Mike Tomlin said there ‘wasn’t a lot of hesitation’ from the Patriots to let the Steelers leapfrog the Jets in the draft
New England was a willing partner as Pittsburgh pursued an offensive tackle New York may have coveted.
As the Pittsburgh Steelers saw offensive tackles fly off the board early in the first round of the NFL Draft, head coach Mike Tomlin realized they would likely have to make a trade in order to land a highly coveted one themselves.
Tomlin suspected that the New York Jets might be “fishing in those waters,” so he gave Patriots head coach Bill Belichick a call. Pittsburgh gave New England the No. 17 and No. 120 overall picks in exchange for No. 14.
The Steelers took Georgia offensive tackle Broderick Jones, and the Jets ended up selecting Iowa State edge rusher Will McDonald IV.
“We did what we needed to do to get the player at a position we coveted,” Tomlin said on The Rich Eisen Show.
Belichick is often in favor of trading down, so that wasn’t a surprise, but Tomlin – like many others – suspects that may not have been Belichick’s only motive.
He didn’t want to speculate, but he implied that Pittsburgh leapfrogging New York may have provided Belichick with some added incentive.
“I’m not gonna delve into the relationship between New England and the Jets. Let’s just say I’m glad we found a partner,” Tomlin said. “I’ll put it this way, there wasn’t a lot of hesitation on New England’s end.”
This corroborates reports that surfaced shortly after the news broke.
“The Jets’ legwork for some of the top tackles, Jones included, was not a secret,” ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler wrote at the time. “When we asked an AFC exec whether the Jets should be frustrated with Pittsburgh, the exec jokingly countered, ‘They should be mad at the Patriots. They knew what was going on.'”
The Patriots selected Oregon cornerback Christian Gonzalez with the No. 17 pick.
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