Bill Belichick's Pick Of Lenoir-Rhyne's Kyle Dugger Is Maybe The Most Bill Belichick Moment Of All Time
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Goodbye, Tom Brady, greatest quarterback of all time. Hello, Division-II safety Kyle Dugger out of Lenoir-Rhyne University.
The New England Patriots are back, baby!
Obviously, when all of New England tuned in to the second round of the draft on Friday night, after waiting through the interminable slog of Round 1 on Thursday night, most football fans were expecting or at least hoping to see the Patriots draft a player who would get them excited. A stud from a big school, maybe. A star of a high-profile bowl game, perhaps. Who knows -- maybe a quarterback of the future or a big-time playmaker on defense.
Anyone hoping for that, though, vastly underestimated the heights to which Bill Belichick could achieve peak Belichtricity by not only picking a player that nobody had ever heard of, but taking it to the next level by picking a player nobody had ever heard of from a school that nobody had ever heard of.
With the 37th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the New England Patriots selected Kyle Dugger, safety, Lenoir-Rhyne University.
Hysterical.
To draftniks, the pick was not an unknown at all, as Dugger turned many heads at the Senior Bowl. But to the average football fan, seeing "Lenoir-Rhyne" flash across the screen so early in the second round had to have provided a moment of comic disbelief.
Of course, given Belichick's history of drafting defensive backs in the second round, most Patriots fans probably weren't amused.
To wit:
Defensive Backs Taken In Second Round By Bill Belichick
2019: CB Joejuan Williams, Vanderbilt, No. 45 overall
2018: CB Duke Dawson, Florida, No. 56 overall
2016: CB Cyrus Jones, Alabama, No. 60 overall
2015: S Jordan Richards, Stanford, No. 64 overall
2012: S Tavon Wilson, Illinois, No. 48 overall
2011: DB Ras-I Dowling, Virginia, No. 33 overall
2009: S Patrick Chung, Oregon, No. 34 overall
2009: DB Darius Butler, UConn, No. 41 overall
2008: DB Terrence Wheatley, Colorado, No. 62
2003: DB Eugene Wilson, Illinois, No. 36 overall
A couple of those -- Wilson and Chung -- worked out to different extents. The rest ranged from mediocre to total disasters.
Most people, having done so poorly picking defensive backs in the second round for so long, would simply quit. Or, more likely, they'd only pick a defensive back in the second round if it was a 100 percent lock, a surefire hit, a can't-miss-superstar-in-the-making.
Most people would not tap into Lenoir-Rhyne University, a school with three NFL players in its history and a school that hasn't had a player drafted in 20 years.
But Bill Belichick is not most people.
And so, Kyle Dugger is the Patriots' top pick in 2020.
Of course, had anybody told you in the spring of 2014 that an unknown cornerback out of West Alabama would be making arguably the biggest play in NFL history just 10 months later, you would have rightfully written that person off as a total loon. An "In Bill We Trust" toadie. A Patriots-footie-pajama-wearing dweeb.
But as you know, that fairy tale came true. Now six years later, Bill Belichick is apparently confident enough to try to make it happen again.
You can doubt the pick. Given all of the factors, you probably should doubt the pick. But if you're a fan at all of sheer entertainment, you simply cannot do anything marvel at this one. Just when you think Bill Belichick can't get any Bill Belichicker, he goes out and makes the Bill Belichickest pick of all time.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
