Quotes from Matt Cassel

I'm not trying to be Tom Brady. I'm just trying to be Matt Cassel.

The first thing that came to mind when I met Tom Brady was intimidation. I'm showing up in 2005 with a guy who just came off his third Super Bowl win. So, it's a little intimidating walking in the room with Tom Brady for the first time.

I think that's the genius part of what the Patriots do: They go above and beyond in identifying the issue and doing whatever they can to make sure it doesn't wreck the offensive plan.

I think the toughest job in football is always to be the starter, because everybody looks to you for guidance.

At first when I first went to the Chiefs, there was a huge transition from what we had done in New England to a team that was rebuilding.

I've been on a number of NFL teams, and a lot of them address situational football. But I've never been around a team that does it as meticulously as the New England Patriots.

It always comes down to being accountable to your teammates and so many times you get caught up in everything else going on. And I remember as a young guy, you always worry about, 'Well, who's getting the reps,' and this, that and the other, and it takes you and distracts you away from just doing your job.

I feel very blessed and lucky to have the opportunity to get out there and play. That's all you can ask for as a young guy trying to make it in this league.

I think as the quarterback of any NFL team, you put a tremendous amount of pressure on yourself to win ball games because that's what you're here to do and ultimately, that's what you want to do.

As you get going in the game you just kind of go along and you play the game.

Honestly, I have no ill will toward Kansas City or anything that happened here.

It's just part of the NFL. There's going to be moving parts constantly. There's going to be roster changes. There's going to be coaches going somewhere else.

One of our big duties as a player is not to dwell on the past and stay in the now because that's the only way you're going to continue to move forward and be successful.

For the most part, from the player standpoint, the coaches do the coaching and you try to come in and execute the game plan or the scheme they put in front of you.

I was in New England in 2007 for Spygate.

My rookie year in New England was mind-blowing.

You just have to always go out and continue to work hard, watch the film, see what you did wrong from an offensive unit and individually. Then, you just have to go out and do better the next time out. That is what sports is all about.

My preparation doesn't change from being a backup to a starter.

I've played in a lot of different roles through the course of my career and I've been a starter for a lot of those years and the mentality can never change.

I've been through a lot in my career. I've been through the ups, I've been through the downs. I've been through the highs and the lows.

I think I constantly refer back to some of the things that I learned in New England and throughout my career. It was a great stepping stone, and it also gave me time to mature as a player and as a quarterback.

One word in one system might mean something else. You have to get a feel for it and study hard and then also when you get into these game-plan weeks, just bear down on what we're doing on a week-to-week basis.

I collected baseball and football cards. My most valuable was probably a Mark McGwire rookie card.

Every rep I can get is valuable.