After a session with local media on Sunday where he answered questions on a wide range of topics, it was back to normal for Bill Belichick's session with reporters at Tuesday morning's coaches breakfast at the NFL Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
Asked if he'd spoken with quarterback Tom Brady since the Super Bowl, Belichick replied, "Yeah, I already covered that the other day."
The reporter then explained that he's not a Boston reporter, so he wasn't in attendance at Sunday's session with local reporters.
"It's on every internet site you wanna find," Belichick retorted. "I'm sure we could pull it up for you."
Belichick was also asked about Brady's contract situation, but refused to respond.
"You know I'm not going to talk about contracts and personal situations. We'll just let that go, along with all the other contract questions."
When asked a follow up question about whether the team feels pressure to draft a quarterback after trading Jimmy Garoppolo last season, Belichick said only, "I think we always try to do what's best for the team. Whatever the opportunities are, we do the best we can with them."
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Belichick was also asked about safety Duron Harmon, who was denied entry to Costa Rica over the weekend for trying to bring more than 50 grams of marijuana into the country.
"I think it's all been covered," he said. "The Patriots released a statement, Duron released it. I don't have anything to add to that."
The rest of Belichick's session was more of the same. He shrugged off questions about player acquisitions or departures with brief responses or non-answers.
Here's what he had to say about some of the team's new and former players:
On newly-acquired cornerback Jason McCourty, twin brother of Patriots safety Devin McCourty: "I’ll be fooled more than anybody. Two sets of twins, I think we’re on the lead on that in the league. We lead the league in that."
On re-signed safety Patrick Chung: "All the moves we've made this spring are good to make. It's part of the whole team building process. It's always exciting to do that."
On left tackle Nate Solder, who signed with the New York Giants: "We lost several players in free agency. That's the NFL - every team goes through that. Nate did a great job for us and he's got a great opportunity in New York. We wish him well."
On defensive lineman Danny Shelton, a recent trade acquisition: "We talked to a lot of players (during the 2015 draft where he was selected #12 by the Cleveland Browns). He wasn't obviously really in our range at that point. We still did quite a bit of background on him all the way back to high school. It was very positive."
On recently re-signed offensive lineman LaAdrian Waddle: Asked if Waddle is comfortable at left tackle, where he may be part of the solution to filling the vacancy created by Solder's departure, Belichick said "He's played both sides," calling the amount of time he's practiced at left and right tackle about an even split.
On re-signed special teams captain Matthew Slater: "Great. All the players that we added, signed, resigned, extended - whatever - all those things we did becaused we wanted to do them. Matthew's been a great player on and off the field for us. Glad we were able to work it out, with him and the other guys."
On new defensive lineman Adrian Clayborn: "He's had a good career, been a very productive player at multiple positions. I look forward to working with him. I know he's a solid person, works hard, tough kid. I think he'll be a good addition to our program. We'll see how it goes."
On Garoppolo: Belichick said "not too much" when asked how much of Garoppolo he was able to watch after the Patriots traded him to the San Francisco 49ers. Garoppolo went 5-0 with the 49ers to close out last season.
On kick returner Cordarelle Patterson: "He's been a productive player, kind of a situational player. We'll put him in the offense and special teams and see how it goes." Asked if Patterson is the fastest kick returner he's seen, however, Belichick responded "Nobody's faster than (former Patriot) Bethel Johnson."
