FOXBORO, Mass. — Bill Belichick didn’t mince his words when asked if he wants the NFL draft to be moved back up from May to April.
“Yeah, of course,” Belichick said Tuesday at Gillette Stadium before the first day of minicamp. “The sooner you have your players, the easier it is to start not only getting them integrated into your team but also building your team. There are certain things you get in the draft, and then you have to fill in other areas of the team with veteran players or college free agents or whatever. That process is going on. You can see every day, you pick up the transactions and every team — not every team, but there are probably five to 15 transactions on a daily basis.
“Of course, if you had the draft, you would be able to move that whole process up. But whatever it is, it is. It’s not my decision. But I would vote for an earlier draft, absolutely.”
The NFL moved the draft back two weeks in 2014, from April to May, because of a scheduling conflict with Radio City Music Hall. The NFL is looking to move the draft to a different venue, and possibly away from New York, in 2015.
