Jim McNally, Matt Estrella, Walt Coleman, Unknown Spy from Super Bowl XXXVI, I'm sure there are more.
BB also took an undefeated team into a SB against a 10-6 team and lost. Shula didn't let HIS undefeated team choke away their championship. He's coached 7 seasons without Brady and only got 2 winning seasons and 1 playoff appearence from that. 3 of his SB victories are because of cheating and luck (Spygate, Tuck Rule, brain farts by Seahwaks and Falcons coaches). Parcells never had a QB like Brady. He coached Vinny Fucking Testeverde to an all-pro season. The man is a great coach, no question. But let's keep things in perspective here. Beside, we can hate on him all we want. We are Jets fan. Fuck Bellidick.
On this year's roster alone: Blount, Edelman, Gronk (when healthy), Bennett, Gostkowski, McCourty is pretty damn good, Chung is a good safety, Butler is decent.
Gronk is a monster. He is like 3 levels above all other TEs in the league. If the Pats didn't sign Bennett this year, they don't make or win the superbowl. With Gronk, nobody even competes.
Gronk has electrodes coming out of his neck. The problem is he keeps shorting out when Belichik cranks him up to the roof during a storm.
I just don't get why this 'model' hasn't been followed a bit more in the NFL. It's not that easy and it's tough when head coaches get fired immediately after two non playoff years, however I don't see any other team really trying to emulate it. Mangini tried, but he was just too god awfully boring and not motivating enough. Players hated him whereas they seem to love Belichick. Hasn't the rest of the league caught on to the fact that you should maybe value football intelligence over 40 times and standing broad jump. Production in college also tends to help. The Patriots draft smart players specially at offensive skill positions and in the defensive backfield over the strongest and fastest. It's the entire reason they've been able to run this option route offense that emphasizes the receiver finding open space on the field and knowing the quarterback will get the ball there. The lack of adjustments from the majority of head coaches is another major flaw in the NFL. We've now had back to back head coaches that refuse to adapt to the players at hand and are god awful with their second half adjustments. I don't think Belichick ever gets himself into a situation of having three pro bowl caliber 3-techniques on the same defensive front, and one would have been traded immediately for a haul of picks. However, I'd imagine he finds a much better way to maximize their strengths while we're still pretty clueless in how to use them. The Belichick vs. Brady debate is getting a bit tiresome. Neither would be as great without the other but that doesn't necessarily mean that they'd both flop.
Can you reall say they choked it away? They had the lead in the 4th and a dropped INT and one of the most insane circuit catches of all time, regular or post season history keeps the Giants alive. Is that BB's fault? That's not choking. The #1 defense in the NFL each season is usually around 15-17 points, the winner of that SB only scored 17. One or two plays go different and it's the first 19-0 team in NFL history, and Shula doesn't pop that champagne for the first time since 72. One or two plays isn't choking. Takes a lot more.
It absolutely is choking, because they were the much better team throughout the season. You average 35 points a game but can't get more than 17 in the biggest game of the year? Not to take away from the Giants, they did an amazing job, but if NE was as good as they were supposed to be, they should've won that game (and I for one am glad they did not). In the Jets AMERICA'S GAME episode, Gerry Philbin said if the Colts were as good they were supposed to be, they should've blown the Jets out. The '72 Fins played a sloppy game in SB VII, culminating with the Garo play which gave Wash. their only score. And despite all that the Fins STILL dominated the game and won. Washington crossed the 50 yard line ONCE the whole game. Miami built their undefeated season on defense and running the ball, and both came through in the SB. The final score really should have been 24-0 (Griese TD pass was called back on a penalty). Fins were far from their best that day and still dominated, it's just no one remembers that b/c of the score and the Garo play.
You don't need monsters at other positions when you have one of the best QBs of all time, a lesson the morons that have been running this franchise for the last 40 years can't get their feeble little minds around.
You do realize great QB's don't exactly grow on trees, right? It takes good scouting and a bit of luck. Brady, Warner, Unitas, Moon all were drafted late or not at all. If DeShaun Watson is sitting there when the Jets pick is up, I will fly into a rage if they pass him.
There are a lot of things I can say about how BB spends his money wisely, but I gather from your question that you are more interested in the X's and O's. Look BB story sort of reminds me of Alexander The Great. Like Alexander The Great (King Phillip) his father was in the business also. This gave him an early head start. Can you imagine, his dad being a coach himself, how proud he must have been when BB won his 1st super Bowl? BB's father is no longer with us. BB has been coaching in the NFL since 1975 and he probably has the greatest football library on earth in his home. He lives, breathes, and sleeps football. The media claims he will not talk to them, but if you ask him a football strategy question he will definitely open up. The coach and GM of a NFL team probably can do more than other sport. Someday he will write a book and I bet even political and military people will read it.
While the Pats don't have an abundance of "great" players, they have more "very good" players than any team in the NFL. Too many teams use 25% of their cap on the top 4 or 5 players? The Patriots biggest advantage year after year is the quality of players number 16 to 45 on the roster. The Patriots have role players on defense that would start on most or many teams. Then BB and Brady fit into the equation. You have a coach who puts players in position to use their best talents and a QB to make good offensive skill players look like very good to great skill players.
This is real interesting. Good points top-to-bottom. Got me to thinking. You hit the nail on the head for why this is model probably won't be ever be effectively copied - coaches just don't get to stick around long enough for a system like this to grow. And it wouldn't have worked in New England either, but for Belichick catching lightning in a bottle with a Superbowl in his second year in the system. I wonder if an honest Bill Belichick wouldn't admit he was both lucky and surprised with such early success, and how that bought him at least five safe years to do just about anything he wanted. Cut Lawyer Milloy?! Trade Bledsoe within the division?! Act like a dick to the press?! And on and on. How many other owners would allow their investments to be managed in such a head-scratching manner without a clear sign of success-in-progress? Saying Belichick was "lucky" in 2001 isn't to minimize the fact that the guy does seem to out-coach everyone else in the game. But just how much rope would Belichick the GM have had if he hadn't won in 2001? Ever watch the NFL Films documentary, A Football Life - Cleveland '95? Embedded below. Produced in 2012, but I just saw it for the time about a month ago, right after the Superbowl when it was non-stop Patriots programming. Pretty fascinating. It tells more about how the Patriots were built than anything else, and it also shows what happens when an owner gets impatient. But you hear Lombardi, Newsome, Pioli, Dimitroff, Savage, Schwartz, Ferentz, Saban, Mangini all talk about the system and how it worked. Each of those guys talks about how they thought they were finally "there" in 1995, and how they were actually picked in 1995 by several folks to go to the Superbowl. . . . until the move to Baltimore was announced. The single biggest difference between the 1991-1995 Browns and the 2000-???? is that Patriots' early Superbowl. In Year Two of the program. Might never have gotten to Year Five if they kicked around in the middle of the NFL pack for another few years. You can even look to the 1995 draft pick trading and stockpiling, and all those Cleveland guys talk about it: Traded Eric Metcalf and 1(26) to Atlanta Falcons for pick 1(10) Traded 1(10) to San Francisco 49ers for 1(30), 3(94), 4(119), and 1996 1st Rounder. Traded 4th Round pick to Jacksonville Jaguars for 5(136) and 1996 6th Rounder. Traded 4(119) to Philadelphia Eagles for 5(147) and 1996 5th Rounder. Traded 7th Round pick to New England Patriots for 7(231). Then take a look at the 1996 Baltimore Ravens draft: 1(4) Jonathan Ogden Offensive Tackle UCLA 1(26) Ray Lewis Linebacker Miami (FL) 2(55) DeRon Jenkins Cornerback Tennessee 5(153) Jermaine Lewis Wide Receiver Maryland 6(172) Dexter Daniels Linebacker Florida 6(186) James Roe Wide Receiver Norfolk State 7(238) Jon Stark Quarterback Trinity Lombardi talks about how, in Cleveland, the guy they did more draft work on than just about anyone else that year was Ray Lewis. Picked at 26, so he was by no means predicted to be the player he eventually became. Mangini also mentions how there was a lot of pressure on them to take Lawrence Philips with their first pick, but they were faithful to their draft board and stuck with Ogden - a lesson they say came from Cleveland. They turned Eric Metcalf and a first round pick into Ogden and Lewis - the cornerstone of the Ravens' 2000 Superbowl team. Frankly, I think Belichick gets more wrong in the draft than right, and his real success is in picking up quality role players through free agency and effective trading. I just found it interesting in the context of the Cleveland system and it looks pretty similar to what New England is doing. It also looks very similar to what the Parcells Giants were doing, so I don't think it's anything magical that he invented. The 1998 Jets were built much the same way. And another thing. As critical a Brady to the Patriots is in 2017, that the heart of that 2001 Patriots team was a defense built on guys Belichick raided from the Jets - Bobby Hamilton, Otis Smith, Roman Phifer, Anthony Pleasant, Bryan Cox. Sure, they had Ty Law, McGinest and Bruschi; but those guys had zero sense of the system Belichick was trying to build. The same sort of thing Parcells was building with the Jets. Pretty much the same formula that Parcells had with the Giants. A couple Hall of Famers and a slew of role players who bought in. Anyway, this is a pretty good watch when there's only crap on.
You do need a supporting monster or two even in Brady's offense. Gonna start with 2003, which is when I think the Pat's dynasty got off the ground after missing the playoffs in 2002: 2003 - None. Pats had a balanced not overwhelming offense and the best defense in the NFL. Super Bowl (W) 2004 - Corey Dillon. Monster back in his best year at 30. 6'1" 225 and 4.45 capable. 345 carries at 4.7 YPC, 12 TD's on the ground. Super Bowl (W) 2005 - None. 10-6 out in the Divisional Round. 2006 - None. Defense was very strong again. 2007 - Randy Moss. All-time season for a WR. Wes Welker 112 catches was very hard to stop as the guy in the slot to keep the chains moving. Super Bowl (L) 2008 - Brady injured. Defense good but not great. No playoffs. Welker the bright spot again with 111 catches but Moss way down w/o Brady. 2009 - Moss back to being a monster. Welker 123 catches. 2010 - No monster. Defense good not great. Mark Sanchez favorite game of all time in the Divisional Round ousts the Pats. 2011 - Gronkenstein shows up. Welker 122 catches, 9 TD's. Hernandez a matchup problem for everybody with a taller Manbearpig on the other side of the field. Super Bowl (L) 2012 - No monster with Gronk and Hernandez both hurt. Welker and Ridley have good years but not monsters. Defense good but not great. 2013 - No monster with Gronk hurt. Edelman looks like Welker-Lite. Defense good but not great. 2014 - Gronk monster. A cast of many after him. Defense good but not great. Super Bowl (W) 2015 - Gronk monster but weakest supporting class with lots of possession receivers, none of whom was close to monstrous. 2016 - No monster but career years out of Blount, Edelman, James White (60 catches and 5 TD's as a RB). Gronk injured and Bennett covers for him. Super Bowl (W) I wouldn't be surprised BTW if Belichik trades Gronkowski, maybe even during the draft. Gronk is becoming very fragile and 28 may be a year too early instead of the usual 29.
