Bill Belichick's draft philosophy is quite simple and it shows that most teams probably overthink the process
Bill Belichick has won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots.
Much of the Patriots' success can be traced back to their success in the NFL Draft.
Belichick's draft philosophy is quite simple and suggests other teams overthink the process.
The New England Patriots routinely pick at the end of the first round in the NFL Draft, but a lot of their success can be attributed to consistently nailing their picks.
Of course, not all of their picks have been home runs. There have certainly been a few notable whiffs, such as tight end Daniel Graham in the first round of the 2002 draft and defensive back Ras-I Dowling with the 33rd pick in 2011.
However, they also seem to find a lot of great value late in the draft, even beyond famously taking Tom Brady in the sixth round of the 2000 draft. There was Rob Gronkowski in the second round, Asante Samuel, Trey Flowers, and Shaq Mason in the fourth round, and Julian Edelman in the seventh round, to name a few.
The Patriots owe that success to Bill Belichick's relatively simple draft philosophy that includes four key points. The first three points were outlined by Mike Lombardi, who worked the draft with Belichick in both New England and with the Cleveland Browns, during a 2012 interview with Paul Burmeister of the NFL Network.
Tony Manfred contributed to an earlier version of this report.
Belichick does a lot of homework to prepare for the draft, and ultimately that work is the basis for selecting good players. But his draft-day philosophy is also amazingly simple, and considering how much of a copy-cat league the NFL can be, it is surprising more teams don't mimic that.
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