Bill Belichick cited Tom Brady while discussing the logic behind recent Patriots trades

Belichick referenced Brady's 2008 injury and the importance of depth.

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick after the 2018 AFC Championship Game. AP Photo/David J. Phillip

August 28, 2023

1 minute to read

Bill Belichick, always a keen student of football history, referenced one of the most difficult moments of his Patriots tenure while explaining a point about offensive line depth during a Monday morning press conference.

Belichick was asked about the recent trades the Patriots completed to add offensive tackles Tyrone Wheatley Jr. and Vederian Lowe. Though the deals aren’t headline-grabbing, they could prove to be important as the season progresses.

“Depth’s important at every position on your roster,” Belichick explained, as transcribed by NESN’s Zack Cox. “You just don’t know when you’re going to need it. Sometimes you go through the year and you never need the depth, and sometimes you need a lot of depth.”

Belichick noted that like any form of insurance, it doesn’t appear necessary until an emergency.

“You can’t insure all of them, but you try to have as much depth as you can on your roster for those contingencies, not knowing for sure when you’re going to need that,” he added.

To highlight his point, the Patriots’ coach cited one of the more famous examples of needing depth.

“Tom Brady got hurt in 2008, first play, first game, and it turns out you need depth at that position with [Matt] Cassel,” said Belichick. “And then that never happened again. [It’s] a little bit of that’s unpredictable, but you just have to be prepared for [it], and we felt like this was an opportunity to work with two young players that would give us that. We’ll see how it goes.”

Brady, as Belichick accurately recalled, was particularly durable during his career. Other than his ACL tear in 2008, the only other time Brady missed games during his time as Patriots starter was the four-game “Deflategate” suspension at the beginning of the 2016 season.

But even when Brady was unexpectedly out for virtually the entire 2008 season, Belichick and the Patriots were still able to pull out an 11-5 record. Cassel, filling in for the injured Brady, finished the year with an 89.4 quarterback rating, throwing 21 touchdowns against 11 interceptions.