The New England Patriots have been the most successful NFL franchise for almost two decades. One reason in recent years is Bill Belichick playing the compensatory pick game with consummate skill.

The Patriots have been using the strategy to land compensatory picks by letting players go and trading for players to replace those guys. Most recently, the Patriots traded for Michael Bennett to replace Trey Flowers.

Just this offseason, the Patriots will get two third-round picks for Flowers and Trent Brown signing elsewhere. Warren Sharp of SharpFootball tweeted out visuals of which teams are taking advantage of the compensatory picks.

Bill Belichick has attained his stratospheric level of success for many reasons. This is one.

If you go through the thread of the tweet above, you can see the recent instances when New England has used this game plan to attack free agency. For example, the Patriots traded for Danny Shelton and Trent Brown last season—with Brown giving them a third-round compensatory pick.

According to Sharp's stats, the Patriots have landed 12 compensatory picks in the past five years. It has helped them continue their run of success by drafting players, developing them, and letting them go if the price isn't right. This is one of the signature methods which has enabled Belichick to continue to dominate the AFC and, in most recent seasons, win the Super Bowl.

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Patriots Eliot Wolf and Jerod Mayo on the left, Eagles A.J. Brown in the middle, Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni on the right.

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Patriots' Eliot Wolf with Eagles' AJ Brown

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Eliot Wolf and Jerod Mayo with NFL Draft logo in middle

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It becomes a rinse and repeat process for New England and is one of the reasons the Patriots are able to continue their run of dominance. Therefore, they'll continue doing the same tactic until other teams catch on.

There are teams which haven't taken advantage of the compensatory pick game. This analysis by Warren Sharp explains why they should take notes from the Patriots on how to do it.

The Patriots have never been a team that likes to spend money in free agency. Belichick continues to make the NFL his personal — and personnel — playground. He is just running laps around the league.