The New England Patriots have never been a team that could draft well at all, but it was never needed when you had a guy like Tom Brady behind center.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft wasn’t shy in his assessment of his team’s recent drafting struggles. Speaking to the media last month, Kraft admitted that the team hasn’t done “the greatest job” over the past few years.
“I don’t feel we’ve done the greatest job the last few years…” Kraft said. “I’ve seen a different approach this year.”
According to the Boston Herald’s Karen Guregian, Belichick delivered his response when asked about Kraft’s comments about the team’s drafting of late.
“We’re always looking to get better,” Belichick said. “We’re always looking to do a better job.”
“We’re always looking to get better. Always try to evaluate everything we do and try to find a better way to do it. … There were some things last year that were unique to the draft process. As I mentioned, some of those are similar this year, some are a little bit different.
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“So we certainly used some of that experience to improve the process a little bit this year — at least I felt we improved it this year. But ultimately, we’re still going to try to evaluate the players and make the decisions that we feel like are best for the football team. We’ll continue to do that. … I don’t think the mission has changed.”
The Patriots head coach also shared insight into how his staff is preparing for the 2021 NFL Draft.
“The draft process has been a little bit different this year,” Belichick told reporters in a video conference. “We didn’t have the Indianapolis combine, but we did have some opportunities at pro days, so that made it a little bit different. But in the end, we’ve accumulated a lot of information.”
Belichick also revealed that recently-hired Matt Patricia would be involved in the draft process.
“Matt rejoined us and has been heavily involved in the process, and (assistant director of player personnel) Dave Ziegler, (front office executive) Eliot Wolf and (national scout) Matt Groh have really carried the ball on this,” Belichick said.
“They’ve done a ton of work and their respective staffs that they oversee, as well. But in particular, those three guys have done a tremendous amount of work, evaluation and organization and done a great job of putting things together.”
