Patriots: NFL exec’s comment on Bill Belichick dealing with opt-out situation sums up his career

An NFL exec commented on how the Patriots will handle players opting out.

Training camp hasn’t even started and the Patriots are already losing major contributors for the 2020 season as a total of six players — including starters Dont’a Hightower, Patrick Chung and Marcus Cannon — have chosen to opt out due to concerns regarding COVID-19.

While the arrival of Cam Newton should allow New England to get by on offense, there’s no telling how the defense will perform after being forced to throw a plethora of new faces into the starting rotation. With that being said, we are talking about a franchise run by Bill Belichick, one of the most calculated individuals to ever grace the NFL.

You have to think he has something up his sleeve, right?

Well, one anonymous league executive told ESPN insider Adam Schefter that the six-time Super Bowl champion has a master plan to overcome these crushing losses.

The Patriots are going to end up with Trevor Lawrence, aren’t they? Like clockwork, the flood of players choosing to opt out prompted the conversation that New England is preparing to tank to select the Clemson superstar in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Of course, this was a prominent debate topic before the Newton signing, but you have to think that having half-dozen key players sit out swiftly lowers the Patriots ceiling for 2020.

We’re not saying that the reigning AFC East champs will be bad enough to land a draft pick high enough to nab Lawrence, but our guess is that the magnitude of Belichick’s course of action will be on a comparable level to selecting the generational quarterback.

The fact of the matter here is that the rest of the NFL should be terrified by the comments from this executive. If nothing else, this quote is a perfect testament to what’s made Belichick so successful in New England. Just when you think he’s cornered, he pulls a move that proves he’s two or three steps ahead of the rest of his colleagues.