Battling New England for NFL supremacy means dealing with coach Bill Belichick’s impossible-to-imitate advantages
Here we are again with the New England Patriots as reigning Super Bowl champions and the rest of the league trying to catch up. Rob Gronkowski and the rest of his beer-swilling team-mates have completed their duck boat parade of downtown Boston to officially cap the 2016 season, and so that means it’s time for the NFL to officially turn the page to draft season. Seven rounds, 223 draft spots, 31 teams trying desperately to find players who will help them become the new Patriots.
The NFL – and all sports leagues, as the cliche goes – is a “copycat league”, and all the Patriots wannabes will undoubtedly try to copy the New England model in April’s draft and that model is to ... uhh ... hmm ... not actually draft that well? Can that be right? For all of Bill Belichick’s many strengths, drafting is not at the top of the list. You could say the long-held NFL rule that you build a team through the draft is another rule the de facto GM likes to skirt around.
Related: Tom Brady: the quarterback who even time can't beat | Les Carpenter
Making dynasty more improbable and impressive: Pats have most snaps in NFL by undrafted players over last decade (nearly 54,000 since 2007).
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