INDIANAPOLIS – Here’s the complete transcript of Bill Belichick’s opening statement to the media today at the Scouting Combine. We’ll have his complete Q&A along momentarily:

Well, it’s kind of interesting to be here at this stadium. The combine has kind of moved along – it’s come a long way. I remember being at Arizona State as it was getting dark, standing out there watching the Fridge do his vertical jump. That was quite a sight to see. Of course, coming to the dome and then coming in here, it’s amazing how the combine has grown at every turn — the media, the agents and the players. The preparation for it. These guys that spend months getting ready for it. It’s become quite an event. But it’s fun to be a part of it. It’s good to see the college players. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a little bit more of them this year than in previous years. But that being said, it’s always an enjoyable part of the process to start to get to know them. The interviews, I think that’s always one of the most interesting parts of the combine. I’ve never thought, and I don’t think, that you analyze a player in a 10-minute interview. I think that’s really stretching it. But I just find it interesting to see where some of these kids have come from, what their background is, who’s important to them in their life — what coaches or what teammates or what situations kind of shape the way they are or the way they approach the game, prepare, things like that. I find that very interesting, and we’ve certainly had some interesting ones this week, so that’s kind of the fun part of coming here and getting to know the players. Especially somebody in one sitting, instead of traveling around the country, having to make those trips. You spend all day and you’re talking to one or two players. Here, you can get that done in a half-hour. That’s a big part of it for us.

Certainly, seeing some of the people here who were very recently with us, like Tom Dimitroff, who did a tremendous job this year in Atlanta — certainly should be the Executive of the Year. The turnaround that team had this year was magnificent, along with the job Bill and Tony did in Miami. But seeing Thomas and catching up with him … Scott is a guy I can’t say enough about, what he’s meant to our organization and me personally. What a job he’s done. His responsibilities with the team, from personnel to contracts to team management and planning and so forth has been awesome. George being in Cleveland now — I remember I was this close to firing him because he was one of the jobs when he was first there, his job was driving guys to the airport, and he got in an accident. I wasn’t too happy about that, but George has done a tremendous job, and I’m really happy for him. And, of course, [Jim Schwartz]. Schwartzie was kind of in that same group there in Cleveland. I’m kind of tired of hearing about the turkey sandwich story. I don’t really remember it that way. But Schwartzie was probably as smart as anyone I’ve ever worked with. A brilliant guy, of course, a Georgetown graduate. Schwartzie was one of those guys who you could give him ten different things to do, and you could come to him at some point in time and say, ‘Where are we on this?’ and he’d have it for you in a second. And then, you’d throw two or three other things at him: ‘Hey Jimmy, can you take care of this? Can you take care of that?’ Half the time, he’d say, ‘Coach, I already started that and here’s where I am. Is this OK, what I’m doing?’ So he was part mind reader, with a tremendous work ethic and just really extremely intelligent. I think he’ll do a great job in Detroit as he did at Tennessee. When I first took the job in New England, Jeff (Fisher) was one of the first calls I made there to inquire about Schwartzie, wanted to bring him to New England. He was a quality control coach. Jeff said, ‘What do you have in mind? You gonna make him a quality control guy? I’m not going to let him go for a lateral move.’ I said, ‘No Jeff, I wouldn’t expect you to. I’m going to bring him here to coach the linebackers.’ Jeff said, ‘Well, I think I’m going to make him the coordinator.’ So we lost out on bringing him to New England. But again, I have a tremendous, tremendous amount of respect for Jimmy and what he’s accomplished, and I’m sure he’ll do a great job in Detroit.

We’ve had some changes since the end of the season in New England. We’ve had those in the past, so it’s not something we haven’t dealt with before. Scott … again, there’s no way I can express into words how much he’s meant to us. It’s been great working with Nick, and to bring Floyd into the organization … Floyd and I go back quite a ways. Too far. It’s been great. It’s only been a few weeks with Floyd, but Nick, of course, we’ve had a long relationship with Nick, both on the coaching and scouting end of it. He’s done a lot of different things for us, and done them all very well. It’s been very invigorating to work with him and Floyd over the last few weeks, pulling things together on all fronts. Preparing for the draft and for free agency and for some of our current player and personnel situations. Kind of reorganizing and revamping some things in the personnel department, so that’s been a good experience. As much as we’ll miss Scott, we’re moving on in that direction.

Brad Seely was one of the coaches I held over when I came to New England. He did a tremendous job for us. I’m sorry to see him move on, but at the same time, it’s great to be reunited with Scott O’Brien. There’s no coach that I respect more than Scott O’Brien. He did a tremendous job for in Cleveland, and I think the world of him and what he does. I’ve learned an awful lot from my five years with Scott in Cleveland, as far as evaluating players. I coached special teams for five years, and he certainly does it a lot better than I did it. I learned an awful lot from him, through our association in Cleveland and our continuing friendship. It’s great to have him back. Dom Capers was a class guy, one of the classiest people in our business. I’m happy for him and his new position at Green Bay. I’m sure he’ll do a great job there — he’s a great defensive mind and has had a tremendous career. Josh Boyer will move into that spot with the secondary. Josh is one of the guys that’s been, he’s started at the bottom, worked his way up, worked hard, and done a great job for us. I’m sure he’ll do well in that spot. Same thing at tight end with Pete going to Tampa and getting an opportunity to reunite with Raheem, who he hired at Cornell, of course and coach the offensive line, which I know is a passion of his. Shane, again, is a guy who came to us at the bottom and then went and spent a couple of years with Charlie and then came back last year. He’ll be working with the tight ends this year, and I think that’s certainly a responsibility he deserves, and do a good job at.

I couldn’t say enough about Josh. A loss personally. I consider Josh a good friend, certainly a great coach. Charlie came in in 2000 when I came in and did a good, tremendous job with our offense. We won championships and took it to a very productive level. And then Josh took that and I think has even continued to have it grow and expand as we have been able to maintain continuity within the system, coaches and players. I’m sure that Josh will do a great job in Denver on all fronts. He’s worked in every area, really, of our organization. On personnel, defense, offense. Very knowledgeable in every area of the game. That’s a great addition for the Broncos and certainly a loss for us. But it’s an opportunity for other coaches on our staff to move up. We’ll kind of change a little bit of our offensive staff around — that still is not quite complete yet, so, I won’t comment on that any further other than to talk about the situation with Shane replacing Pete at tight ends. So those are some of the changes we’ve had on our end.

As we head into free agency, I’m sure there will be more changes, like there always are. We’ll be active in trying to improve our team in any way we can. I wouldn’t at this time be able to give you any updates on personnel situations or contracts or any injury updates, anything like that. Right now, we’re just here trying to evaluate the players at the combine, and when we get back, we’ll start to prepare the next few days for the coming free agency period at the end of the week. It’s been a busy offseason, but I feel like it’s been a productive one. We definitely have a lot of work to do, like all the other 31 teams in the league, but again, it’s been kind of fun to see some of the people here that have meant so much to our team or my career over the years. At the same time, I think it’s a little … I don’t know what the right word is … kind of … It just doesn’t seem right to not have people like Mike Shanahan and Jon Gruden and Brian Billick, Steve Mariucci. Guys who I  have coached against — and in some cases, not very well, not be head coaches in the National Football League. Mike Shanahan is definitely a Hall of Fame coach. I know I’ll be on the list of people he’ll thank because all the games that have been scheduled against us, he’s done pretty well. Including when I was an assistant at the Jets and even with the Patriots. I know I haven’t beaten him too many times, and I’m not disappointed not having him on our schedule, believe me. But it’s hard to believe that coaches like Mike Shanahan and Jon Gruden aren’t coaching in the National Football League. But that’s not my decision. That being said, we have plenty of things to do ourselves. I’m not trying to comment on anybody else’s situation, but it’s just odd for them to be here but not in a coaching capacity. But that’s the National Football League. So, any questions on the combine, the draft?