Q: How high did you rate Rob Gronkowski's pass catching skills and how might you employ those going forward?

BB: He has good receiving skills. In 2008, Arizona used him both at the conventional tight end position and then also split out. They put him out of the formation, sometimes on the strong side. They also put him out on the weak side by himself back there and they throw it to him, particularly in the red area on slants and individual cuts back there. And he's a big guy. He's a hard matchup for a defensive back. He's 6-5, 265, or whatever he is. He's big and he plays big and he has a big frame. A lot of times he just boxes them out and they stuff it in there to him and he's just a hard guy to cover. He's a strong runner with the ball in his hands. He's run through some tackles, made some yards after the catch. They used him in the passing game. They used him in a number of different ways – deep routes, middle read routes and also some individual isolation stuff and then the conventional passing tree we see most tight ends run. I thought he did a good job of that in 2008.

Q: It was hard to see on TV, but when you picked Gronkowski, they showed the commissioner checking on something and it seemed like there was a long time before the pick was made. Was there something delayed?

BB: Yeah, I'm not sure exactly what happened there in New York. We talked to Oakland and we made the trade with them to move up a couple spots and I know the clock was running and it was a little bit late on the clock. We were hustling that in, but I think we got it in on time.

Q: Since you've been in New England have you had anyone that you would consider similar to Gronkowski?

BB: I'd say Kyle Brady. Kyle was maybe a little bit bigger, but that kind of frame. He ran well, big target, big physical guy; a guy that's not a tackle, but not too far from looking like a tackle.

Q: Does Gronkowski give you an added ability in the red zone?