I've been watching the new Patriots Dynasty series on Apple TV and have gained newfound appreciation for Bill Belichick.
I have no doubt that Belichick has likely declined as a coach and personnel guy in recent years; most coaches do around this age. A lot of critics, however, have tried to dismiss his legacy as a byproduct of Tom Brady's greatness.
If you watch the first couple of episodes of Patriots Dynasty, though, you'll see that Belichick overcame enormous outside pressure to stick with Tom Brady in the 2001 season.
Having lived through the early Brady years, my memory was that the Drew Bledsoe era had run its course after two disappointing seasons in 1999 and 2000 and it was relatively easy to transition away from him.
This was the opposite of the truth. Kraft has just given Bledsoe a 10-year, $100 million dollar contract in the 2001 offseason and considered Bledsoe (in his own words) a surrogate son. When Bledsoe got healthy in 2001 and Belichick kept him on the bench, Bledsoe actually called Kraft, and Kraft accosted Belichick in the week leading up to the next game. Belichick stood his ground, Kraft relented, and the rest is history.
Basically, Belichick had decided that Bledsoe took too many sacks and wasn't feeling the pass rush well enough anymore. And it wasn't the first time in his career that Belichick suddenly replaced a popular QB because of these reasons; he cut Bernie Kosar in 1993 (who still had decent statistics) and faced death threats because he thought Kosar was no longer mobile enough (he turned out to be right).
Overall, these episodes have a couple of obvious parallels to the Giants; first, the Giants are certainly not the first team in history in which the owner has a special relationship to the QB and the fans have a parasocial attachment. In terms of current teams, I would also watch the Eagles and Lurie's attachment to Hurts, as Hurts has only had one great season and that contract is pretty massive.
The second takeaway I have is that is that it's not impossible to pivot away from a QB commitment if you have good leadership. So again (I've made this point many times) I find it completely unconvincing and lame that Schoen or Daboll couldn't pivot away from Jones due to optics or the contract.
As Sean has said around here, it's about managing upward.
As Sean has said around here, it's about managing upward.
Sticking with Brady is the difference from being arguably the GOAT HC in the NFL vs being a career coordinator.
It's hard to make a decision like that when going with Bledsoe would have protected his job security. Really hard.
I also found it interesting that the documentary depicted that decision as backfiring for narrative purposes, ie "Belichick cut Kosar and later got fired, would history repeat itself?"
In reality, the decision worked, as Belichick inserted Testeverde in 1994 and the team went to the playoffs at 11-5. It was really Modell's decision to move the team after 4 games into the 1995 season that sunk everything.
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In standing his ground, Belichick not only cemented his own legacy and that of Brady's, but he also helped save Kraft's legacy as well. If Belichick had relented and started Bledsoe, and the team finished 8-8 and got and he got fired, Kraft likely goes down in history as another podunk owner.
As Sean has said around here, it's about managing upward.
So true. The other thing is many Patriot fans wanted Bledsoe back when he got healthy. They felt Brady wasn't that good and could only be a dink and dunk QB. I m not a Patriot fan by any means but living in NE I got into many debates with Them over there insisting Bledsoe was better all the while Brady was winning .
I think it really communicates how fanbases can get attached to QBs among all other positions, both in Bledsoe and Kosar's case. Bledsoe in particular hadn't really been good the past two seasons once Brady got the job.
I think it puts the fan attachment to late-career Eli in context. Eli had certainly done a lot more in his career than Bledsoe or Kosar. The Jones attachment is still a bit of a mystery (although I don't think a lot of fans are still board, just a vocal minority).
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In comment 16403078 Lambuth_Special said:
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In standing his ground, Belichick not only cemented his own legacy and that of Brady's, but he also helped save Kraft's legacy as well. If Belichick had relented and started Bledsoe, and the team finished 8-8 and got and he got fired, Kraft likely goes down in history as another podunk owner.
As Sean has said around here, it's about managing upward.
So true. The other thing is many Patriot fans wanted Bledsoe back when he got healthy. They felt Brady wasn't that good and could only be a dink and dunk QB. I m not a Patriot fan by any means but living in NE I got into many debates with Them over there insisting Bledsoe was better all the while Brady was winning .
I think it really communicates how fanbases can get attached to QBs among all other positions, both in Bledsoe and Kosar's case. Bledsoe in particular hadn't really been good the past two seasons once Brady got the job.
I think it puts the fan attachment to late-career Eli in context. Eli had certainly done a lot more in his career than Bledsoe or Kosar. The Jones attachment is still a bit of a mystery (although I don't think a lot of fans are still board, just a vocal minority).
I would say that the Eli thing is the opposite of Belichick's move with Brady. The fanbase reacted harshly to Eli being benched in 2017, and Mara completely panicked, firing both McAdoo and Reese for executing a plan that he had previously approved of.
I'm not saying that benching Eli for Geno Smith was a smart move, but the owner should have backed his coach on that one...or at least taken the blame instead of scapegoating two people whose plan he had previously agreed on.
As to the Jones thing, I think two things are true. Jones has not done much to justify his current contract, and the Giants have really screwed him up. I think some who want to give Jones a chance would just like a little fairness where he's not the scapegoat for a long run of terrible management. Unfortunately, we don't get the luxury of fairness, and it's probably in the team's best interest to move on and acknowledge that they screwed up in basically every way with Jones' career.
That is an incredible achievement in the hard cap era.
It asinine to me this shift that has occurred where Brady is now getting the lion's share of the credit.
I have been planning to watch this documentary. Thanks Lambuth for some early insights...
I've only seen the first two episodes but it's very good thus far. It does not have the final season framing device of The Last Dance, but it has the same quality assortment of archival footage, field/locker room access, contextual history, and interviews of all the important people involved.
That is an incredible achievement in the hard cap era.
It asinine to me this shift that has occurred where Brady is now getting the lion's share of the credit.
I have been planning to watch this documentary. Thanks Lambuth for some early insights...
QB & head coach are a synergy...especially at the top level.
BB I could theorize is maybe the best big game coach of all time, but he's not the best at creating something out of nothing.
Having Brady would carry weaker Patriots' teams to above average status, but wouldn't go much past that.
Also having Brady on an elite roster with BB means you have to damn near have a better roster or a certain elixir to beat them.