Belichick Justifies Losing Second-Round Pick In Mohamed Sanu Trade

The New England Patriots lost the second-round draft pick after trading for wide receiver Mohamed Sanu at last year’s trade deadline. New England has the 23^rd overall pick of the first round. They will have to wait a lot until they get to the 97^th overall pick in the third round. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick discussed the trade they finished to get Sanu.

“We have a little bit of a void there in the second round,” the head coach said Monday on a pre-draft conference call. “Although that player, Sanu, filled a need for us. So, that’s OK.”

New England needed a wideout after cutting Antonio Brown and Josh Gordon. Let’s not forget that they also traded Demaryius Thomas.

Sanu was able to catch 26 passes for 207 yards with a touchdown in eight games with the Patriots in 2019. He had a hot start, and caught 10 passes in his second game with the team. However, he suffered an ankle injury. Sanu is still under contract, and carries a $6.5 million salary in 2020. According to analysts, he will be a starter alongside Julian Edelman and N’Keal Harry.

Belichick may go after another trade

The Patriots head coach also discussed the self-scouting on their process in the second round. They spent four second-round picks on defensive backs, and only Williams stayed on the roster.

“We evaluate everything we do and are always trying to learn from every situation to improve,” Belichick said. “We do that. We’ve done that every year since I’ve been here. We’ll continue to do it. We’ll do the best we can this year. We’ll see how it goes. … You’ve got guys like Matt Light and Jamie Collins and Rob Gronkowski and others, plenty of second-rounders that had good careers here — yeah, (Patrick Chung). We’ll see how it goes.

“Look, each draft is different, every year is different, every player is different. I think to sit here and rehash the 2015 draft and the 2006 draft or whatever it is, again, they’re fundamentals of the process and we always try to improve those. We’ll try to do the best job that we can this year in every round — first round, second round if we’re in the second round. We’re not even in the second round, but whatever rounds and whatever picks we get, try to maximize the value, help our team the best that we can.”