Patriots HC Bill Belichick: Trading Ryan Mallett “Not Really Something We’re That Interested In”

Patriots HC Bill Belichick mentioned in an interview with Sirius XM NFL Radio that trading backup QB Ryan Mallett is “not really something we’re that interested in.”

“That’s not really something we’re that interested in,” Belichick said, via ESPN.com. “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. But at the same time, he’s in the last year of a contract, and Jimmy [Garoppolo] was the [gap] player we had with a high grade on. At that position, I just don’t think you can afford to pass up a player that you think has that kind of [value].”

Rumors started to pick up in the days leading up to the draft after it became clear that the Texans were not going to take a quarterback at No. 1 overall. Houston’s new HC Bill O’Brien has obvious ties to Mallett given that he ran the Patriots offense for a few years.

Speculation later picked up after the Patriots elected to take Jimmy Garoppolo in the second-round of the draft.

“We feel like we have a good quarterback situation,” said Belichick. “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.”

Mallett, 25, is entering the final year of his rookie contract after spending three years behind Tom Brady, so it appears as though the Patriots are protecting themselves ahead of next season when Mallett could very cash in on the open market.

Belichick was asked about the strategy of drafting a quarterback every few years.

“We’ve certainly seen teams not take that approach, and I’d say in some cases the results have been pretty disastrous,” Belichick said. “I don’t think that’s a position that you can have ever have too much depth at. Certainly too much is better than not enough. Again, we’ll put those players out there and let them compete and see how it goes. But I think all three of them are quality players at that position.”