FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- When Bill Belichick was entering his fifth season as the New England Patriots' head coach in 2004, he saw an opportunity many others didn’t and acquired running back Corey Dillon in a trade.
Dillon, who had spent the first seven years of his career with the Cincinnati Bengals, was closing in on his 30th birthday that season, and some wondered how much juice he had left. Few teams around the NFL other than the Patriots and Raiders saw great value in trading for him.
Still, Belichick shipped a second-round pick to Cincinnati to land Dillon and said shortly thereafter: “Corey joins Kevin Faulk and our other very good backs to deepen an already competitive running back position.