The New England Patriots trade away first-round pick
It has been an interesting offseason for the New England Patriots to say the least, after their superstar quarterback decided to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tom Brady had been with the Patriots since 2000 and had been their starting quarterback since 2001, appearing in nine Super Bowls during that time and winning six of them. But he is now just a distant memory.
On top of losing Brady though, the Patriots also watched club legend and one of the greatest tight ends of all-time Rob Gronkowski come out of retirement just to join Brady in Tampa Bay. For a team that has won 17 division titles since 2001 and was always so consistent, there are a ton of questions surrounding Bill Belichick and his crew heading into the 2020 campaign.
On Thursday night we saw the Patriots remain as cool and calm as ever as they casually traded away their only selection in the first-round of the NFL draft to the Los Angeles Chargers for picks in the second-round and third-round. Despite the draft taking place remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there weren’t any technical issues or communication problems as New England exchanged the 23rd overall selection for the 37th and 71st picks of the draft.
The trade provided the Patriots with a total of 13 picks in this year’s draft – a clear sign that the club is beginning to look towards building for the future. Prior to making the trade, the Patriots did not have a pick in the second-round and would have been waiting a long time to make their second selection in the draft.
The Chargers made the trade to move up as they were desperate to select inside linebacker Kenneth Murray out of Oklahoma. Murray was the first inside linebacker taken in this year’s draft and will certainly help improve one of the league’s worst run defences. Murray will have the opportunity to see quite a bit of game time as well considering the Chargers already released Thomas Davis.
For the Patriots, this is now the 78th draft day trade that Belichick has made during his time in New England and the 27th time he moved down. However, it was not a trade that the organization had necessarily anticipated making.
“It was a situation where we thought the trade made sense,” said New England director of player personnel Nick Caserio following the first round of the draft.
“Each situation that comes up, we look at it on a case-by-case basis, and we do what we feel is best,” Caserio continued. “I don’t think we got into it and said, ‘Well, this happened, we’re going to do this.’ We don’t look at it that way.”
New England won the AFC East for the 11th consecutive season last year after finishing the year with a 12-4 record. They were ultimately eliminated from the playoffs in the Wild Card Round against the Tennessee Titans which ultimately proved to be Brady’s final game for the Patriots.
