Much of training camp and the preseason is spent looking at which players are playing with the first unit compared to the second unit and often times we equate this to how a player is viewed among the coaching staff.
For example, since Cam Newton is taking all of his reps with the starting offensive line, it's assumed he's the starting quarterback. The same goes for other players, too. If a player is playing with the other starters, then it's presumed they are viewed as a starter as well.
But, speaking Tuesday morning via video conference, Bill Belichick called worrying about who is playing with who a "total waste of time and energy."
“Look, we’ve told all the players back in May when we started, which is he absolute truth, not to open a lot of time worrying about who else is out there with you," he said. "Worry about what you’re doing and try to get it right. I think that’s the most important thing for each and every one of us — if we focus on what our job is, how to do it well, how to do it better, how to improve on it. Again, that’s all of us — coaches, players, everybody. That’s really what we’re trying to do and spending a lot of time worrying about who else is doing something else and who else is out there or not out there or whatever is honestly a total waste of time and energy. And it’s not productive. So, we don’t really worry about it. I think it’s a lot more important for the offensive linemen to play with the offensive linemen than it is for the quarterback to play with the offensive line.
“The same thing on defense. It’s (more) important for the linebackers to play with the linebackers than it is for the linebackers to play with the secondary or whatever and you just keep going. The punt team, those guys need to be ready to work with each other, but at the same time, if somebody else is in there for whatever reason, then the most important thing is for them to do their job properly and work with whoever is in next to them. That’s something they can’t control.
“If we start worrying about all the things we can’t control, I’d say it’s going to be a long year.”
The Patriots will have another joint practice with the Eagles Tuesday before Thursday's second preseason game.
