Super Bowl 51: How Bill Belichick Built His Patriots

Like it or not, the Patriots are the dynasty of this generation. Seven Super Bowl appearances, four wins, and 11 trips to AFC title game is an unprecedented level of success. Yet the unique thing about this dynasty is that it really isn’t about a team sustaining success, it’s about two people, a coach and a quarterback.

The two are the only holdovers since their first run of Super Bowls and will likely go down as the greatest coach and quarterback ever. With a potential fifth ring on the horizon, let’s look at how Bill Belichick has created the great team of our time.

Contracts

It’s apparent in Belichick’s roster construction that he believes that most positions are replaceable on year-to-year basis. Here are the drafted starters playing on second contracts with the team.

Tom Brady(Drafted 6th Round, 2000)
Stephen Gostkowski(Drafted 4th Round, 2006)
Julian Edelman(Drafted 7th Round, 2009)
Devin McCourty(Drafted 1st Round, 2010)
Rob Gronkowski(Drafted 2nd Round, 2010)
Nate Solder(Drafted 1st Round, 2011)
Marcus Cannon(Drafted 5th Round, 2011)

With respects to Cannon and Gostkowski, their low salaries make them negligible in this exercise. In essence, Belichick views only his quarterback, top wide receiver, free safety, left tackle, and tight end as indispensable.

This makes sense. Obviously Brady’s value goes without saying. Left tackles have become increasingly hard to find in the draft due to college spread offenses. McCourty is his playmaking centerfielder that moves around depending on the matchup.

Gronkowski, when healthy, is an all-time talent. In Edelman’s case, it takes a particularly nuanced type of receiver to excel in this offense. It’s also notable that he earns much less than most top receivers at under five million against the cap.

These are also all core positions. If you were to ask ten personnel men to rank the importance of all the positions, the above groups would be near the top. He isn’t extending guards and nose tackles to big second deals.

Turnover and Acquisitions

Belichick’s so-called ruthlessness has already been written about to death. When he isn’t ready to doll out lucrative deals to a player, he’ll happily ship them out of town. Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins are two building block draft picks shipped off this offseason.

People still talk about the Randy Moss trade in 2010. If he doesn’t see a long-term fit, he’s quick to act. The unique thing about the Patriots is how quickly their roster has turned over. Since their last Super Bowl title in 2014, they’ve added 30 new players to the roster.

Eleven of those are starters. While the memory is still fresh, New England has half cycled over since then.We’ve all heard a million times about how Belichick finds pieces that haven’t panned out elsewhere and turned them into stars.

Their running backs, LeGarrette Blount and Dion Lewis, couldn’t catch on elsewhere. Belichick acquired his deep threat, Chris Hogan, as a restricted free agent.

Just this season, Belichick hasn’t shied away from trading for retreads in Marcellus Bennett, Eric Rowe, Kyle Van Noy, and Barkevious Mingo. The fact of the matter is that Belichick puts players in positions based on their strengths better than anyone in the business.

The Draft

After a rough stretch in the draft during the mid 2000’s, Belichick has done as well as anyone in finding starters through the draft. Their top picks since 2010: McCourty, Soldier, Dont’a Hightower, Jamie Collins, Dominique Easley, Malcolm Brown, and Cyrus Jones.

While Jones’ impact is yet to be seen, Dominique Easley stands out of the lone miss of the group.
Belichick has also used the middle rounds to unearth quality role players. Trey Flowers, their fourth round pick from 2015, has quietly become a key cog on their defensive front.

Logan Ryan, a third round pick in 2013, has been their second cornerback for years. Malcolm Butler stands out as the most obvious example, an undrafted free agent in 2014. New England also has strayed from the rest of the league in terms of positions of emphasis in the early rounds.

The current league trend is to select players involved in the passing game in early rounds: quarterbacks, receivers, tackles, pass rushers, and corners. 13 of the first 16 picks in last years draft player one of those positions.

And 22 of the 31 first round picks did as well. Since 2012, their first round picks have included two defensive tackles, two inside linebackers, and only one pass rusher in Chandler Jones. Belichick has been able to find his difference makers in the passing game in untraditional ways.

We all know that Tom Brady was a 6th round draft pick. His top three receivers include a 7th round pick, an undrafted free agent, and this years 4th round pick. His top cornerback was an undrafted free agent as well. He also has a knack for trading back to accumulate a bevy of picks.

In 2016, the Patriots had 9 picks. The year before, it was 11. In all, they’ve drafted 29 players in the last three years.