NFL Draft: What Did Bill Belichick Have To Say On His Picks?

Shortly after the NFL draft came to a conclusion, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick met with the media to discuss his draft picks.

Here is the official transcript: (via Patriots.com)

BB: Alright, well we finished out the day here today primarily with those [compensatory] picks at the end. I think we added some players that hopefully will be competitive on the team. I look forward to working with them. Our staff, Nick [Caserio] did a good job, and his staff did a real good job of researching everything, finding a lot of information, just scrambling around here at the end on some free agents that weren’t drafted. I thought we had a good process. The scouts worked hard. We got a lot of information so hopefully we have some players that can help our team and we’ll give them an opportunity and see how it goes.

Q: Malcolm Mitchell seems like an impressive kid both on and off the field. What did you like about him?

BB: He is. Solid kid, yeah, absolutely. He’s got a good story. [He] works hard, and [he’s] versatile. He’s a good player.

Q: How many of these guys that you drafted can have special teams relevance going forward?

BB: I mean we’ll see about Malcolm [Mitchell]. Cyrus [Jones] obviously can return.

Q: Are the two trades you made totally independent of each other or do they go hand-in-hand sometimes?

BB: Yeah, totally. The Miami trade was made, I don’t know, probably an hour before it would have even gotten to those picks just so that we could plan and they could plan and then really we were very close to picking and Seattle kind of came up and made us the offer into next year so they were very independent. It’s just the way that it worked out.

Q: If you make that trade so far in advance are you going up for one particular player?

BB: No. No, absolutely not. When you’re trading back there I don’t think you’re trading for a player. At least then, that particular trade, no, not at all. [You] just kind of trade for value just to either one guy in the fifth or two guys in the sixth, minus the seventh. I’m just saying it’s really more of a philosophical thing of where you want to be and just kind of spacing it out a little bit.

Q: Was getting a pick in the 2017 Draft something that came in hoping to accomplish?

BB: We can’t control any of that. You just do the best that you can. We do what we feel is best for the team when those situations come up. We can’t control what we can’t control.

Q: Malcolm mentioned playing in a pro-style offense in college. How important is that in evaluating a player?

BB: I think any time you see a guy in college do something that’s similar to what we are doing that helps a little bit. [Brian] Schottenheimer was down there last year and obviously he’s a very good coach, runs a pro system. Some guys do, some guys don’t. We took [Shaq] Mason last year from the Georgia Tech offense which is kind of the other extreme. Again, you can only control what you can control and everybody’s looking at the same tape so you get the same film that the other 31 teams had and the same workouts and you’ve just got to try and figure it out. Sometimes you have better information on others, especially with as many juniors as there are. That’s one less year of information but it’s all the same for everybody.

Q: When you take a look at a prospect like Malcolm Mitchell how much does his unique background weight into the decision to draft him?

BB: Again, each player has their own story or their own situations that they’ve dealt with. But certainly there are guys that overcome things and have to deal with situations. How they deal with it, and how they’re able to come out of it, and where they are at whatever point you’re evaluating them at that process I think tells you something about the individual. There’s no question about that.

Q: What stood out to you about Jacoby Brissett?

BB: We just felt like it was the best thing to do for the team at that point. He’s a good player, a good kid. We’ll see how it goes.

Q: There seemed to be an outside consensus that running back was a position of need. Was not drafting a running back just a matter of the right guy not being available when you were on the clock?

BB: Yeah, I guess. Again, you can’t control what you can’t control.

Q: Can you speak at all about the deflategate decision?

BB: I’m talking about the draft. Are you good on that? Good.

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