This is a good day in New England Patriots history.
On April 16, 2000, Tom Brady was selected in the sixth round (199th overall). As previously noted, this also marks coach Bill Belichick’s 63rd birthday.
Here are a few notes gathered by ESPN's Stats & Information group on the landmark day:
Headline in local newspaper turned out to be off the mark. The headline to the story written in the Boston Herald the next day was "Brady Pick Hard to Figure; QB Picture Out of Whack.”
Belichick's initial reaction. Here’s what Belichick said in that article about Brady joining Drew Bledsoe, John Friesz and Michael Bishop on the roster: "Who's the better player, I don't know. But too many quarterbacks is a lot better situation than not enough quarterbacks. We have five preseason games and I'll just put [the quarterbacks] out there and let them play. We'll see how they perform." Belichick was asked if the addition of a drop-back quarterback like Brady might be sending a message, maybe to a scrambling, mobile quarterback. Like Bishop, perhaps. "I'm not trying to send any messages to anybody," he said. "I'm just trying to win football games. We're going to run our offense. We're not going to change it for a seventh-round draft pick last year [Bishop] or a sixth-rounder this year [Brady], neither of whom has taken a snap in a regular-season game."
Brady Six. There were six quarterbacks taken ahead of Brady in the draft -- Chad Pennington (first round, 44-37 career record), Giovanni Carmazzi (third round, 0-0), Chris Redman (third round, 4-8), Tee Martin (fifth round, 0-0), Marc Bulger (sixth round, 41-54) and Spergon Wynn (sixth round, 0-3).
Brady's record. Brady’s 160 wins ranks third in NFL history among starting quarterbacks. Among quarterbacks in the Super Bowl era, no player has a higher win percentage as a starter than Brady at .773 (160-47).
Brett Favre -- 186
Peyton Manning -- 179
Tom Brady -- 160
John Elway -- 148
Furthermore, his four Super Bowl wins tie Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana for most all-time. His three Super Bowl MVPs ties Montana for most all-time. And his six conference titles are the most in NFL history among starting quarterbacks.
Pro Football Hall of Famers selected in the sixth round or later. Brady is bound to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Getting to Canton is not something that many players drafted as late as he was have done (common draft era):
DE Richard Dent (8th round, inducted in 2011)
WR Shannon Sharpe (7th round, inducted in 2011)
OT Rayfield Wright (6th round, inducted in 2006)
DB Ken Houston (9th round, inducted in 1986)
Patriots still picking quarterbacks. Since and including the 2001 draft, the Patriots have selected seven quarterbacks, which is one shy of the most quarterback draft selections in that span. Of those seven, Jimmy Garoppolo is the only one taken in the first two rounds (second round in 2014).
Redskins -- 8
Ravens -- 8
Patriots -- 7
Broncos -- 7
Texans -- 7
Jets -- 7
49ers -- 7