The Facts: HC Bill Belichick was asked today to talk about Brady, but he wouldn’t. Brady is absent from the Patriots’ Organized Team Activities, and when Belichick was asked about that, he quickly shut it down. “I’m not going to talk about the people who aren’t here. The guys who are here are improving, working hard. That’s who we’re going to focus on,” Belichick said.

Diehards Line:Belichick was also asked about Rob Gronkowski, who is also absent but is expected to make it to OTAs at some point. Again, Belichick declined to talk. “I’m focused on the guys that are here and those are the guys we’re working with in the OTA process Phase 3,” Belichick said. Belichick did say that OTAs are valuable. “It’s always good to get back on the field and be working with everybody in Phase 3,” Belichick said. “We were able to do a little bit in Phase 2 against air, get some teaching and instruction, but this is much better. It’ll progress faster and just do more with our team, starting yesterday and for the next couple weeks. It’s always good to get to that point. We have a lot of new players on our team.” So OTAs are important, and Brady isn’t there, but as PFT notes, what Belichick draws from that we’ll have to figure out for ourselves, because Belichick isn’t talking about Brady.