NFL insider Albert Breer shared a nugget of news regarding former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and the 2023 NFL draft, which was his final draft as an NFL head coach.
According to Breer, Belichick needed to be talked down from using the 17th overall pick of the draft on defensive end Keion White. The team ultimately decided to select All-Pro cornerback Christian Gonzalez with the No. 17 overall pick, but if left to his own devices, Breer believes Belichick would have passed up on Gonzalez for White with that first-round pick.
“I think if it were up to Bill Belichick and Bill Belichick alone, Keion White might have been their first-round pick and not Christian Gonzalez,” Breer said on NBC Sports Boston. “I think if it were up to Bill, it would have been Keion White. He had to be talked out of that one, and they wound up taking Gonzalez, and it obviously worked out.”
NBC Sports’ Phil Perry piled on to Breer’s report with another Patriots draft nugget from 2023.
“Part of the reason they traded down, if you remember, they traded down in the first round that year was because they felt good about taking either Christian Gonzalez or Keion White in the first round because both were there for them when they traded down. They were okay with running the risk of losing either one,” Perry said.
The Patriots traded White and a 2026 seventh-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers for a 2026 sixth-round pick. So that move would have been disastrous for the team if it had happened. It begs the question: What would the Patriots look like today if Belichick continued to make the draft decisions?
Separating Belichick, the general manager, from Belichick, the all-time great football coach, it’s probably a good thing that Patriots fans will never have to find out.
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