By acclamation, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is the greatest NFL head coach in history—with six Super Bowl championship rings to prove it. As a de facto general manager for the vast majority of his head coaching career, his team-builiding strategies shaped the modern NFL.
However, the seams of Belichick's methods began to show in his final years with the Patriots. As SI's Albert Breer wrote Thursday, Belichick made a crucial error in judgment in 2019 as New England sought to draft a wide receiver.
"Before that draft, Patriots scouts were high on (South Carolina's) Deebo Samuel and (Ole Miss's) A.J. Brown. The two came to Foxborough together on a visit and had been traveling together all week," Breer wrote. "As such, they had a good, jovial ability to poke at each other and laugh together, and Belichick was leery that they weren’t taking the visit seriously enough."
