Bill Belichick says he didn't want to risk losing Dominique Easley by trading down

Super excited
Bill Belichick was quite impressed with young defensive tackle prospect Dominique Easley. So were a couple of other teams.



For that reason, the Patriots didn't do their patented trading back. Easley was too good of a player to risk losing, according to the hoodie himself.

Belichick's post-draft press conference, ESPNBoston:
"There are always [trade] conversations, but we felt good about Dominique and there were a couple teams behind us that – we just didn’t want to take a chance on him."

Bill noted that the team (he) felt like Easley was the best player available at that point, and so they took him.

Obviously, since Easley has torn two ACLs in a short amount of time, some are questioning the pick. Belichick isn't that concerned about it and went into what he liked about the guy that will be disrupting offensive lines alongside Vince Wilfork this year (hopefully).

"He does a lot of things well. He's a smart guy, very instinctive," Belichick said. "He's got a great motor, works hard. Football is very important to him. He's an all-in guy. There's not much to not like about him."

Belichick also touched on Easley's versatility and ability to create havoc inside.

"He's played everywhere along the defensive line," he said. "You don't see a lot of guys who do that -- he lines up on the nose, he lines up on the guard, he lines up on the tackle, he lines up out wide at times. You can see him playing all those spots.

"He’s an explosive player, very explosive. A very disruptive player. In college, I would say his stats might have been a little bit deceiving because a lot of times he was the disruptive person on the play, but he wasn't the guy who ended up making the tackle, or it wouldn't be on the stat sheet. But the reason the play wasn't successful was his penetration and ability to be disruptive. I think he has a good knack for that."


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