FOXBORO -- NFL game officials will be present at Patriots practices over the course of the next three days. For the team and the coaching staff, working in conjunction with officials during training camp helps everyone be well-prepared once the regular-season arrived, coach Bill Belichick explained on Thursday.
"The NFL officials will be here for the next three days so that will give us a good opportunity to let them watch us and educate us on what we are and aren't doing properly in their eyes," Belichick said. "Also just to kind of have an NFL officials handling the mechanics of the no-huddle or the two minute. Those kinds of situations that are somewhat timing oriented so we'll try to take advantage of that."
Asked if he would check on the legality of certain formations -- a topic that drew headlines when the Patriots used rare formations in their win over the Ravens in the Divisional Round last season -- Belichick acknowledged that he would.
"I think that's what the whole point of being with the officials is, is to understand their interpretation of the rules and questions about anything that we're doing," he said. "We ask them to watch what we're doing and tell us what we need to do to make it legal or make sure that we're doing something properly. At the same time we [want to] know what we have to defend. 'We've seen this team do this,' or 'We've seen other teams do this.' We want to make sure we've got this right, what we're telling our players. Whatever it happens to be."
Belichick added: "I think the communication between the officials and the teams at this time of year is good. It's beneficial for everybody. It's good for them to see us. It's good for us to see and talk to them. It's good to kind of have that communication and get on the same page as to how various rules are going to be interpreted or called, kind of what the key thing is in terms of them making the call. All that's helpful.
"I think [vice president of officiating] Dean Blandino has done a good job of trying to have a good line of communication between the coaches, the teams and the individual officials, or the officiating department, and that just helps all of us understand better what we can do, what we can't do, make sure that we all understand the rules that we're playing under, and the way they're interpreted or the way the game's going to be called."