FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Bill Belichick is done using sideline tablets, but not all of his players are.

“I prefer the tablets over the pictures, but not too much -- a little here and there,” New England Patriots cornerback Logan Ryan said.

“If the tablet is working, I prefer the tablet,” added tight end Rob Gronkowski. “You get to scroll through and stuff.”

Belichick’s lengthy remarks Tuesday prompted a quick response from both the NFL and Microsoft, and sparked this reporter to conduct a random survey of player preferences in the New England locker room. The response was mixed.

Linebacker Dont'a Hightower, for his part, said he mostly relies on defensive coordinator Matt Patricia to help him on the sideline.

“I’m not really grabbing the tablet. I guess paper is usually a lot easier, not worrying about things going down,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gronkowski said tight-ends coach Brian Daboll regularly uses the tablet on the sideline. It’s what Gronkowski prefers -- the ability to zoom in is one thing that makes it different than an old-school picture -- with one caveat.

“Only if’s working,” he said. “The difficulty with it is if it’s not working, it definitely can get you frustrated. You want to be scrolling through and it stops.”

That’s why others are going Belichick’s route.

“I probably like paper more because it’s more reliable,” defensive end Shea McClellin said. “But they were trying out the video stuff in the preseason and that seemed pretty cool. That could work well in the future if they go to that. It would be a good addition.”

McClellin’s reference to how teams could watch video during the preseason provided a possible sneak peek at the future, which piqued the interest of Ryan, who is now in his fourth NFL season.

“It’s definitely cool technology,” Ryan said. “We spent the whole time on the sideline watching every single play, not even watching the game [as it was happening]. I think it kind of took away from the football game. ... We were overthinking. Sometimes I think you can trip yourself out a little bit and you start playing chess against yourself.”

Then there’s the master chess player, quarterback Tom Brady.

“I’ve never been too much of picture/tablet [person]," he said. "I kind of know what I see out there and as soon as I come off the field, [offensive coordinator] Josh [McDaniels] will say, ‘What was it?’ and I’ll say, ‘Oh, they did this and this guy dropped.’ I’ll peek at them from time to time with Josh.

"[But] it’s great for the coaches because they have a different angle. It’s hard to see when you’re seeing from the sideline. When you’re out there playing, a lot of times I can come over and tell Josh, ‘This is what happened and here’s why we did that.’"

Brady said he will look at pictures on occasion.

"Maybe to verify some fronts and stuff like that to make sure of where guys are shaded and identification," he said. "Because in our system, we always set the scheme of blocking on every play, so we just want to make sure we get it set the right way so that everyone can really be deployed the right way. That’s where the pictures probably help me."