When people ask about how Bill Belichick won the Pro Football Writers Association’s Executive of the Year award for 2021, a lot of the focus has gone toward breaking down the Patriots’ hits and misses from last year’s free-agent spending binge.
Those offseason signings obviously had a significant role in turning things around for a team that missed the playoffs in 2020. But the biggest notch in Belichick’s work as New England’s de fact general manager last season wasn’t his free-agent signings. It was his draft class.
Pro Football Focus just recognized the Patriots’ 2021 rookie class, led by quarterback Mac Jones, as the NFL’s best on Thursday.