What Bill Belichick has done with the Patriots' first round draft picks

There’s a running joke that Bill Belichick likes to trade out of the first round of the NFL Draft, acquiring a larger number of late-round picks. This joke depends on his identity as something of a passionless rogue thinker. So after he used his first round draft pick last night to draft an actual football player, I decided to look back at his history as Head Coach (and de facto General Manager) of the New England Patriots. Here’s the full list of what he did with first round picks:

  • 2000 (#16): Sent to Jets as compensation for his own hiring
  • 2001 (#6): Drafted Richard Seymour
  • 2002 (#32): Traded up to #21, drafted Dan Graham
  • 2003 (#14): Acquired via trade for Drew Bledsoe, traded up to #13, drafted Ty Warren
  • 2003 (#19): Traded down to 2nd round plus 2004 1st round
  • 2004 (#21): Acquired via above trade, drafted Vince Wilfork
  • 2004 (#32): Drafted Ben Watson
  • 2005 (#32): Drafted Logan Mankins
  • 2006 (#21): Drafted Lawrence Maroney
  • 2007 (#28): Traded down to 4th round plus 2008 1st round
  • 2008 (#7): Acquired via above trade, traded down to #10, drafted Jerod Mayo
  • 2008 (#31): Forfeited as penalty for SpyGate
  • 2009 (#23): Traded down to #26 plus 5th round, then traded those for a 2nd and two 3rds
  • 2010 (#22): Traded down to #24, then again to #27, drafted Devin McCourty
  • 2011 (#17): Acquired via trade for Richard Seymour, drafted Nate Solder
  • 2011 (#28): Traded down to 2nd round plus 2012 1st round
  • 2012 (#27): Acquired via above trade, traded up to #21, drafted Chandler Jones
  • 2012 (#31): Traded up to #25, drafted Dont'a Hightower
  • 2013 (#29): Traded down for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th round picks
  • 2014 (#29): Drafted Dominique Easley

So in the past fifteen drafts, he’s drafted 13 players in the first round (including 2 after trading downward within the round and 4 after trading upward) and got out of the first round entirely 5 times. Draw whatever conclusion you like, but that doesn’t seem like a particularly strong trend to me. From 2007-2011, however, he traded down or out with 5 of their 6 picks – I wonder if that’s where this reputation originated.


NFL records - 2011 first two weeks

The following records have been set in the first two weeks of the 2011 NFL season:

  • Most total yards passing in a game by both teams - Brady and Henne, week 1 (906)
  • Most yards passing by a rookie - Newton tied it week 1 (422) and then broke it week 2 (432)
  • Most yards passing in the first two weeks of a season - Newton (854), and then a couple hours later Brady broke it (940)
  • Most total touchdowns by all teams in the first two weeks of a season (172)
  • Most total passing yards by all teams in the first two weeks of a season (15,771)
  • Most consecutive 400+ yard passing games - Newton and Brady tied it at 2
  • Most QBs with 300+ yard passing games in one weekend - week 1 (14)
  • Longest field goal - tied by Janikowski (63 yards) week 1
  • Most penalties by both teams in a single game - Raiders vs Broncos (25)

There’s more if you count near-records. Brady’s week 1 performance of 516 passing yards was a team record and a Monday Night record, but only the fifth-best ever. And his 940 passing yards over two games was the most in the first two weeks of a season, but was five yards short of the record for any two consecutive games.

So far, a weird high-scoring season. It’ll be left to be seen if this is just a result of the shortened offseason (thanks to the lockout), or bigger strategic changes across the league.