As the draft approaches, there’s plenty of uncertainty. One thing is certain — Patriots coach Bill Belichick will make trades.
Consider this amazing nugget from Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. Since 2000, Belichick’s first year as coach and de facto G.M., the Patriots have made 83 trades during the draft. That’s an average of 3.77 trades each year.
The team with the second most trades in that same period is the Eagles, with 64.
It’s one of the benefits of being in charge, of having little if any need to build a consensus. Belichick runs the show. He does what he wants. A ticking clock doesn’t ultimately become a pair of handcuffs.
From a big-picture perspective, it’s easy to say the approach works. To get more specific, every trade would have to be assessed, from the perspective of the players that could have been had versus the players that were obtained and the performance of whatever was added to make the trade happen. That quickly becomes a convoluted guessing game, since many factors go into what a guy becomes, or doesn’t.
Regardless, the fact that the Patriots have made so many trades flows in large part from the fact that Belichick runs the show. That he doesn’t have to talk a General Manager into making a move. That he doesn’t have to worry about an owner trying to second guess the person who has put in hours and hours and hours of evaluating all players and options.
It’s not about Belichick being trade happy. It’s about Belichick being able to move quickly and flexibly because no one else in the draft room can slow him down.
Patriots under Bill Belichick lead the league in draft trades, by far originally appeared on Pro Football Talk