John Lynch has used the last few exhibition games to get comfortable in the Patriots’ defense.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

The defensive headset and the New England Patriots’ use – or not – of it has now become a weekly topic, and one that isn’t exactly the sexiest of issues.

But frankly, yesterday’s conference call with Pats’ coach Bill Belichick was brief, and it was one of the few things he spoke about at any length.

After having Tedy Bruschi and Mike Vrabel wear the radio helmets against Philadelphia last week, the team did not employ them against the Giants, in large part because of the high number of players New England used. Only two players per game can be designated as the radio-wearers.

But even during the regular season, it doesn’t seem as though there will be many green dot sightings (the sign for radio-equipped helmets) for the Pats, outside of the quarterback.

Belichick once again said that figuring out how best to use the radios and whether the defense will use them isn’t a top priority, though he did indicate that it might be used in no-huddle situations, when the defense is often scrambling to match up against an offense in hurry-up mode.

Or New England might end up designating different players for different games.

At any rate, it doesn’t seem as that those decisions will be made in the near future.

“Until we can really get a good comfort level with what we are doing and how it should flow smoothly, I don’t think it is really in our best interest,” he said.

Belichick said that if the quarterback doesn’t fully understand the play that’s relayed to him by the coach, he can signal and have it told to him again. But the quarterback can determine when the ball is snapped; with defense being reactionary, if there is such a glitch there may not be time to get the formation again before the play begins.

“If it happens two or three times, I don’t know if it is worth it for the 20 times it doesn’t happen,” Belichick said. “It is just not something that we are comfortable with yet, how to utilize it most efficiently without it being a problem.”

Lynch gets acclimated

While most of New England’s starters and top reserves had a short night of work against the Giants, John Lynch played into the second half. But the veteran safety apparently asked for the extra snaps.

Belichick said yesterday that Lynch is integrating into the defensive system well.

“I think he has progressively gotten more comfortable with what we are doing and the different communication with the other safeties and sometimes the linebackers and corners on formation adjustments and coverage calls,” Belichick said.

“I definitely think that he’s feeling better about what he is doing and had a good opportunity to do it (Thursday) night. That was one of the things we wanted to get out of the game was to give not only younger but newer guys experience. Let them play in our system and let them work through the problems and the communication that comes up.”

Lynch recorded five tackles (three assists) against New York.

Team cuts four

In advance of today’s final roster cuts, the Patriots released four players: nose tackle Steve Fifita, cornerback Jeff Shoate, offensive lineman Jimmy Martin and tight end Jonathan Stupar.

All were signed as either rookie free agents, or free agents, and were long shots to make the team.

Stupar, who played for former Belichick assistant Al Groh at Virginia, has another connection to the coach — he’s a nephew of former Giants quarterback Jeff Hostetler.

smanza@projo.com