Belichick spoke 1,066 gushing words about Seymour. It started with a question about what made Seymour a special player.

"Everything," Belichick said.

Seymour came to New England with the sixth overall pick of the 2001 NFL draft. The Patriots won a Super Bowl that season, the start of their dynasty. Seymour was a big part of the first phase of that dynasty on his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Belichick had been in the NFL a long time when the Patriots got Seymour, and he had coached many great players. He said Seymour was "really unlike any other player that I had coached up until that point."

"I just never really had anybody like that," Belichick said. "He was very smart. He could do a lot of different things; game plans, pass rush plays, playing certain plays a certain way. That was all really pretty easy for him because the game came easy for him in terms of intelligence and anticipation and communication along the line."

It takes a special player to get that kind of praise from the normally stoic Belichick. Seymour was special.

Richard Seymour helped start a dynasty

Other players through the Patriots' dynasty have gotten more of the spotlight, but Seymour helped set the tone.

“We had a bond with teammates and they were like brothers, and we felt a sense of responsibility to one another," Seymour told MassLive.com. "And, I think when you have a culture like that and it breeds success, and it breeds winning, that’s really what it’s all about.”

More than any intangibles, Seymour was a force on the field. His versatility along the defensive line was a key for the Patriots. His size and athleticism were unique. He was 6-foot-6, 317 pounds but agile enough to take a fumble recovery 68 yards for a touchdown against the Buffalo Bills in 2003.

When Belichick talked about Seymour, he referenced the defensive lineman making a key block on Troy Brown's 85-yard punt return in a 2001 win over the Cleveland Browns. You won't see many future Hall-of-Fame defensive linemen throwing key blocks on the punt return team.