Whatever benefit NFL teams might have enjoyed with an extra couple of weeks to prepare for this year's NFL draft, Bill Belichick can do without it. The resulting abbreviated post-draft calendar is more problematic to the New England Patriots coach, and he'd like to see the draft return to its customary late-April date.
"Yeah, of course," Belichick said, according to csnne.com. "The sooner you have your players, the easier it is to start not only getting them integrated into your team, but also building your team. ... That couple weeks there, that time was lost from when players could start preparing for their new team and, you know, being told what they need to do, what position they were going to play and all those kind of things."
The 2014 draft was held May 8-10, and Belichick isn't the only NFL club official to express some discontent for the later draft. Next year's draft date, as well as its location, remains undetermined. Los Angeles, New York and Chicago are possibilities, and NFL Media senior analyst Gil Brandt sees Chicago as the favorite. The location, however, won't matter as much to NFL clubs as the date.
Certainly not to Belichick, anyway.
Cities in the running to host the draft have been required to hold availability for two possible draft dates: April 22-25, which would be a return to the norm, and April 29-May 2.
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