Bill Belichick never would admit it, but it’s pretty clear he had a devious ulterior motive with his first-round trade in the 2023 NFL Draft.
The Patriots originally owned the 14th pick in the draft but traded it to the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 17th pick and a fourth-rounder. With the 17th pick, New England selected Oregon cornerback Christian Gonzalez, who has all the makings of a top-flight defender in the NFL.
So, the trade was a win on two fronts for New England. However, if you factor in how it impacted the New York Jets, the deal essentially allowed the Patriots to kill three birds with one stone.
Basically, the theory goes like this: New England reportedly wasn’t high on Ohio State offensive tackle Broderick Jones and was targeting a corner in Round 1 anyway. But the tackle-needy Jets, with Aaron Rodgers in the fold, were high on Jones — according to NBC Sports’ Peter King — and wanted to draft him. In fact, New York would’ve drafted Jones with the 13th overall selection, which it owned before sending it to the Green Bay Packers in the Rodgers trade, which left the Jets with the 15th pick. Belichick then found another tackle-needy team in the Steelers, who moved up and drafted Jones one spot in front of New York. The Jets settled for edge rusher Will McDonald at No. 15 and didn’t take a tackle until Round 4.
Patriots personnel executive Matt Groh hinted at the plan during a post-Round 1 Zoom call. However, The Washington Post’s Jason La Canfora spoke with an NFL general manager who said it with his chest.
“They should have had to give up a (third-round pick) and not a four to move up there,” the GM, who was “keeping tabs” on possible trades with the Patriots, said of the Steelers while speaking with La Canfora. “Belichick did it just to (expletive) the Jets. He sold low because he knew the Steelers were going to take the kid the Jets wanted to take.”
The GM added: “I think the trade totally blindsided them. They were scrambling.”
La Canfora spoke with another personnel executive who also believes Belichick wanted to stick it to an AFC East rival.
“Bill will try to screw (the Jets) over any chance he gets,” the exec said. “He knew exactly what he was doing.”
It’s worth noting that Steelers general manager Omar Khan recently denied any intentions of conspiring with the Patriots.
“We did not relay. We did not tell them who we were planning on picking,” Khan said during an appearance on Pittsburgh’s WDVE-FM, as transcribed by Trib Live’s Tim Benz. “It was just one of those things where we all study what the needs are of the teams around us. But, no, we did not say, ‘Hey, we want to make this trade, and we want to take, you know, Player X.’ “
Interestingly, on Day 3 of the draft, the Jets swung a trade with New England to move up to the 120th overall pick, which they used to select Carter Warren. So, perhaps Belichick felt bad and wanted to make up for it.
Probably not, though.
