FOXBORO — Buried in the midst of a 7-minute monologue to open his Friday pre-draft press conference Bill Belichick hinted that the Patriots just might be in a position to do something different at the end of April.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s a constantly evolving situation,” Belichick said. “In the end, we give each player a value based on what we think he can do for us. And then we ultimately do the best we can to improve the football team with the opportunities that we have. This year is a little bit different than the last couple years.<\/p>\n
“Going into those past two drafts, I would say we were able to eliminate a number of players just based on where we were selecting. This year is a little bit different than that, but we really need to know the draft from top to bottom and potentially \u2013 I\u2019d say there\u2019s a handful of players that are probably out of reach \u2013 but realistically, just about everybody\u2019s in play, other than a handful of guys.”<\/p>\n
Hmmm.<\/p>\n
Certainly, Belichick knows they’re not intending on moving up to Saquon Barkley, Bradley Chubb, Josh Rosen, Josh Allen or Sam Darnold territory. But Mason Rudolph, Rashaan Evans, Denzel Ward or anyone else projected No. 10 or later, who knows? The interesting news here is they’re all in play. There have been rumblings (including Tom Brady to Deion Sanders on Instagram from Qatar) about Lamar Jackson and how much of “a beast” he would be in Foxboro.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, look, in the draft process I\u2019d look at it like a jigsaw puzzle,” Belichick told me. “It\u2019s got like 100 pieces. Each piece has a little bit of a fit, but in the end there are a lot of pieces. You have all of the factors that come with the player, a lot of other circumstances, other opinions. There\u2019s medical opinions, his ability as a teammate, leadership, work ethic, strength, quickness, level of improvement, rate of improvement, rate of decline, injury factors, versatility.<\/p>\n
“How much has he done? How much could he do? Maybe he hasn\u2019t been asked to do it. There\u2019s a thousand things that go into it, so you try to put it all together and figure it out. It\u2019s hard. That\u2019s why it\u2019s a pretty imperfect process, but you do the best you can. I think this year, probably as we saw last year, somewhere between a half and two-thirds of the players in the first two round will be underclassmen. It\u2019s just less information on those guys. Every team in the league is working with the same information, but it\u2019s just less.”<\/p>\n
To review, the Patriots hold a pair of picks in both the first and second rounds and their options are plentiful. They currently sit at No. 23 (Brandin Cooks trade), 31, 43 and 63.<\/p>\n
Will they move up to do something bold like draft a quarterback in the first round? Probably not. Will they package one of the picks, move down and collect an addition pick of value? Perhaps. But whatever the plan, Belichick – as usual – wasn’t about to divulge specifics. Could they find a partner to move up and take a player they regard highly? Maybe.<\/p>\n
But please do not think that Belichick and Nick Caserio see a potential need in the secondary or offensive line and draft to that need early in the draft just to fill the hole.<\/p>\n
“The whole draft need thing is \u2013 I don\u2019t really understand that,” Belichick said. “You put a card up on the board. That doesn\u2019t mean the guy is a good player. I think it\u2019s important to acquire good players wherever they are. If you take a player at a position that you might so called “need” but he\u2019s not good enough to fill that need, then it\u2019s a wasted pick. So, I don\u2019t understand the whole need thing. I understand player value, and that\u2019s what we try to go by.”<\/p>\n
\nBELICHICK: Most of the board \u201cstill in play\u201d this draft vs previous years. pic.twitter.com\/rpkweiPKKC<\/a><\/p>\n