It’s not an exciting NFL Draft without some good ol’ fashioned divisional rivalry back-stabbing. The Patriots did the Jets dirty on this one.
The AFC East might be the chaotic evil division in the league: on one hand, you have a tantrum-throwing and ankle-twisting quarterback hailing from New England, and over in New York, a infamous anti-vaxxer who hates the media as much as he hates the woke mob.
Throw in Mike McDaniel’s deadpan humor and the table-breaking bravado of the Bills Mafia, and you get the most wildly entertaining division matchups that have yet to be played.
The pilot of this multi-season TV drama arc may have started in the 2023 NFL Draft, when the New England Patriots pulled the rug from underneath the New York Jets’ feet.
This story does come from controversial NFL analyst Jason La Canfora, and as with most of La Canfora’s reports, you don’t have to believe it if you don’t want to.
In any case, La Canfora’s sources told him after the draft that the Patriots had an ulterior motive for their first-round trade: Flip the bird to the Jets.
New England exchanged the No. 14 overall pick with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the No. 17 overall pick and a fourth-rounder. Collecting an extra bit of draft capital was nice. What was even better? Seeing their hated division rivals lose out on a top prospect.
Patriots allegedly traded back in first round in part to mess with the Jets
With the 14th selection, the Steelers, who now picked one place ahead of the Jets (NY had the No. 15 pick from the Aaron Rodgers trade) took the top remaining offensive tackle, Georgia’s Broderick Jones.
New York was reportedly eyeing Jones at the 15th spot but had to pivot and settle for a defensive end, Iowa State’s Will McDonald instead.
An anonymous source told La Canfora:
“They should have had to give up a [third-rounder] and not a four to move up there. Belichick did it just to f— the Jets. He sold low because he knew the Steelers were going to take the kid the Jets wanted to take. … I think the trade totally blindsided them. They were scrambling.”
Another anonymous source also said, “Bill will try to screw [the Jets] over any chance he gets.”
Whew. That’s bulletin board material for Rodgers and Co. right there.
We’ll never know if the Jets were actually planning to take Jones with their first-round pick, or if Bill Belichick was scheming to hit the Jets where it hurts all along. It seems plausible, sure, but one would assume the main reason the Pats traded back was to accumulate draft capital.
Screwing over the Jets was just icing on the cake.