NFL Notebook: With deadline nearing, breaking down Bill Belichick’s favorite trade partners

Taking a weekend trip around the NFL with a focus on the Patriots…

1. October promises to be an eventful month for the Patriots. New England has its first divisional game of the season against the Jets and a Super Bowl rematch with the Falcons on tap. In addition, the NFL trade deadline looms at the end of October, and if past history is any indication, New England will at least attempt to be an active participant. With that in mind, we decided to take a look at Bill Belichick’s favorite trade partners over the years. Since he took command of the Patriots in 2000, here’s a list of every team he’s traded with at least five times.

Nine trades: Oakland, New Orleans
Eight trades: Green Bay, Chicago
Seven trades: Detroit, Denver
Six trades: Tampa Bay, Houston, Philadelphia
Five trades: Cleveland, Baltimore

Of course, some of these totals need to be put in context — some of Belichick’s favorite trade partners (like Mike Shanahan in Denver) are no longer at their old jobs. But given the fact that Belichick has ties to decision-makers in Detroit, Houston and Tampa Bay and has deep relationships with current head coaches like Sean Payton (New Orleans), there appear to be some natural trade partners on this list who could be getting a phone call from Belichick prior to the Oct. 31 deadline.

2. One more thing when it comes to trades: since he took charge of the Patriots in 2000, Belichick has made deals with every team in the NFL except one: the Jets.

3. The other thing that stands out about October? The 10-day break between Thursday’s contest against the Bucs and the Oct. 15 contest with the Jets is tied for their second-longest stretch without a game on the schedule, second only to the bye week which looms at the end of the month and into the start of November. That’s a lot of down time, which will mean they’ll have an extended chance for some self-scouting. Belcichick said about this time last year that it’s always a tough call trying to choose between deciding to scrap something that might not be working as opposed to deciding to try and work on it in hopes of making some improvements. “You have to answer that question every week, not just the bye week: You do something that doesn’t work out well, what are your options? Get rid of it or continue to do it and see if you can improve it,” Belichick said last year, days before the Patriots broke for the bye week. “That’s the judgment you make. If you really feel convicted that you can do it well, then you put resources into it and try to improve it. [But] at some point, if it doesn’t go well, you might decide that ‘We’ve tried, we’ve invested a lot of time, we’ve invested whatever we have to invest in this and it’s still not working. Maybe it’s time to move onto something else.’”

4. With no game of their own to watch, here are three games for Patriots' fans to keep an eye on this weekend:

Jets at Browns, Sunday at 1 p.m.: A little advanced scouting never hurt, as the Patriots will travel to North Jersey next weekend for their first divisional contest of the 2017 season.

Packers at Cowboys, Sunday at 4:25 p.m.: No rooting interest here for New England fans — just a compelling matchup between two NFC playoff teams from last season.

Chiefs at Texans, Sunday at 8:30 p.m.: The best team in the AFC right now (Kansas City) meets a team (Houston) that gave New England all sorts of troubles when they met earlier in the season.

5. Watching “Wes Welker: A Football Life,” I was struck by just how seamlessly Tom Brady has moved from Troy Brown to Wes Welker to Julian Edelman when it comes to building a bond with his slot receivers. While the show — which aired Friday at 9 p.m. on NFL Network — highlighted the entire arc of Welker’s career, the fun stuff as far as we were concerned was his history in New England. Basically, it served as a reminder that Welker was Edelman before Edelman. Welker and Brady shared a football brain, and were one of the most unstoppable quarterback/wide receive combos in the history of the league. Welker talked about how he and Brady would watch film of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, and discuss what they could take from the moves they’d see on screen. There was also a look back at his “foot” press conference where he had some fun at Rex Ryan’s expense. (“Who cares if it got him in trouble? Nobody really gives a (expletive) about that,” said Brady with a smile.) A fun look back at Welker’s career. (For what it’s worth, we are strong proponents of the idea that if Welker could have had one more year of roughly 80 catches and 900 yards, he would have forced his way into the Hall of Fame conversation. By way of comparison check out where his numbers stack up against Hall of Famers here and here.)

6. Kyle Van Noy’s ironman streak is no more. According to official NFL gamebooks, the linebacker missed his first snaps of the season Thursday against the Bucs. Van Noy, who played every defensive snap through the first four games of the year, played 66 of 72 snaps in the win over Tampa Bay. That means no defensive player has gone wire-to-wire over the first five games of the regular season. (The leader now is veteran safety Devin McCourty, who played 100 percent of the snaps on Thursday, and has missed just one snap on the season overall.) The story is different on the other side of the ball, however, as four ironmen remain: Brady, center David Andrews and guards Shaq Mason and Joe Thuney have played every possible offensive snap through the first five games of the season.

7. On Thursday against the Bucs, the Patriots were hit with 12 penalties for 108 yards, not including the calls that were declined or offset. Through three weeks, that’s 39 penalties for 353 yards. (We’ll hold off on comparing that to the rest of the league, as just about everyone else hasn’t played as of yet.) Here’s a breakdown of the flags that have gone against the Patriots this season:

Most penalized players, listed by total flags and with total yardage lost:
ST/RB Brandon Bolden: 4 (Neutral Zone Infraction, Illegal Block Above The Waist, Running Into the Kicker, Offsides — all special teams), 25 yards
Team: 4 (Delay of Game, 2 Illegal Shift, Defensive 12 men on the field), 21 yards
CB Stephon Gilmore: 2 (Defensive Pass Interference, Unnecessary Roughness), 49 yards
LT Nate Solder: 2 (Offensive Holding, Illegal Peelback), 25 yards
C David Andrews: 2 (2 Offensive Holding), 20 yards
DE Deatrich Wise: 2 (Illegal Use Of Hands, Roughing The Passer), 20 yards
ST LB Cassius Marsh: 2 (Roughing The Passer, Running Into the Kicker — special teams), 20 yards
WR Brandin Cooks: 2 (Illegal Block Above The Waist, False Start), 15 yards
CB Malcolm Butler: 1 (Defensive Pass Interference), 20 yards
LB/ST Harvey Langi: 1 (Facemask — special teams), 15 yards
ST/S Brandon King: 1 (Unnecessary Roughness — special teams), 15 yards
OL Marcus Cannon: 1 (Offensive Holding), 10 yards
S/ST Nate Ebner: 1 (Offensive Holding — special teams), 7 yards
WR Danny Amendola: 1 (Offensive Pass Interference), 6 yards
LB Kyle Van Noy: 1 (Illegal Contact), 5 yards
TE Dwayne Allen: 1 (12 Men On The Field), 5 yards
DE Trey Flowers: 1 (Defensive Offsides), 5 yards
CB Jonathan Jones: 1 (Defensive Offsides), 5 yards
QB Tom Brady: 1 (Illegal Forward Pass), 5 yards
LS Joe Cardona: 1 (False Start), 5 yards

Most penalized by position
Special teams: 9 penalties for 72 yards
Offensive Line: 5 penalties for 55 yards
Cornerback: 4 penalties for 74 yards
Defensive Line: 4 penalties for 40 yards
Team: 4 penalties for 21 yards
Wide receiver: 3 penalties for 21 yards
Quarterback: 1 penalty for 5 yards
Tight end: 1 penalty for 5 yards
Linebacker: 1 penalty for 5 yards

Most frequently called penalties
Offensive Holding: 5
Defensive Offsides: 3
Illegal Use of Hands: 3
Offensive Pass Interference: 3
Defensive Pass Interference: 3
False Start: 2
Illegal Block Above The Waist: 2
Illegal Shift: 2
Roughing The Passer: 2
Running Into The Kicker: 2
Unnecessary Roughness: 2
Defensive 12 men on the field: 1
Defensive Holding: 1
Delay of Game: 1
Facemask: 1
Illegal Contact: 1
Illegal Forward Pass: 1
Illegal Peelback: 1
Neutral Zone Infraction: 1
Offensive 12 men on the field: 1
Offsides On Free Kick: 1

8. A few more notes on penalties and the Patriots from Thursday night:

a) New England is now on pace to commit 125 penalties on the season, and get whacked with 1,130 penalty yards. That would fall short of their most recent mark of 138 penalties and 1,216 penalty yards, set by the 2014 team.

b) The last time the Patriots had so many flags in one game? The “On To Cincinnati” Game of 2014, when they were hit with 12 penalties for 114 yards. Earlier that same season, they set a recent high for penalties in a game (15 against the Vikings) and penalty yardage (163), a remarkable total for several reasons, not the least of which was the fact that Brandon Browner — who was hit with double-digit penalties that season — didn’t play that afternoon in Minnesota.

c) Carl Cheffers, who worked the Thursday Bucs-Patriots game, actually has a pretty good history when it comes to New England contests. He was the referee for Super Bowl LI, a game that some consider one of the best-officiated big games in recent memory. The Patriots are now 9-2 in the last 11 games when Cheffers has worked as a referee.

(As always, thanks to NFLpenalties.com for help with cross-checking all penalty info.)

9. This year’s “Game with the Greats” with the Patriots Alumni Club is set for Oct. 15 at Gillette Stadium. A terrific fundraiser open to the public, it’s a chance to sit and watch the game between the Patriots and Jets from North Jersey with a handful of some former New England greats in the Putnam Club. In addition, it's the largest fundraiser of the year for the group, and helps support their mission of giving back to the youth of our communities by promoting programs that emphasize leadership, teamwork, and achievement through hard work. Click here for more information, and check out this video from last year’s event to get a feel for what happens. A great time for the whole family.



10. Last week, I was 10-6, and on the season, I’m 41-20. This week, I’ve got the Patriots, Niners, Steelers, Bills, Titans, Raiders, Packers, Jets, Chargers, Lions, Eagles, Rams, Chiefs and Vikings.