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WHY YOU NEED TO LAY OFF BILL BELICHICK THE G.M.

1/9/2020

2 Comments

 
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The amount of criticism Bill Belichick gets as the General Manager of the Patriots is amazing and ludicrous.  Yes, he doesn't hit on everyone he drafts, but the guy doesn't have all day to hang out at the grocery store like some other teams.
WEEKS BEHIND-  Because the Patriots typically have a long playoff run, Belichick the G.M. is usually weeks behind the other teams when it comes to being able to focus on the next season's roster.  Since the 2002 offseason Belichick has been busy coaching his football team for 5 weeks beyond the regular season 9 times.  If not for a lack of a bye week between the Conference Championships and Super Bowl XXXVI, it would have been 10 times.  Including this year, Belichick has typically been coach football 3.4 weeks after the regular season has ended, so he's at minimum a month behind where he would be if the team wasn't always a contender.

TRADE DEADLINE- While the trade deadline has moved, it is currently at the end of October.  Once that deadline passes most General Managers can start focusing on next year.  Bill is focused on coaching his team.
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PICKING ORDER- The better you are the worse your pick.  Sustained excellence for two decades has left the Patriots picking at the end of day one consistently.  If you were to average the first round pick that the Patriots earned via their record since their first Super Bowl victory, it is 26th.  If you want to see a great deep-dive in the the Patriots and their recent first round picks, check out this article from Doug Moore.

LOSING COACHES- When you are a winning organization, your coaches and front office staff get poached.  Deciding who gets moved up or brought over from another organization falls into the lap of the G.M.  After their third Super Bowl the team lost both coordinators (Weis and Crennel).   The team has since played 3 seasons without officially having an Offensive Coordinator and 4 years without a Defensive Coordinator.  In more recent seasons they've lost Matt Patricia and thought they were also losing Josh McDaniels in the same offseason.  
2 Comments
FreeSociety
1/10/2020 01:27:55 pm

What you seem to be saying by making the argument that Belichick is "weeks behind" other GMs because of Post Season activity -- is that The Patriots would be better served by having a separate dedicated GM (while Belichick focuses on Coacking duties). I would agree with that. But the decision to assume both Roles is on Belichick -- therefore the blame for that has to be assigned to him, and him alone.

That said, in Brady's long 20-year career, despite taking lower than market pay he has had to suffer under shockingly bad Wide Receivers and offensive talent. Only 3 receivers ever had 1000 yard seasons (Moss, Welker, Edelman), and the sheer volume of castaways and inadequate draft picks at this important position does reflect complete incompetence. Belichick simply does not and cannot properly evaluate talent at that specific position.

When you have a once-in-a-lifetime Hall-of-Fame Quarterback, and you routinely cannot surround him with a good supporting cast - there are no excuses here. Belichick has and will always have a big black mark as a GM. Tom Brady has always had to do more with less (talent around him) , and the fact that Brady so often could rise above the rest of the NFL despite this disadvantage is a testament to the greatest of Tom Brady, and a lucky stroke for Bill Belichick.

For most of Tom Brady's career he has had to cover up for the inadequacies of the rest of the Team. And even throwing for (a record) 500 yards in the Super Bowl against Philadelphia STILL wasn't enough for Brady to overcome Belichick's Team weaknesses.

So to excuse Belichick is quite wrong. Brady took this franchise to 9 Super Bowls, and had his team ahead or tied late in the 4th quarter in all 9 of them. His record could and should be 9 - 0. During that whole period there were few offensive stars that Brady had available to work with.

And for many of the drafts The Patriots passed up on great players in order to pick duds. For example, they could have had AJ Brown (1000 yards) but instead ended up with a guy (Harry) who barely made 100 yards and looked clueless when running routes.

If you do not hold the GM accountable, then who do you hold? This is Belichick's talent evaluation here .. and when it fails then the criticism is well deserved.
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Ernesto Perry link
9/7/2023 02:06:16 pm

Thank you for sharing this

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