Bill Belichick has been the antagonist and protagonist of his own story.
He seemingly goes out of his way to make things more difficult than they need to be with his questionable personnel decisions, and then the coaching version of himself throws on a red cape, swoops on in and tries to clean up the mess.
In three seasons without Tom Brady, the New England Patriots have been better than they’ve had any business being.
In 2020, they signed Cam Newton, who was a completely different style of quarterback than Brady, and finished the season at 7-9, with plenty of close, winnable games left on the table. Those complaining about the current state of the offense are bickering in luxury in comparison to the 2020 unit, which had Jakobi Meyers and Damiere Byrd as the top-two pass-catchers, after Julian Edelman went down early with an injury.
That ugly season was obviously seen as a blessing in disguise when it put the Patriots in a position to select former Alabama quarterback Mac Jones at No. 15 overall in the 2021 NFL draft.
As a rookie, Jones went on to throw for 3,801 yards, 22 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, earning himself a Pro Bowl nod. The Patriots also clinched a playoff spot and got knocked off by a super-talented Buffalo Bills team that came within a possession of going to the AFC Championship that year.
And even last season, with a defensive coach in Matt Patricia coaching the offense, the Patriots finished with an 8-9 record and were one game out from making it to the playoffs for a second year straight.
No, these aren’t the perennial Super Bowl-contending Patriots from the Brady days, but the Patriots have consistently found a way to be competitive year in and year out, despite all of the constant roster and coaching staff changes. A big reason for that is Belichick’s brilliance as a coach, but of course, there’s the other side of that coin that makes him the very reason for all of the issues existing in the first place.
It’s the side that chose to make a longtime defensive coach the offensive play-caller. It’s the man that has consistently struggled at drafting high-end talent at the skilled positions. It’s the one that gambled away big money on players like Nelson Agholor and Jonnu Smith, while passing on a five-time All-Pro receiver like DeAndre Hopkins.
It’s unfortunate and, in some ways, unfair that losing is so black and white in terms of public perception, but that’s the corner Belichick painted himself in as a general manager. Brady went on to win another Super Bowl in his first year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while the Patriots are no longer the revered team they once were as a franchise.
The absence of winning with Brady under center has allowed the football world to take a magnifying glass to Belichick’s resume, and when paired with current struggles, there are some tough arguments to refute.
“Maybe we should take a step back and go, ‘What really is he without Tom Brady?’ He doesn’t get along with his quarterback, he just made a defensive coordinator an offensive coordinator—a silly move that’s tone-deaf offense,” Colin Cowherd said on FOX Sports’ “The Herd” earlier in the month. “…Belichick’s career is absolutely, inarguably tied to one player: Brady.
“Otherwise, 10 years, one playoff win, seven losing seasons. I mean you have to give Pete Carroll credit last year. Got to the playoffs with Geno Smith. Got to a couple of Super Bowls with Russell Wilson. …Belichick’s career is tied to one player. Brady’s career isn’t tied to Belichick anymore. He left to a wobbly, wanky franchise and won a championship.”
"It's not an opinion. It's just numbers."
— @ColinCowherd takes a look at Bill Belichick's career without Tom Brady pic.twitter.com/5NSKHvLFjO
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) June 29, 2023
These are harsh criticisms of Belichick that will only grow louder if the Patriots get buried in the monstrous AFC East division in 2023.
There are no more “free rides” to the playoffs for the Patriots. The competition is fiercer now than ever before, and the general managers for the other organizations aren’t afraid to make big moves to put their team over the top. Meanwhile, the Patriots remain one of the least spending teams in the league, as even Belichick himself pointed out earlier in the year.
It still wasn’t enough to get him to outbid the Tennessee Titans for Hopkins, who is a player that would have provided a huge lift for the Patriots’ struggling offense.
There’s no sense of urgency or evolution from the Patriots. By the way they’ve conducted business, you’d think Brady was still the starting quarterback for the team.
New England is no longer the desirable spot where players are willing to come and play for less money. Jones has the talent to be a really good quarterback for the Patriots for years to come, but he isn’t Brady. His talent hasn’t risen to the level where he could literally carry the entire franchise on his back and still find roads to success with less talent around him.
A GM accepting of change might have redirected course and worked more to build the offensive talent around the quarterback. Yet, the Patriots will be entering the season with a talented, yet oft-injured, DeVante Parker as their No. 1 receiver. JuJu Smith-Schuster, who was signed in the offseason, missed all of the spring practices with an injury. Tyquan Thornton is still unproven as a second-year player, and Kendrick Bourne spent most of the 2022 season in Patricia’s doghouse.
That goes without mentioning the shaky offensive line with right guard Michael Onwenu coming off an ankle surgery and Isaiah Wynn’s replacement at right tackle, Riley Reiff, being a 34-year-old that came off the bench for the Chicago Bears last year. There were opportunities for the Patriots to draft another offensive tackle and receiver, but they chose to use their first three picks of the 2023 NFL draft on defensive players.
It’s another mess of Belichick’s own doing that he’ll try his hardest to clean up this season. But another year of janitor duty without winning results would continue chipping away at his once infallible legacy.
