Patriots Draft History: Trading up
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| The Patriots traded up twice in the 2012 first round, for Chandler Jones and Donta Hightower- Barry Chin/ Boston Globe |
Now that the NFL Draft is officially less than a month away, we here at PatriotsLife are turning most of our attention towards our draft coverage. Keeping that in mind, this is the first post of an ongoing series this month, reviewing the Patriots Draft History under Bill Belichick.
This week I'm going to be looking over the Patriots history of draft related trades, starting today with their past trades to move up in the draft to specifically target a player. We all know the Patriots have a penchant for swinging deals on draft day, but many have taken to grumbling that the Pats "always trade down from their picks, probably to pick up an extra fifth rounder to draft some special teams guy."
Fact of the matter, that stereotype of Belichick isn't true at all. The Patriots under Belichick have never made a seismic trade up to the top of the draft- a la former Patriots underling Thomas Dimitroff's blockbuster Julio Jones trade- but they've never been unwilling to be aggressive and make a move up the board when the opportunity presents itself to land their guy.
Don't believe me? Take a look back over the Belichick era...
2001
The Pats started their wheeling and dealing this year with a classic Belichick trade down, adding a fourth rounder (112) and swapping second round picks with Pittsburgh (moving back from 39 to 50). However, the Pats were aggressive with the extra draft currency they picked up, trading up from both picks to land offensive tackles. They packaged the second rounder with a sixth (picks 50 and 173) to Detroit for the right to move up three spots and select Purdue left tackle Matt Light. Detroit did land Nebraska center Dominic Raiola with the 50th pick, who went on to be a long-time starter at center and guard for the Lions. However, 153 starts, three Pro Bowl berths and, most importantly, three Super Bowl wins later, it's pretty apparent the Pats made out by making sure they got Light.
The fourth round pick (112) was similarly packaged with a fifth (139) and sent to San Diego for the right to move up to the first pick of the fourth round (96). They used that pick on Kenyatta Jones, a big talented offensive tackle from South Florida who started 11 games in 2002 at right tackle. However, Jones' 2003 went from bad to worse when the big RT, already inactive on the PUP list, managed to get arrested for allegedly throwing scalding water on his roommate. This brought his Patriots career to an abrupt halt, as the Pats cut him five days after his arrest. Jones would make through one more season, with Tampa Bay, before winding up completely out of the league. He would go on to get arrested again in 2006 while a member of the Arena League's Tampa Bay Storm for attempting to urinate on the dance floor of a nightclub and shoving the off-duty cop who threw him out of the club. He was a real winner.
For the record, the Chargers drafted linebacker Carlos Polk with that 112th pick, a solid, steady pro who spent seven of his eight pro seasons in San Diego. As for the Steelers, they were trading up to 39 to select linebacker Kendrell Bell. Bell's career started on fire, racking up 9 sacks on his way to Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2001, but injuries quickly robbed him of his effectiveness. He only lasted three more years in Pittsburgh, never amassing more than five sacks, and limped his way through three more lackluster seasons in Kansas City before retiring.
2002
The Patriots weren't content to rest on their laurels on draft day following their unexpected Super Bowl win. They knew they had a number of holes on the roster to fix, with tight end standing out as a glaring need. As a result, they traded their first (32), third (96) and seventh (234) round picks to Washington for the right to move up to the 22nd pick, where they selected Colorado tight end Daniel Graham. Graham never quite turned into the receiving threat the Patriots thought they were getting with this pick, but he developed into an excellent blocker and a team captain in his five years in New England. He was also an absolute beast on tight end screens (check the 2:08 mark of this video for evidence)
Graham may not have been quite the star the Patriots were hoping for, but he was a solid productive player. The trade might have looked bad had Washington done well with their picks, but they spent them poorly on QB Patrick Ramsey (32), DE Greg Scott (234), using the third rounder as an accessory to a trade that landed RB Ladell Betts in the second round.
The Patriots were not done trading up that year, as they sent a fourth (131, S Sam Brandon) and fifth rounder(144, WR Herb Haygood) to the Broncos in order to move up to 117 and draft QB Rohan Davey. The former LSU star never delivered on his potential, but the Broncos didn't pick up anyone significant in the deal either.
2003
2003 was arguably Belichick's greatest draft, and certainly one of his most active. The action started early as the Patriots took the 14th overall pick, acquired during the previous offseason from Buffalo for QB Drew Bledsoe, and threw in a sixth rounder (193) for the right to leapfrog Chicago at 13. The Pats took Texas A&M defensive lineman Ty Warren, who went on to be an excellent starter for years up front. Fair to say Warren was the right choice, as the next two picks were two complete busts at DE (Michael Haynes to Chicago, Jerome McDougle to Philly).
That decision worked out wonderfully for the Patriots, but trading up for another Aggie, WR Bethel Johnson, was less prudent. Johnson never was able to translate his world-class speed into consistent play at receiver, and the Patriots gave up their second (50, C Bruce Nelson) and fourth round (120) draft picks to the Panthers move up to 45 for him.
However, they would reacquire that 120th pick with yet another move up the draft board. The Pats gave up a fifth rounder (157, C Ben Claxton) for the right to swap fourth rounders in the process, moving up from 128 (DE Bryant McNeal) to their original pick at 120. There they picked CB Asante Samuel, who went on to be very productive in New England before eventually translating his penchant for interceptions into a huge payday from the Eagles.
2005
The Patriots only trade up in 2005 seemed insignificant at the time, trading a sixth (195, WR Craig Bragg) and seventh rounder (246 Will Whittaker) to the Packers to move up in the sixth round to the 175th pick. This led to another seemingly insignificant move, trading back from that 175 pick (DT Anttaj Hawthorne) for the Raiders seventh (230) and a fifth (136) in 2006. The fifth round pick went towards a big offensive tackle Ryan O'Callaghan who never quite lived up to potential.
Why am I telling you this? Because that seventh rounder turned into QB Matt Cassell, who of course led the team to an 11-5 season as the starter in 2008 when Tom Brady went down with a torn ACL. Cassell would later get flipped along with Mike Vrabel for the second pick of the second round (34), which sounds great until you realize that pick was spent on S Patrick Chung. Whoops.
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| Jackson couldn't dominate like he did at Florida in the pros |
Avert your eyes, Pats fans. 2006 was almost certainly the worst draft of the Belichick era, and it was punctuated by a particularly painful trade up the draft board. When Florida WR Chad Jackson slid into the second round, the Patriots pounced, sending a second (52) and third rounder (75) to Green Bay to move up and take Jackson at 36. Jackson being a massive bust would be enough, but the Packers made the trade extra painful by taking extremely productive WR Greg Jennings with the 52nd pick, while also finding a starting center, Jason Spitz with the third rounder. You don't get to say this often, but the Patriots got absolutely fleeced in this deal. Nothing else really to be said.
2008
After understandably staying away from trading up following the Chad Jackson disaster, the Patriots got back in the ring in 2008 and made a nice move up, swapping fifth round picks and throwing in a seventh rounder (238, RB Cory Boyd) in a trade with Tampa. The Patriots moved up to pick 153 in the fifth round, where they took Matthew Slater, a captain and Pro Bowler on special teams, while the Bucs took project QB Josh Johnson. Certainly a trade they've reaped plenty of benefits from.
2009
This trade pales only in comparison to the Jackson debacle in the Belichick era of trading up. The Patriots liked BC DT Ron Brace enough to send a second (47, S Mike Mitchell), fourth (124, WR Louis Murphy) and sixth (199, DE Stryker Stulak) to Oakland for the rights to move up to 40 and snag him. Brace never caught on with the Patriots and is currently out of football. Of course, no one that Oakland picked lit the world on fire either, but that is a lot of draft currency to give up for a player whose career came and went as quietly as Brace's.
The Patriots quietly made one more trade up that year, packaging two fifth round picks (137, 141) and sending them to Baltimore for a fourth (123) and a sixth (198). The Patriots landed OL Rich Ohrnberger and LS Jake Ingram with those picks, while the Ravens took LB Jason Philips at 137 and traded the 141st pick (WR Kenny McKinley) to Denver for a fifth (149, TE Davon Drew) and sixth rounder (185, RB Cedric Peerman).
2010
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| A trade worth spiking over |
They made one other trade up in this draft. It was sliiiiiiiightly less consequential, sending two seventh rounders (229, C Eric Cook and 231, OT Selvish Capers) to move up to the first pick of the seventh round and take OT Thomas Welch.
2012
After spending 2011 stocking the roster with trades down the board, the Pats came back with a vengeance in 2012, making two trades up in the first round to grab potential cornerstone defenders.They started by taking the 27th pick (acquired the following year when they traded out of the first round with New Orleans) and trading it along with a third rounder (93, DT Brandon Thompson) to Cincinnati for their 21st pick in the draft. The Pats then used that pick to land Syracuse DE Chandler Jones, who appears to be a star in the making, with the Bengals taking starting guard Kevin Zeitler at 27.
They followed this up by taking their own first round pick (31) and a fourth rounder (126) and trading them to Denver to move up to 25 and take Alabama LB Dont'a Hightower. Denver immediately flipped those picks, trading them to Tampa for a second rounder (36, Cincinnati DL Derek Wolfe) and fourth (101, CB Omar Bolden). Tampa wound up taking RB Doug Martin at 31 and DE Jared Crick at 126 with the Patriots original picks.
