Belichick sitting in top spot again
With all the NFL’s top power brokers gathered at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix for the league’s spring meetings, the Patriots will once again be at the top of the football world, and not simply because they won another Super Bowl. They’ll be in the catbird seat because at least one quarterbackstarved team will be bowing at their feet, offering up its first born and every first- and secondround pick it can muster up to try and move Bill Belichick off the stance he won’t be trading Jimmy
Garoppolo. And that’s just for starters.
Then there’s Malcolm Butler. How will the endgame with the restricted free agent cornerback play out? Are the Saints, or some other team in the sweepstakes, going to be willing to hand over a first-round pick — or some other trade alternative — if Butler ever signs his tender, just to make it work with the Patriots?
Whatever the angle, Belichick holds most of the leverage. Every possible move is influenced by him.
You can also add Darrelle Revis into the mix. His status will certainly be a talker at the meetings. Will the veteran free agent figure out he needs the Patriots more than they need him?
As is usually the case, the Patriots pretty much control all the cards as far as what they want to do. At the meetings, even heading into the NFL draft, people have to come to them. Belichick’s kind of like the Godfather, sitting back, scratching his chin, letting it play out.
He’s already reloaded and restocked for another run in 2017, having signed free agent corner Stephon Gilmore; traded for wide receiver Brandin Cooks and tight end Dwayne Allen; re-signed linebacker Dont’a Hightower, defensive lineman Alan Branch and safety Duron Harmon; and added pass rusher Kony Ealy. Belichick’s team is already a prohibitive favorite to repeat and grab championship No. 6. He doesn’t have to pick up the phone or outfox another general manager unless he feels like it.
The only thing the Patriots are lacking is a coveted first-round pick, or even a second-round pick. At the moment, their first selection will be No. 72, the latest the Patriots have waited to make a selection in the draft during Belichick’s tenure.
Will they do something to move up? That remains to be seen. But if they do, it’s not outlandish to assume the talks start the next few days in Phoenix. That brings us back to Garoppolo.
Tony Grossi, who covers the Browns for ESPN, reported recently the Browns “would make another run” at Jimmy G at the spring meetings. There, Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Belichick could meet with and interact with Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and the club’s executive vice president of football operations Sashi
Brown in person. Almost by process of elimination, the Browns seem to be the only one of the realistic Garoppolo contenders left. Of course, there’s still Houston, which seem to be waiting for Tony Romo, but it’s hard to believe Belichick would give Garoppolo to a team that might give the Patriots trouble right away.
The other likely landing spots, whether it was Chicago or San Francisco, have put temporary bandages on their quarterback position, with the Bears signing both Mike Glennon and Mark
Sanchez, while the 49ers went with Brian Hoyer. The Browns did trade for Brock Osweiler, but he’s not their future guy. They wanted the second-round draft pick that came with him from Houston, along with using his contract to rise off the cap floor.
As it stands, the Browns have two first rounders and two second rounders in the 2017 draft, and a first-rounder and three second-rounders in 2018 to use as possible ammunition. We’ll see.
In Butler’s case, he still has until April 21 to sign an offer sheet with another team. Presumably, that won’t happen until he signs his first-round tender with the Patriots; Belichick won’t make a response until he does.
But that’s the fun of it. Once again, Belichick’s in the driver’s seat. Speaking of Houston, Herm Edwards is betting Jerry Jones will eventually release Romo, and that the QB will be a Texan.
“We all anticipated Jerry was going to let him go,” the ESPN analyst and former NFL head coach said via the Dallas Morning News. “Jerry said it and then all of a sudden at the end Jerry wanted a sweetener in his coffee. Now Tony’s sitting there waiting to figure out where he’s going.
“Are they going to release him? I think eventually Jerry will let him go.”
Two greats chat
We’ll be hearing more from Belichick at Tuesday’s AFC coaching breakfast. Until then, we got a bit of an appetizer on Wednesday’s edition of Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski’s SiriusXM show, “Basketball and Beyond with Coach K.” Here’s a few takes from the interview.
On Tom Brady: “The biggest thing Tom does for us is to try to keep us out of those bad plays where we have (a) 5-10 percent chance of really being successful, whether it’s a coverage or a blitz or an alignment that they give us, and he sees that what we’ve got called just isn’t what we want to be in. That wasn’t why we called the play, was to run it against that particular look. Then sometimes he’ll be able to get out of those and get us something that, like I said, gives us more of a fair fight.”
On how Belichick keeps his edge: “I just try to maintain a balance with it. Football is very important to me. I put a lot into it, but there are times during our year when you step back and refresh a little bit. Going out to Pebble Beach for a couple of days was good for me, not that I played great golf or anything, but just to be in that environment. In the summer before we go to training camp, just relaxing and spending time with family, getting refreshed, taking the pressure off for a little while.”
Thursday sticks
During a conference call Thursday, Troy Vincent, the NFL’s vice president of football operations, was asked about the possibility of Thursday night games being phased out, given injury risks and the games not being good. Vincent, a former player, indicated he hadn’t heard that was the case. Naturally, if the league is making money and the ratings remain strong, the games will remain.
“You hear a difference of opinion sometimes of players talking about recovery time, but we’ve had success with ‘Thursday Night Football,’ ” Vincent said. “There’s been talk about potentially adding a bye after the Thursday night game, but there hasn’t been any talk about eliminating it.”
Competition Committee chairman Rich McKay, meanwhile, said the injury rate to players on four days rest isn’t any greater than the rate for seven days according to statistics taken in the past five years.
“The quality debate will always be there when you have a game that stands out like a Thursday night game does,” McKay said. “But as far as injury and safety, the numbers have not supported that there’s a difference, or that there’s a higher injury rate.”
Always a challenge
The rule change proposal concerning instant replay put forth by the Bills and Seahawks, which would allow coaches to challenge every officiating decision — calls and noncalls — was originally brought to the table by Belichick several years ago.
The Patriots coach has always been an advocate of having coaches being able to challenge any play. Attempts to make that happen have always failed in the past.
“That is a significant change to our current replay rule and it is something that will be on the floor and debated and voted on next week,” said Dean Blandino, the NFL’s head of officiating, during a conference call.