maybe the seventh team in one conference is better than the sixth team in another conference, so does it have to be six and six, or could it be seven and five, and have one team even participate in the other conference’s playoffs, based on their record, if that’s the way it would be proposed. That would ultimately get you the top teams. I don’t know. There are a lot of different points on it. There are a lot of good points on it.”

How about the proposal of the force-out call being eliminated?
“It makes it easier to officiate. Either he has two feet in or he doesn’t. It’s not officiating a big decision of ‘would he have?’ or ‘wouldn’t he have?’ Now it’s possession and feet down, and it cleans it up, makes it easier to officiate, makes it easier to challenge, makes it easier to review, makes it a lot more clear-cut. You couldn’t challenge the force-out before, but that was another issue.”

Does that take an advantage away from the receiver?
“It’s the same for every receiver. If it makes it a little bit more difficult to complete that sideline catch, then it’s just as hard for us as it is for the next team. At least that’s equality.”

There has been talk about increasing roster size? Any thoughts on that?
“I think it’s probably an issue that’s not really a coaching issue. It’s relative to finances, labor.”

Hair under the helmet?
“Again, I’ve seen the proposal. That’s a tough one.”

You talked to Laurence Maroney and he talked you out of it?
[Laughs]

Field goals and instant replay?
“That’s fine.”

The 5-yard facemask penalty – eliminating it?
“I think that’s good. I think we’ve all seen a lot of plays where the runner stiff-arms a defender and puts his hand on the facemask but doesn’t pull it, and isn’t penalized for it. Defensively, there are times when you get your hand in that area for whatever reason – a runner falling, it’s such a fast thing, and if a player doesn’t pull it and jerk it, and it’s not an injury risk, then I don’t think it needs to be penalized.”

Deferring the coin toss?
“It’s another option. It doesn’t matter.”

What is this time like for you right now – the Patriots are in the team-building mode?
“We’re kind of in a little bit of transition between free agency and kind of the last few weeks of the draft crunch, we’ll have that when we get back. We’ll have a number of college players come in to visit the facility. Most of the work so far has been coaches going out to Indianapolis and various college campuses, and now that will shift to bringing some of the college players in to visit, do some last-minute physical work and stuff like that. I don’t want to say free agency is over but it’s certainly winding down. It’s good to be able to re-sign the players we signed, and we’ve added some new players and we’ll finish up our draft work here and get on to the spring camps.”