“I wish I hadn’t said that,” Belichick told Shaughnessy. “I was probably thinking of what I would feel like. Now, there’s what I actually feel like, and those are two different things. That was not one of my better statements.”
“I’ve learned my lesson on that one. One year at a time,” Belichick joked when asked about his current outlook for his future, although he said retirement isn’t on his mind. “I get the question occasionally,” he explained. “I don’t really think about it. To me, it’s about this year. Worry about next year next year. I don’t really think about next year or five years from now. I’ve got a lot of work to do trying to help the team any way I can and make us a good, competitive team, which I think we are. But we’ve got to prove that.”
Belichick also touched on the Patriots’ overhauled coaching staff, which now features former defensive coordinator Matt Patricia (offensive line coach and presumed play-caller) and special teams coordinator Joe Judge (quarterbacks coach) in key roles.
“I think they’re both good coaches,” Belichick told the Globe. “Ultimately, it’s my responsibility, like it always is. So if it doesn’t go well, blame me.”
“I don’t see it any differently than it was in the last 22 years. Look at our other offensive coordinators. We had Charlie [Weis]. Then Josh [McDaniels]. He’d never called offensive plays. Billy O’Brien never called plays in the NFL. Josh came back. We’ve changed coaches in every area, multiple times,” he explained. “Defensively, Matt Patricia had never called plays. Then he won a couple of Super Bowls. Brian Flores [who succeeded Patricia] had never called plays. That worked out all right. Steve [Belichick] has been calling defenses. We were pretty high up there statistically last year. We didn’t play well obviously in the Buffalo game and a couple of other games, but I wouldn’t say we had a bad year defensively. At least not statistically.”
“We have plenty of coaches that didn’t have previous experience and it’s worked out pretty well with most of them, but not all of them,” he added.
You can find Belichick’s full interview with Shaughnessy here.