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Once his career is over, Bill Belichick will go down as the most successful head coach in NFL history. He is the NFL's longest tenured head coach and has the most wins in playoff history (31) and third-most in the regular season (290).
While his legacy will always be tied to his partnership with quarterback Tom Brady, this past year, Belichick proved he could win without the future Hall of Famer.
Belichick led the Patriots to the playoffs with rookie quarterback Mac Jones. Going into the 2022 season, the Patriots are once again looked at as division cotenders in the AFC East.
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Bill Belichick's success on the field has been somewhat hampered by a perceived weakness off it - which is mainly his lack of success on draft day. Over the past several years, the Patriots have had mixed results with their draft picks.
Often, they find themselves moving down in the draft to take more swings at future NFL stars. The problem has been that the team has often missed on those swings. The most obvious case being Belichick's inability to draft a prominent wide receiver.
With the 2022 NFL draft only a week away, the pressure will once again be on Belichick to add to the receiver position and help Mac Jones continue to grow as a quarterback.
The Patriots acquired DeVante Parker from the Miami Dolphins and hold out hope that Jacobi Myers will build upon his 83 catches for 866 yards and two touchdowns. Nevertheless, wide receiver still remains a spot Belichick will be looking to add to in the draft.
Looking at his past success in this area, it is easy to see why Patriots fans are hesitant about draft prospects. Here are five wide receiver draft busts selected by Bill Belichick.
Bill Belichick Bust #5: Brandon Tate - 2009, Round 3, Pick 83
Brandon Tate would be higher on the list if it wasn't for Belichick drafting Julian Edelman in round 7 and Tate finding a place in the league as a punt and kick-off returner.
Tate had 24 catches in his first two seasons with the Patriots and got lost in the offensive shuffle behind Edelmen and Rob Gronkowski. Another bad omen in regards to the Tate pick was the drafting of Mike Wallace, just one pick later, by Pittsburgh Steelers. Wallace would go on to have a productive career.
Bill Belichick Bust #4: Malcolm Mitchell - 2016, Round 4, Pick 112
All the signs were there for Malcolm Mitchell not to be on this list. His rookie season was perfectly fine for a 4th round draft pick, including six catches for 70 yards in the Patriots' Superbowl victory.
However, just two seasons later, injuries would detrail his career and he would retire from the game. The reality of Mitchell's career is that injuries plagued him his entire time playing football. At the University of Georgia, Mitchell suffered through numerous injuries, including tearing his ACL.
Bill Belichick Bust #3: Taylor Price - 2010, Round 3, Pick 90
Patriots fans will forever remember the 2010 as the draft that brought them Rob Gronkowski - arguably the greatest tight end to ever play. However, Taylor Price's career in the NFL with the Patriots was so incredibly terrible that not even Gronk could redeem this pick.
Price finished his entire career with a lackluster 80 yards receiving. A huge miss for Belichick at a time when he was drafting every other position quite well.
Bill Belichick Bust #2: Aaron Dobson, 2013, Round 2, Pick 59
Aaron Dobson is another Patriots wide receiver who showed glimpses of a promising career, only to have injuries derail it.
As a rookie, Dobson caught 37 balls for over 500 yards. After dealing with a variety of injuries, the Patriots would go on to cut him before his fourth year.
For Belichick to spend a second-round draft pick on someone who wouldn't see the field again is bad enough. But it gets worse when you see that at pick 76, the (then) San Diego Chargers selected Keenan Allen, perennially one of the best pass catchers in the game.
Bill Belichick Bust #1: N'Keal Harry, 2019, Round 1, Pick 32
Heading into the 2019 draft, it was obvious that the Patriots were going to draft a wide receiver. Tom Brady was reaching the end of his time with the the team and they needed to give him more weapons and support on offense.
Insert N'Keal Harry, the first wide receiver chosen by the Patriots in the first round since 1996. He suffered through an injury-plagued rookie season and has only ammassed 598 yards over the course of his career.
What made matters worse is that some Patriots scouts favored Deebo Samuel and AJ Brown over Harry. But Belichick's close ties to Harry's college coach swayed him to make the wrong pick.
Adding to Patriots fans' woes is the fact that the team traded the 64th pick in the draft to the Seattle Seahawks, who drafted DK Metcalf. The 2019 NFL draft will always be looked at as a series of unfortunate events for Bill Belichick and a reminder of his bleak history of drafting wide receivers.
