The spin is in.
After receiving widespread criticism for his bizarre draft board, Bill Belichick seems to be going on the offensive.
Some of it is overt. On Thursday night, Belichick was adamant the Patriots didn’t reach on Cole Strange, the guard out of Chattanooga whom they selected at No. 29 overall. The Patriots traded down from No. 21, where the Chiefs took Washington corner Trent McDuffie. Cornerback is one of the Patriots’ biggest needs.
But Belichick confidently told reporters it wasn’t too early to take a guard out of the Southern Conference. “If we had stayed at 21, then we would have obviously picked somebody. Probably a good chance it would have been him,” he said. “He wouldn’t have lasted much longer.”
It’s apparent the Patriots valued Strange more highly than the vast majority of teams and draft analysts. When Sean McVay was told the Patriots took Strange in the first round, he laughed out loud. “We wasted our time watching him thinking he would be available at 104 maybe,” he said.
We’ve received some clarification since then. McVay told reporters he would never mock Belichick and “regrets” being misunderstood. But the fact remains, the Rams valued Strange as a third-round pick. The Patriots drafted him at the end of the first round, and if we’re to believe Belichick, they would’ve considered taking him eight spots earlier, too.
There used to be a time when Belichick would seldom get questioned for his unorthodox approach to the draft. He’s always relished drafting players from small schools and unusual backgrounds.
But his contrarian ways are less appealing when the Patriots haven’t won a playoff game for three years. It’s like they say: It’s OK to be eccentric if you’re rich; otherwise you’re just crazy.
Director of pro personnel Matt Groh spent a considerable amount of time Friday night trying to convince people the Patriots weren’t crazy for taking Strange that early. He talked about Strange’s incredible physical attributes — he runs a sub-5-second 40-yard dash at nearly 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds — and highlighted that he started at three positions in college.
Interestingly enough, Groh forgot to mention that Strange started 41 of his 44 games in college at guard. His flexibility on the line stretched as far as two starts at tackle and one at center.
But details often get in the way of a good sell job.
There’s also been an effort to boost comments from Kyle Shanahan, who said Friday he thought Strange looked like a first-rounder on tape. “Everyone watched that tape. They’re like, ‘He looks like a first-rounder,” Shanahan said. “Who’s gonna pull the trigger? And you never know who that one person is.”
Clearly, the 49ers weren’t going to be that team. Without a need at offensive line, they didn’t take anybody who plays upfront until the sixth round. And that’s where Shanahan was being misleading. There are a confluence of factors that go into where a player is picked. It may only take one team to pull the trigger, but the Patriots were that one team — without an apparent second one that was lurking.
It’s worth noting that Shanahan and Belichick share a close friendship as well. After all, Belichick did trade Jimmy Garoppolo to San Francisco for a mere second-round pick.
Some NFL sources are now spreading the word that Strange was more highly viewed than laypeople thought heading into the draft. NFL Media’s Mike Giardi said a source told him there was a team that was eyeing Strange in the 40s.
There is a sizable difference, however, between No. 29 and somewhere in the 40s.
The same source told Giardi there was one team “ready to pounce” on speedy Baylor wideout Tyquan Thornton, which explains why the Patriots traded up to No. 50 for a player who was supposedly viewed as a fourth- or fifth-rounder.
There was a run on receivers after Thornton. The Steelers, Colts and Chiefs all took better-rated wideouts — George Pickens, Alec Pierce, Skyy Moore — following the Patriots’ selection.
Would one of those teams have drafted Thornton? There’s no way to know. If they did, they would’ve been going against seemingly every draft analyst, just like the Patriots.
The reverence for Belichick is understandable: he’s the greatest. But most of his recent drafts have been busts. Of the 28 players taken since 2019, just 12 have played in more than half of the Patriots’ games since then (credit to Tom Curran for the stat).
One of those players is N’Keal Harry, who’s fifth-year option was just declined.
Every NFL team sells their draft to the media. But we don’t have to buy what they, or their minions, are saying.
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The weirdest NFL Draft ever?: The NFL trotted out Ice Cube, Wayne Newton and Criss Angel in an apparent effort to attract … who, exactly? Bereft of compelling storylines — there was a dearth of quarterbacks and no consensus No. 1 pick — the NFL seemingly felt obligated to put on more of a show. Unsurprisingly, the ratings show it didn’t work. Thursday’s opening round drew 10.03 million viewers across ESPN, ABC and the NFL Network — the lowest total since 2017.
“Man in the Arena” ends without fanfare: Tom Brady released the long-awaited climax to his Facebook series last week. And nobody seemed to notice.
After Brady’s wild faux-tirement and return, a documentary looking back at the Buccaneers’ 2020 season is unsatisfactory. We want to know about what happened this year. Brady dodged the issue.
While the series didn’t attract a lot of buzz, there was a strong interest among Patriots fans about Brady’s perspective on his time here — even if it was largely airbrushed. But now, it’s safe to say the intrigue is gone.
It’s time to give TB12 Inc. a rest.
Celtics-Bucks long-lasting layover: It may be passé to whine about NBA playoff scheduling, but please give me a moment: After tonight, the Celtics and Bucks are not going to play again until Saturday afternoon. That is four days from now.
One of the best parts of these playoff series is how the energy and animosity builds over a multi-game stretch. Taking long breaks deflates the momentum. That is not good for the product.