Although his views changed over the years( e.g. you don’t draft guards until 4th round) Belichick generally believed that the closer a player was to the ball the more important they were, and that affected his drafting and free agent decisions, as well as compensation.
I’m not sure that holds up upon closer scrutiny.
I looked at the first players Bill drafted in every year he was with the Patriots. In 24 years he made 27 picks because in three years (2004, 2012, 2018) he had two picks in the first round and I counted them both. There was also one year (2017) in which he traded the first round pick for a veteran player (Brandin Cooks); I treated that as an anomaly and counted the first player drafted. That was an interesting deal btw, they traded a first (pick #32) and a third (pick #103) for Cooks and fourth (pick #118), then a year later traded Cooks and a fourth (pick #136) to the Rams for a first (pick #23) and a sixth (pick #198). The epitome of Bill’s draft wheeling and dealing.
Here’s the breakdown:
Sixteen defense:
6 CB/DB/S
4 DE
3 DT
3 LB
Eleven offense:
5 OL/OG/OT
2 RB
2 TE
1 WR (plus traded first round pick for Brandin Cooks in 2017)
1 QB
Full list:
2000: No first rounder, OG Adrian Klemm taken at No. 46
2001: No. 6, Richard Symour, DE, Georgia
2002: No. 21, Daniel Graham, TE Colorado
2003: No. 13, Ty Warren, DE Texas A&M
2004: No. 21, Vince Wilfork, DT Miami; No. 32, Ben Watson, TE Georgia
2005: No. 32, Logan Mankins, G Fresno State
2006: No. 21, Laurence Maroney, RB Minnesota
2007: No. 24, Brandon Meriweather, DB Miami
2008: No. 10, Jerod Mayo, LB Tennessee
2009: traded back twice, eventually ended up with four second-round picks and two third-rounders; first of their selections was at No. 34 where they traded up for Oregon’s Patrick Chung, DB.
2010: No. 27, Devin McCourty, DB Rutgers
2011: No. 17, Nate Solder, OT Colorado
2012: No. 21 Chandler Jones, DE Syracuse; No. 25, Dont’a Hightower, LB Alabama
2013: traded the No. 29 pick for picks 52, 83, 102, and 229; they went with LB Jamie Collins as their first selection in the second round.
2014: No. 29, Dominique Easley, DT Florida
2015: No. 32, Malcolm Brown, DT Texas
2016: In 2016 the Patriots lost their first-round draft pick as a result of the Deflategate scandal; the team’s first selection was CB Cyrus Jones at No. 60.
2017: The team traded the No. 32 pick to the Saints for WR Brandin Cooks, who played just one year with the team before they traded him for a 2018 first-round pick. Patriots top pick was pick No. 83: Derek Rivers, DE, Youngstown State
2018: No. 23, Isaiah Wynn, OT Georgia; No. 31, Sony Michel, RB Georgia
2019: No. 32, N’Keal Harry, WR Arizona State
2020: In 2020, the Patriots traded their first-round selection to the Chargers for a second and third; with its first selection New England went with S Kyle Dugger at No. 37.
2021: No. 15, Mac Jones, QB Alabama
2022: No. 29, Cole Strange, OL Chattanooga
2023: Christian Gonzalez, CB Oregon
