FOXBORO -- The Patriots have 12 overall selections in the 2019 NFL draft and it's highly unlikely all of them will be used, which means multiple trades are a very distinct possibility.
When it comes to trades during the draft, there's a draft pick value chart that teams use (it varies a bit from team-to-team), but when speaking Wednesday at his pre-draft press conference, Bill Belichick said most teams are on the same page.
"I would say that, in general, the trades over the last several years for the most part have been, let's call them within five to 10 percent, pretty equitable trades," he said. "So, for you to have a chart that's different than the other 31 charts isn't really that productive because now we're just arguing about which chart – "My chart says this. Your chart says that." I'd say officially or unofficially – well, it's unofficially – but I would say everybody probably uses about the same value chart. I'd say in our draft trade negotiations through the years, especially the last two or three years, there hasn't been a lot of, 'My chart says this. Your chart says that.'
"Now, 10 or 15 years ago there was some of that. 'Oh, here's what we think it should be.' Well, the other team's in a different ballpark because they're looking at a different chart. I would say that when you look at the trades now, over the past few years, a majority of them fall within what we would say is a range of a fair trade. What the going rate would be is what the team gave up and what the team got is about what you would expect them to get, whether it's our trade or not. I'm just looking league wide.
"The first round is a little bit different because you're trading for a very specific player at that point. Not that you're not trading for a player in the second and third round – I'm not saying that – when a team moves up, they move up to take a certain player that they want. But not everybody's necessarily after that player, whereas in the first five, 10 picks, whatever it is, when you're trading there you're trading for a certain guy and when they trade out of it they know that they're trading away from that player. It might be one or two players but it's a much more defined situation."
This says making trades now is potentially easier than it has been say 10-15 years ago because every team is generally on the same page.
As it relates to the Patriots in the first round, if the team wanted to move up to the 15-20 range (850-1,050 points), the chart says it would likely take their selection at No. 32 (590 points), No. 64 (270 points) and potentially one of their third-round comp picks.
While Belichick didn't say anything specific about draft-day trades, he did indicate they won't be too difficult to negotiate.
