Patriots tight end Ben Watson made his weekly appearance on the D&C Show this morning to preview the Patriots-Dolphins game this week and share his thoughts on Dolphins’ linebackers Joey Porter and Jason Taylor.

Click here for the full audio and read below for some highlights.

Tom [Brady] told us on Monday that he used the bye week to get mentally refreshed. I’m guessing that seeing your name on the limited list with an injury report with a back you used the bye week to get physically better off. Fair to say?

Yeah, both- physically, mentally. Coming at the middle of the season was really good for a lot of people. Myself included getting a chance to get away from football and like you said work on the bumps and bruises that you had.

Tom saw you one-on-one with a Tampa Bay linebacker and they executed a perfectly thrown touchdown pass and run that was his highlight of the game. Did you realize it the same time Tom did?

Probably so. You never know exactly how the play is going to unfold, but a lot of times when a team give you certain coverage and when they walk a linebacker out there, I knew I had to beat him and Tom would be looking because there was no safety help or anything like that. There are some times when you line up on plays and you know that you’ll be the number one read

Do you ever feel compelled to saw “Hey, are you seeing what I’m seeing, Tom?”

Yeah, that’s why you come back to the huddle some times and say, “If you run that play again look my way out, I’m open.” But, he has so stuff much to read. I mean, he got five receivers going out there plus a running back some times. He’s got to worry about the rush got to worry about the safeties rotating and stuff. As a receiver and as a tight end you just run your route and try to get open. Most of the times he finds you, but if he doesn’t it’s not like you are the only one running routes.

Out of all the pass rushers, who is the biggest lobbyist in the huddle talking all the time?

Probably Randy[Moss]. But the thing is with Randy, nine times out of ten if you throw it up, he’s going to come down with it, so he has a right to lobby.

Did you have fun blocking in that game [against the Titans]?

I did, I had fun blocking and I had fun being cold as I don’t know what in October, too.

Is there a linebacker who can run with you in the NFL?

I’m sure there are, but hopefully we don’t face them. Hopefully we face the ones who can’t.

Do you consider you on any linebacker a mismatch?

Well, I consider any one-on-one. A lot of times it may not be a linebacker, it may be a safety,usually not a corner as a tight end, but usually a safety or a linebacker. Whenever you’re getting one-on-one no matter what position your playing you’re hoping ,you’re thinking, most of the time you can beat one-on-one coverage or else you wouldn’t be out there.

What do you expect on Sunday defensively from [the Miami Dolphins]?

I definitely expect them to try to pressure the quarterback that’s what they do. We all know they have some great end rushers, they got some great players up the middle big, strong, fast. The linebackers are there to stop the run, the safeties make a lot of tackles We know we’re facing a very tough defense, a very experience defense that we’ve had some problems in the past. Miami has always been a tough game for us, so we know it’s going to be a challenge.

Has Jason Taylor lost a step? Anything you can see in film?

Nothing that I can see. He’s still the first one off the ball every time you turn on the field. He’s off the ball before the offense is off the ball lots of time. He just has a knack for getting a jump on the ball.

Why do you guys have such trouble with the Dolphins?

I don’t know. It’s the National Football League and as they said, “any given Sunday” and it’s very true. The Dolphins are the defending champs in our division. They’ve had some good teams the past few years, they’ve had some bad teams the past few years. They still always had some really good players. You can’t beat everybody and the Dolphins seem to be that team that we struggle with.

Who do you have to count for first: Jason Taylor or Joey Porter?

I would put them both in the same category. There’s both very disruptive, they’re game-changers, they’re playmakers. You got to count for both those guys.

If Joey Porter was in a Patriots uniform and says trash-talk about the opponent, how long would it take for someone to pull Joey and say “Joey, that’s not how we do it here”?

Well, it’s kind of a wild scenario you just painted but I’ll try to disect it. Oviously here we do things different than a lot of other teams, but I’m sure if he was here and Mr. Kraft was paying his paycheck, he would probably say some different things.

If you ran your mouth, who would you hear from first?

Probably Coach [Bill Belichick]. Coach Belichick does a great job preparing us for the media. If we say something which we usually rarely say something that we shouldn’t say, he’s a leader, he reprimands. There’s a certain atmosphere around here where it comes from the head coach comes down to the assistant coaches and it comes through the veteran players who have been here the things we say to the public and the things we sayon Sunday between the lines.

[In regards to Porter's anti-Patriot comments] Nothing inflammatory coming out of the Patriots’ locker room?

There’s no reason for it. There’s no reason for us to say anything. It’s a free country and everybody can say what they want to say. We’re not mad at Joey for expressing his feelings. He has a right to say what he wants to say. That’s not how we do it here. We concentrate on what we can do. We concentrate on playing better, correcting our mistakes, and performing.

Do you know who you’re next three opponents are after Miami?

I know we play the Colts next. I know we got New Orleans. Honestly, I don’t know who the third one is. To be honest with you, when we were in London with Tampa, I didn’t even know if we were playing Miami home or away because I was seriously concentrating on Tampa. I didn’t even realize Miami was a home game until last week.

So did Big Ben go see Big Ben?

He did. I got a picture with him and everything.

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