The Sports Xchange

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Based on unusual events here Thursday, watch for hell to freeze over next.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, a self-described “tough guy to play for,” was apparently so satisfied with the work of his team this spring that he cancelled the final day of mandatory three-day minicamp on Thursday, admitting, “We’re not going to conquer the world.”

With the offensive program, 10 organized team activities (OTAs) and two days of minicamp in the books, New England will now disperse before returning to Foxborough for the opening of training camp in the final week of July.

“We’ve got a lot of stuff in,” Belichick said. “We’ve done a lot of things. We’ve gotten into more situational football each day. We’ll just keep building on that. It’s good to expose it to them once and then the next time around hopefully it will come a little bit quicker.

“We’re not going to conquer the world this week, but we can just keep pushing forward on all the basic situations and then as many of those extra ones as we can get to just puts us that much further ahead down the road.”

Belichick will also step away from football for a short time in the next few weeks to recharge the batteries before the long stretch from training camp through, ideally, February as the team looks to defend its Super Bowl title in 2015.

“We’ve had a good, a busy offseason,” Belichick said. “It’s never really stopped since being in Arizona. We’ve got a lot done. We’ve got a long way to go, but yeah, it’ll be good to just be able to get caught up on some personal stuff and obviously relax a little bit. Hopefully. that’s what it’ll be.”

The busy offseason Belichick referenced included a lot of roster attrition in New England that leaves the defending champs with a lot of work left to do despite a productive spring.

In the free-agent fleeing of Darrelle Revis (16), Brandon Browner (9), Kyle Arrington (4) and Alfonzo Dennard (4), New England saw 33 starts at the cornerback position from a year ago vanish into opposing air. It leaves a cornerback depth chart that is highlighted by Super Bowl hero and 2014 undrafted rookie Malcolm Butler, third-year former third-round pick Logan Ryan and middling free-agent signings Bradley Fletcher, Robert McClain and Derek Cox.

Putting more acute focus on the position is the fact that Butler was held out of six OTA sessions for arriving late to the first due to a cancelled flight. Upon his return to the field, he lined up at left cornerback with the top group that included returning safety Devin McCourty.

Still, cornerback remains a major question heading toward camp. In fact, the bulk of the uncertainties on the Patriots’ roster remain as questionable today as they were before the kickoff of the offseason program, OTAs and minicamp.

Who will be the passing back? How about the starting jobs at right and left guard? Will the linebacker health – Dont’a Hightower, Jerod Mayo and Jamie Collins all missed spring work – derail the front seven?

Those all remain major concerns. Add in the unknown of how much time quarterback Tom Brady will miss to open the year and whether Jimmy Garoppolo is ready to lead the troops in his second season and the defending champs have as many unknowns to deal with come August as almost any Super Bowl contender.

The stars of New England’s OTAs were the guys who should stand out. Brady looked good. Tight end Rob Gronkowski was the best player on the field at all times. Belichick was very much in control.

Those are the constants. Those are the foundation blocks upon which 2015 will be built. Beyond that, there is still plenty to be decided before the Super Bowl XLIX champs are ready to begin the attempted march to San Francisco and Super Bowl 50.

–The Patriots had a minor scuffle at the conclusion of one 11-on-11 rep in minicamp action on Wednesday. It appeared that second-year center Bryan Stork was in the middle of the fracas, without a helmet that may have been knocked off in the pushing and shoving.

Belichick certainly didn’t care for the extra-curricular activity in the non-contact, no-pads session.

“We don’t really need that,” Belichick said with an annoyed tone. “We’re just trying to teach things. The competition will start in training camp. There will be plenty of it there. If these guys want to get after it and hit somebody, there will be plenty of chances in training camp – more than they want.”