Patriots: Bill Belichick responds to question about trade deadline plans

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick addressed his trade deadline plans during a virtual video conference with reporters.

The 2020 trade deadline is officially one week away, and the consensus opinion among media members is that the New England Patriots’ biggest needs are at the wide receiver and tight end positions. We also wouldn’t hate the idea of bolstering the front seven, whether it be by adding an inside linebacker or edge rusher (or both), because both spots are struggling to muster consistent production.

It goes without saying that this team won’t compete for a championship this season without a major reversal of course, but it would smart of GM Bill Belichick to begin preparing for next year, when the Patriots will welcome back a slew of players who opted out prior to training camp (and has a metric ton of cap space at his disposal, while the rest of the league tightens its purse strings).

With that in mind, unloading a handful of 2021 draft picks (at the right price) to upgrade a position of need is an idea we can get on board with. Unfortunately for fans in New England, however, Belichick offered next to nothing during his latest virtual video conference with reporters, which included a question about his plans leading up to the Nov. 3 deadline.

"“That is something that I’ll check in with Nick (Caserio) on here this week,” Belichick told reporters. “I usually don’t get too involved in that. The communication on that really goes through the personnel department with Nick and his staff. I would say generally speaking the coaches are pretty involved in their game preparations at this point in time until something becomes more a realistic opportunity. We’ll see how that goes.”“I don’t really have a good sense on that one way or the other. I am sure there are conversations out there. How close that would or wouldn’t be for us, I am not really sure at this point.”"

If you were expecting Belichick to provide some deep insight into the Patriots’ deadline approach, you simply haven’t been paying attention for the last two decades. However, even we were a bit surprised that he implied that he wasn’t involved in potential trade negotiations, and deflected that responsibility to director of player personnel Nick Caserio.

We know better than to be offended by Belichick being misleading during press conferences because he’s played that card his entire career, but everybody and their mother knows that he’s the man pulling the strings, so what exactly is the point of deferring to Caserio?

For the sake of the sanity of Patriots fans, we can only hope that Belichick’s silence speaks volumes and ultimately leads to a blockbuster trade being pulled off prior to next Tuesday.

Whatever the case, if there’s any silver lining to be had here, it lies in the fact that the six-time champion actually dressed to the nines for this presser. As we all know, that is an extreme oddity for Belichick, who is notorious for wearing worn down sweaters for these weekly occasions.

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