On what he wants to accomplish this week at New England if it is his final preseason game of the year: "I just want to be able to get out there and try and get in a rhythm early on and get out of the game healthy."
On what affect it would have on players if the league were to lengthen the regular season: "Sixteen games is a long schedule already. It would be interesting. I think guys would just have to prepare a little differently and do some things differently, if they extended and changed the schedule like that. It's one of those things where you never really know until you do it. It would be interesting to see how that would really affect how you train, how the preseason goes, and how you get ready for the season."
On RB Tony Hunt taking snaps at fullback today: "I think it's something that he's going to have to work hard to be able to do in such a quick time. Tony is an athletic guy. He's also a big guy, so he definitely can take a pounding and he can do it. It's just being able to do it in a week and be really good at it; it's probably going to be tough. You'll be able to see what he can do when he gets in there on Friday."
On how FB Jed Collins has played: "I think Jed did well when in there. He's still a young guy, trying to learn a position, as well. He did well while he was in there and he did everything that we expected of him."
On the benefits of having G Shawn Andrews play at New England: "It's important for the offensive line to come together and be able to work together with the different calls so the running backs can see the different styles. Shawn is a little bit different than (G) Max (Jean-Gilles) in the way he protects and the way he moves around a little bit. For a running back, for me, it's very important to get a feel for what Shawn is going to do and how he does things. The offensive line, all together, they need to play as one. This time during preseason is the opportunity for them to get to know each other a little bit better."
On what role the fullback position plays in blocking for the running game in this offense: "I think he plays a big role. The thing about this offense is we don't use a fullback an awful lot. I guess, he wouldn't be as important as in some offenses where they use fullbacks and tight ends all the time. He plays a role and, probably, his biggest role on this team would be in special teams, if anything."
On what he aims to accomplish in preseason games: "I saw some things on tape that I want to get better at; different things. The biggest thing for me, from last week to this week, is I want to be able to plant my foot in the outside zone and get up the field. That was one of the things that I wanted to emphasize on this week. I try to pick one thing every day to get better at. I'm going into this game trying to get better at certain things and, hopefully, I will."
On whether he's talked to WR/KR DeSean Jackson or RB/KR Lorenzo Booker about returning: "I've talked to DeSean probably more than I've talked to Lorenzo about kickoffs. I've told him that he's fast enough and he has enough skill to make people miss. He needs to make sure that he tells his guys up front that they should have confidence in him and keep blocking, number one. But, number two, is to use your speed, use your athletic ability every chance you get. I think you'll see, on a couple of returns that he had, he might have been able to outrun the guy to the edge if he believed in himself and did a little bit more. Sometimes, it just takes somebody to tell you 'go ahead and do it, go ahead and try it.' Then, you see, with other returns he'll get 15, 16 or even 20 yards. That's something that he's going to continue to work on. He's done it in college; he's done it long enough to know what he can do. Now, it's just transitioning to how they do it in the NFL."
On whether consistency is a focus for the game at New England: "We definitely want to go out there and, not really show the world, but be more consistent, for us. We need to go out there and be able to perform, in the pass game as well as the run game. We need to do those things a lot better than we have. I think, now that we have our whole offensive line out there, (T) Tra (Thomas) is back, Shawn (Andrews) is back, having everybody almost healthy, as far as everybody on offense, we need to go out there and try to tune up for the season now and, hopefully, that will show this week."
