It's the New England Patriots' mantra: 'Get better'

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The New England Patriots held their first week of OTA workouts on the practice fields of Gillette Stadium this week, the third of which was open to the media on Thursday.

Despite the absence of more than a dozen starters for a variety of reasons, the Patriots put forth a solid two hours of work in sunny, hot conditions that left players drenched in sweat when they met with the media after the session.

While head coach Bill Belichick was probably at least somewhat impressed with the work done on the field in the sunshine, he must have really brightened up when he heard some of the answers his defensive players were offering up to the media afterward.

The effort was led by fifth-year linebacker Dont'a Hightower, now seen as the leader of the defense in the wake of Jerod Mayo's retirement. The former first-round pick uttered the phrase "get better" 17 times in an interview with the gathered media that lasted barely more than three minutes.

"I'm just glad to be out here and get better with my teammates," Hightower said, regarding how he felt with his past experiences as he heads into his fifth season as a perceived leader.

The "get better" word pairing was clearly his go-to answer, regardless of whether it came in response to questions about the team missing Mayo or whether the bitter end to last season in the AFC title game in Denver was being used as fuel heading toward a new year.

One of the few topics that didn't get the generic response was in regards to the weather, with temperatures in the high 80s. Despite the heat, Hightower wore full-length sleeves layered under his jersey.

"Just part of not trying to get too dark," the linebacker joked.

A topic he wasn't looking to joke about or even really address was his contract situation. Along with fellow linebacker Jamie Collins and cornerback Malcolm Butler, Hightower is one of New England's key defenders seemingly in line for potential lucrative, long-term contract extensions that many have expected to come this offseason or at least prior to the end of the regular season.

"I ain't got nothing to do with none of that," Hightower said before returning to his phrase of the day. "I'm just out here trying to get better with my teammates."

Reminded that it's his future and his desire to remain in Foxborough is something that is under his control, Hightower again preferred to focus on the practice-field task at hand.

"That might be it. There is a time and place for everything and right now, I'm just out here trying to get better," Hightower reiterated.

It wasn't just the returning leaders who were espousing the very Belichickian company line. Free-agent addition Chris Long sounded like a life-long Patriots player rather than a first-year Foxborough worker.

"That I fulfill my duties as a New England Patriot every day is what's important to me," Long said in his first face-to-face session with the New England media. "I have a lot of learning to do. My only way to approach that is to work as hard as I possibly can every day and worry about myself.

"I've always just worried about taking things one day at a time, I really have. You try to stack up enough good days in a row and they cumulatively turn into a good body of work. So that's all I've ever done. We're just focused on football and winning one day at a time."

The Patriots are a team that gets back to work coming off five straight appearances in the AFC Championship Game. A defense led by Hightower, Collins, Rob Ninkovich, Butler, Devin McCourty and others is coming off a year in which it ranked in the top 10 in both yards and points.

But according to the leader and free-agent-to-be Hightower, all those various talking points are left to outsiders. The focus inside the walls of Gillette Stadium and on the practice fields is simple - "get better."

"We're just all out here just trying to get better. If I get better I feel like that will take care of everything else. If I get better every day that's all I can ask for," Hightower concluded.

--Defensive end Chris Long was a leader and star on the Rams front over the years as the team's former No. 2 overall pick. Now, he's in New England trying to rehab his career after a couple down seasons and learn the ropes in a new system.

Upon landing in Foxborough, Long quickly found that incumbent New England defensive end Rob Ninkovich, who has started all 16 games in five straight seasons while tallying 41 sacks in that span, was probably a good guy to model himself after in his new home.

"Rob and I really clicked. I think we have a lot of similarities. He's a great guy to learn from and kind of shadow," Long said after New England's third OTA session on May 26. "He's been here obviously a long time. Rob knows how to do things the right way around here. You see a guy like that if you are halfway smart you follow him around and you try to do what he does. So if Rob goes to lunch, I go to lunch. That type of thing. Rob's a good buddy, already."