“Whoever the quarterback is we’ll try to make things work smoothly and efficiently for that player and take advantage of his strengths and his skills.” “Over the last two decades everything we did, every single decision we made in terms of major planning, was made with the idea of how to make things best for Tom Brady,” Belichick said. That could affect not only if he drafts a quarterback among the team’s 12 picks but also what type of complementary players he’s looking for at wide receiver or tight end, for example. For the first time in 20 seasons, Belichick doesn’t know who will be starting at the game’s most important position. The other difference for the coach and his team’s draft philosophy is the question mark at quarterback. “I think for the most part we’ve all adjusted to that and tried to take advantage of the opportunity that we have to do those things.” “We certainly have logged a lot of phone time and FaceTime and video conferencing and so forth,” Belichick said in a conference call Monday. Instead of traveling around the country to see the hot shots at Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson and Oregon or meeting prospects as they parade through Foxboro for personal interviews, Belichick, player personnel boss Nick Caserio and the Patriots’ scouts are eating up heavy hours in other ways. That’s made the preparation to select the best class of players very different. While team offices are shut down, the league has determined that the draft should proceed as planned, starting April 23. If the Patriots lose to the Jets and fall to 2-6, Belichick may be facing a much worse fate than a subpoena.The upcoming NFL Draft will be unlike any other in Bill Belichick’s long football career, for several reasons.įirst are the obvious personal restrictions that the coronavirus pandemic has placed around the NFL, its coaches and scouts. New England will next take the field against the winless New York Jets on Monday Night Football in Week 9. On the football field, Belichick’s Patriots are 2-5 and have an uphill battle to get to. “Bielema benefited … and the Patriots (and by extension Belichick) benefited by hiring a coach with years of college head coaching experience and three Rose Bowls for next to no pay. The Counter-Defendants fraudulently obtained, with Cornrich’s assistance, buyout payments that Bielema used like ‘unemployment benefits’ to support his affluent lifestyle for more than a year while he built an NFL resume so that he could obtain a high paying NFL position job once the Release Agreement (and his corresponding obligation to offset the Foundation’s buyout payments) expired.” “The Foundation expressly pleaded that helping the Patriots hire Bielema for a low salary benefitted both of Cornrich’s clients and therefore benefitted Cornrich,” the organization wrote in court papers Tuesday. Now, The Razorback Foundation has subpoenaed Belichick and is seeking documents that would show Bielema and his agent Neil Cornrich (who also represents Belichick) intentionally got the former Arkansas coach hired for a small sum. In the midst of a rocky NFL season for his team, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is being dragged into a legal battle between one of his former assistant coaches and the University of Arkansas, according to The Athletic.īret Bielema, who worked under Belichick in 20 after he was fired from his head coaching position at Arkansas, is engaged in litigation with the fundraising arm of the school, The Razorback Foundation.īielema received a nearly $12 million buyout when he was fired by Arkansas and, under the terms of the agreement, was obligated to find employment that paid a set amount that would offset the amount of the payment.īut since the job Bielema took under Belichick only paid $125,000 annually, the buyout amount was not reduced because his pay was less than the minimum that was agreed upon in the contract.
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