Over the past last year, whenever the Patriots' poor drafting in recent years was brought up to Bill Belichick it was scoffed at and dismissed.
But, that wasn't the case with Robert Kraft when he spoke via conference call for the first time since Super Bowl LIII.
The Patriots owner acknowledged good teams are built via the draft and that hasn't been the case in New England recently. But, he did say he has reason to believe things are changing.
“Look, in the end if you want to have a good, consistent winning football team, you can’t do it in free agency," Kraft said. "You have to do it through the draft because that’s when you’re able to get people of great talent whether it’s Willie McGinest or Tom Brady — you get them at a price where you can build a team and be competitive. Once they get to their first contract and they are superstars, you can only balance so many of them. And so really the teams who draft well are the ones who will be consistently good.
“I don’t feel we’ve done the greatest job the last few years and I really hope, and I believe -- I have seen a different approach this year. In the end, it all comes out to what happens on the field and how well people execute. You really don’t know a draft — how good a draft is — for at least two years. And especially in the environment we’re in now where I am not quite sure what our offseason training and learning abilities will be. It’s something we’re working very hard with the union today and I think last year younger players were really disadvantaged because they didn’t have the time to come and learn and be part of it.”
Relating to the Patriots' recent selections, in the 2016-18 drafts, only five of a possible 22 players are still with the team.
Clearly, poor drafting has been an issue and certainly played into the Patriots being big spenders this offseason. Kraft has reason to believe this year will be different and sooner or later we'll find out.