Patriots Coach Bill Belichick. Charles Krupa/Associated Press
The first rule of holes is: When you’re in one, stop digging.
That rationale could be used by New England Patriots fans who would like to see Bill Belichick shipped off into forced retirement after this season.
Belichick has built the current New England roster. It’s not good enough. Why allow him to keep trying to fill roster holes that he had a big hand in creating?
Because he’s the greatest coach in NFL history, and he has made far more good personnel moves than bad ones. Shouldn’t 19 winning seasons in New England count for a lot? Shouldn’t he have built up enough trust with owner Robert Kraft to keep working the roster? Wouldn’t any coach in history have a struggle with the transition after saying goodbye to the greatest quarterback in history?
I say yes. I realize this opinion may not go over well, not well at all, with many Patriots fans. Who knows? It may not go over well with Kraft, who like most New England football fans is spoiled by success.
Some NFL fans like to say Belichick never won anything without Brady. That’s been addresseds before. Paul Brown never won a title without Otto Graham. Have people forgotten all the great roster moves, game-management acumen and tactical wizardry he pulled off (like Super Bowls 25, 36, 49, 51 and 53)?
Even the past few years, he did a good job squeezing out 7-9 with Cam Newton in 2020 and a great job going 10-7 with rookie Mac Jones in 2021. Very few coaches would have done as well.
Former Pats great and Hoodie loyalist Devin McCourty defended the coach on Boston’s WEEI this week: “I think if he was a bad coach, this team would have not won two games, three games as soon as we lost Brady a couple years ago. … How many other franchises would love to have seven wins, eight wins, 10 wins (after losing Brady)?”
There’s no doubt “Belichick the general manager” has made mistakes. The Patriots have not drafted a single high-quality wide receiver since Julian Edelman in the seventh round in 2009.
Veteran reporter Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston recently reviewed a list of things Belichick wasn’t worried enough about in recent years.
Wrote Curran: “Benching Malcolm Butler, alienating Tom Brady, trading Rob Gronkowski (he tried; Gronk refused), not paying Tom Brady, having a succession plan for Tom Brady, drafting tight ends and wide receivers, over-drafting middling tight ends and wide receivers, overpaying in free agency for middling tight ends and wide receivers when the drafted ones flame out, losing Josh McDaniels, finding a replacement for Josh McDaniels, installing an experienced offensive coordinator/play-caller for Mac Jones, drafting offensive tackles, spending free-agent money on offensive tackles, creating an offense around a stationary quarterback.”
It’s a damning list. I don’t like the way Belichick treated Brady at the end, but the Pats weren’t winning a Super Bowl with Brady in 2020 or 2021.
“What have you done for me lately” often is all that matters in the NFL, and in business in general. But when the track record is as long and great as Belichick’s, Kraft should extend the 71-year-old’s rope into 2024.
The Pats weren’t wrong to draft Jones at No. 15 in 2021. He was the best option available. They were in “the land of mediocrity,” not bad enough to get a QB with a high pick. Guess what? Some teams get stuck in the 7-9 desert for a decade or more.
The best thing that could happen to the Pats is to bottom out this year and get a top-six pick in the draft. Land a QB. As long as Belichick is willing to press hard on the reset button, he should get the chance.
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