The New England Patriots own three of the first 33 selections in this month's NFL draft, and coach Bill Belichick expects teams to come calling about trades.
"There definitely seems to be a lot of interest in our draft picks," Belichick said Monday on Sirius NFL Radio. "And as you know, we're not afraid to trade them. We'll do what's best for the team.
"We've definitely been contacted by teams below us offering to move back and by teams behind us looking to move up into a better position."
The Patriots select 17th (acquired from the Oakland Raiders in the Richard Seymour) and 28th in the first round, and they hold the first pick of the draft's second day at No. 33. The team has two choices in each of the first, second and third rounds.
"If (teams) want to deal, we might be one of the teams they want to talk to. ... I think it's always a hard thing to predict," Belichick said. "So much depends on the actual names on the board and ... you're not trading for pick No. 21, you're trading for a specific player you want to take with that pick."
Belichick has three-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady on his roster, but he's aware of the frenzy surrounding this draft's quarterbacks.
"It will be interesting to see how the whole quarterback thing works out and how quickly those quarterbacks come off the board," Belichick said. "Seems like there are a number of teams that are interested in them, and that may or may not have an effect on the first round."
NFL Network analyst Charles Davis said on "Path to the Draft" earlier this month that the Patriots can be trusted to get value out of this year's draft.
"Year in and year out, we say the exact same thing," Davis said. "We say, 'What are the Patriots going to do? Well, they're probably going to trade down.' And then we always say, 'Well, it's tough to find trade partners.' Somehow they find them."
