“If you don’t increase the volume of your scheme on offense, defense, special teams every week, ... I don’t know how much stress you’re really putting on your opponent if that’s the way you do it.
“You can play your basic stuff and if it’s working well and you’re doing well with it then there’s no reason you change it. But I don’t know how many teams fall into that category.
“Saying that’s not the most common way teams evolve over the course of the year. You do what you do each week to try and win.”
A lot of what Belichick is saying, to me, is that execution can drive identity, rather than the other way around. Early in the year there are things you don’t do well, either because of your own failings or because the opponent took certain plays away.
The second big takeaway is that there rarely is an overarching story of a good team’s identity — unless that identity is adaptability and growth. Listen to him again:
“Each year you start over, start that process all over again, and build your team throughout the course of the year, through practice to repetition, through preseason to regular-season games, to evolving your scheme and that’s why each year is different and unique.”
