Bill Belichick’s Offseason Moves Won’t Include Ryan Mallet Trade

Bill Belichick had arguably the best offseason in the NFL over the winter, acquiring star cornerback Darrell Revis among other highly touted acquisitions. The move that may prove to be the smartest in long run however, is the one the New England Patriots head coach has zero interest in making.

Bill Belichick was heard on SiriusXM this week addressing rumors surrounding the possible trade of his young backup quarterback Ryan Mallet:

“That’s not really something we’re that interested in,” Belichick told Movin’ the Chains hosts Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan. “Ryan has done a good job for us. Fortunately for our team, maybe unfortunately for Ryan, he hasn’t really had any playing time in the last three years. But he’s improved tremendously as a quarterback and as a football player, and we have a lot of confidence in him.”

With so many quarterback needy teams around the NFL, and with Belichick’s selection of Jimmy Garoppolo in the sixth round of the NFL draft earlier this month, speculation that the Mallet may be on the move has gained traction in recent weeks. Ryan is regarded as a top backup quarterback in this league with potential to be another team’s number one. His only obstacle in starting for the Patriots up until this point has been a healthy Tom Brady.

Belichick understands the trade talk surrounding Mallet especially after drafting Garoppolo.

“He’s in the last year of a contract, and Jimmy was again a player we had with a high grade on,” he said.

But Bill made it clear that he’d prefer to have too many capable quarterbacks as opposed to not enough:

“We feel like we have a good quarterback situation. I think there are a lot of teams in the league that maybe don’t feel that good about that position, and that’s not a good position to not feel good about. We feel very good about the players we have at that spot.”

ESPN insider Chris Mortenson weighed in on the chances that Bill Belichick will indeed end up trading Mallet away at some point in the season despite his latest comments. Mortenson would not rule out the possibility, saying that if Jimmy Garoppolo “comes along and does quite well in OTAs and well into training camp, if somebody has a quarterback need or quarterback injury and they come calling and the Patriots feel good about Garoppolo, maybe Mallett is in play.”

Whatever Bill Belichick decides to do with his backup quarterback situation, as long as Tom Brady continues to remain healthy, the Patriots will still be favored to take the AFC East.

[Photo courtesy The Onion]