The New England Patriots are a notoriously secretive organization and like to keep their cards close to their chest. Therefore, they aren’t going to tip their hand with regards to who will start at QB on Sunday against the Bills, making game-planning for Rex Ryan and company difficult.
So Rex literally decided to take matters into his own hands and tried to find out for himself who’d be starting at QB.
“Julian, this is, uh, Walt Patulski from The Buffalo News,” Ryan said. “Are you playing quarterback this week?”
“Huh?” Edelman responded.
“Are you playing quarterback this week?” Ryan repeated.
“I’m gonna do whatever the coaches ask me to do,” Edelman said, “so if they ask me to go out and get a glass a water to someone on the sideline, I’m gonna do that with a smile on my face if it helps our team win. So you can ask Coach that one.”
“All right, Julian, I will, buddy,” Rex said, as he laughed and walked to the lectern.
Tom Brady will be serving the last of his four game suspension on Sunday, and both Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett are still dealing with their respective shoulder and thumb injuries. Ryan doesn’t expect to know who the Patriots will start until kickoff on Sunday.
“I know how difficult it is to defend against a running quarterback,” Ryan said following Sunday’s win over the Arizona Cardinals. “That’s what we have to be ready [for] in case Edelman quarterbacks, right? I have a funny feeling he isn’t going to be Brady back there.”
Ryan does though have an interesting guess as to who he thinks might be out there.
“My sources tell me that Babe Parilli is gonna be the quarterback,” Ryan said, referring to the Boston Patriots’ quarterback of the 1960s, who is now 86. “He is definitely … he doesn’t move the way he used to, and I’d be very confident. So we’ll see what happens there.”
Rex Ryan, ever the joker. He’s the polar opposite of Bill Belichick.
“I think it’s hilarious when he’s on [stage] there [at his news conferences] because it’s who he is, but it’s great. He does it better than anybody else. Some guys that try to copy that style, they’re phonies.”
Belichick didn’t take the bait from the media during his availability.
“I’m just focused on getting ready for the Bills,” he said. “I’m not really that in tune to all of that. I’m sure it’s important to you guys, but it’s not really anything I spend much time with.”
[ESPN]
