The New England Patriots are one of the best dynasties in sports history. How did they do it though?
In today’s NFL, the mantra is “build through the draft.” The truth is, that’s an old philosophy that doesn’t work wholly in the modern landscape of the league. You need free agency, and the New England Patriots have proven that fact to be true.
In the early days of the NFL, you had to build through the draft because there was no free agency. The only way to acquire other teams’ players was via trade. Now, there’s free agency, and you have to win in the draft and free agency to be successful long-term.
Bill Belichick is widely considered to be the best head coach in NFL history. As a general manager when it comes to the NFL Draft, however, he leaves a lot to be desired. Sure, he hit on Tom Brady, and that’s the most important position, but we can attribute some of that to luck to a hit by Mo Lewis on Drew Bledsoe.
Belichick became the de facto general manager when he became the head coach. From 2000-17 the Patriots have drafted 158 players. In that timeframe, only 11 of their draft picks — including Brady — have been major contributors to Super Bowl championships. That’s a success rate of 6.9 percent. So, there is something that Belichick is weak at, the NFL Draft.
That said, he does do well at finding free agents that fit what the Patriots want to achieve. The Patriots have manipulated the cap so well. They sign players that fit what they want to do rather than building a system around players.
That means they’re good at not only evaluating other players in the NFL, but they are good at self-evaluation. That’s the toughest thing to do in sports.
You can point to the team drafting Tom Brady 199th overall in the 2000 NFL Draft as the turning point, but there’s a lot more to the story. It’s much more than building through the draft. It’s being able to self-evaluate that separates the Patriots from the rest of the NFL.