2013 NFL Combine: Giants' coach Tom Coughlin addresses media

New York Giants' coach Tom Coughlin addressed the media Friday at the NFL combine in Indianapolis. Coughlin shot down Teerrell Thomas' comments about 2013 being his final season, and addressed a wide range of other topics. Here are the highlights:

On Thomas' comments about him retiring:

"I tried to think of something funny to say, but I don't know what to say about it. I don't even know how a young man would come to that statement. I approach each year the way I always approach them and the energy is flowing well and I'm excited about it. I'm looking forward to this offseason and getting our football team together again. Maybe at some point I'll get the message, but it certainly isn't right now."

[What if Coughlin did retire? Potential replacements]

On the possibility of changes to the NFL off-season calendar:

"I saw something like that this morning. I would want to know exactly what the objective is. There's some other things that I'd rather have than that. (Players) do have time, players don't come in now till the 15th of April. Theoretically, you could do as much as you want if that's the goal, but I don't really know if that's the goal."

On the off-season roster changes thus far:

"There's a combination and I think Ahmad Bradshaw said it best, he said that it broke his heart but he understands it's a business. We all do. We're not happy about any of that, especially in the way that our organization is run. As a coach, I don't want to see anybody go. I want to wrap my arms around them all. I want them to play together forever, but that's not the case. It doesn't happen. It doesn't work. There's a new ring in changes there. We have things that obviously have to be accomplished moving forward with players and we have to have the resources to be able to do that. That's where we are."

On parting with Bradshaw:

"Tough. He's a young man, he's a human being, nobody's perfect, but when that guy took the field, there was never any question about what his intention was and where his intensity was and what he would bring to the table in terms of toughness, courage and how he played. The Giants organization loves Ahmad Bradshaw. We have tremendous respect for him and what he's accomplished. He's been on two Super Bowl champion teams and played the game when there would be many, many people who wouldn't even try it. (He) can't walk Thursday, but he plays on Sunday. From that standpoint, when he came down to my office, it was tough. It was very tough. I'd be less than honest if I didn't tell you that."

On whether or not there is a new direction for the defense:

"The direction is to get better. None of us are happy with the circumstances we were in and the way that we played. The idea is to get better as best we can. In those circumstances, obviously there was a business side to those decisions."

On whether he has pinpointed what went wrong last season:

"Not that I'm going to share. I've seen conclusions and I have my own ideas and that type of thing. I can't refer to what Ahmad said other than the fact that the inconsistency has got to be pointed to somewhere. What's going on? What's this all about? I'm not taking anything away from the other teams, but the inconsistency has to be dealt with. We lost two divisional games by three points. We lost six games scoring 17. We gave up points in the last quarter in loss-games. The year before, the whole mantra had been, finish the game, finish the game, finish the game. Sometimes it was out of reach in the fourth quarter to be honest with you. You can take any number of these things."