Bill Belichick after an incredible 24 years, Pete Carroll after 14 years, and Nick Saban after a whopping 17 years are all done coaching for their respective teams.
I think each was a great coach in his own right. I believe that, if Brady had played for the Bears instead, he’d have been another Jay Cutler and have zero Super Bowl rings. Saban had a relatively weak team starting this season, and many pundits thought he would have to work hard just to be bowl eligible. Instead, after an opening loss, he ran the table, shocked Georgia in the title game, and literally came out of nowhere to finish in the college football playoffs. Though I never like Pete Carroll because of what happened at USC, I have to respect his record at Seattle.
I can’t understand what happened with the Patriots? I think Bill Belichick still has the fire in his belly. He’s older and probably tires more easily. It seems like the Patriots talent roster slipped a few notches. They never found another Tom Brady. Is that Bill’s fault or his assistants?
Anyway, Bill Belichick changed the game. I didn’t always like his approach but he was successful.
That’s your interpretation, which I can honestly say mystifies me. Brady had everything to do with Belichick’s success but, being a good coach, Belichick did a lot to bring out the best in Brady, just like the Walrus brings out the best in Mahomes. There is a reason some coaches have perennially good QBs, and some organizations suffer perennial failure. You can’t attribute decades of failure to “bad luck” or decades of success to “good luck”.
If you look at the Packers, they developed Aaron Rodgers for three years before he stepped in for Favre. They also developed Jordan Love three years before he took the field as their starting quarterback. Gee, do you think that might have something to do with their success?
The Bears, on the other hand, are going to do what they always do because, unfortunately, their stupidest fans are the loudest. Caleb Williams has been insanely over hyped, so they are going to draft him and throw him out there immediately to face NFL defenses far superior to any defenses he ever faced in college. He won’t really be ready and, if he suffers a lot of early failure, it could damage his confidence to the point where we will have ruined yet another promising QB.
They could of drafted him and kept Fields so that he could have been on the sidelines for a season studying NFL defenses and better learning our own system. Then, if Fields didn’t blossom into a star, they could of let Fields go and promote Williams to the starting role. Oh, no, it’s, “Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!”
Bill Belichick will reportedly be joining Peyton & Eli Manning for their alternate broadcast of MNF games. Which sounds great, it will be fascinating to hear him analyze a game that he’s got no stake in. I assume he and Peyton will get along very well, they’re both super football nerds who demand perfection. Hopefully Bill will also join Peyton in making fun of Eli, and Eli will retaliate by bringing in David Tyree and Ahmad Bradshaw as guests.
And, except for Brady, this absolutely doesn’t describe Bill Belichick.
Name the perennially good QBs he had in Cleveland. Or the ones he developed after Brady left.
Was Belichick a good coach? Sure. But to paraphrase above, if he’d been in Chicago he’d just be another dude with a middling record who petered out after a few years.
The Colts decided they would concentrate almost everything on offense for the first couple of years specifically to give Manning the best chance possible to succeed. Though Manning went 3-13 his first season, which I think qualifies as being “thrown to the wolves”, he turned that around to 13-3 his second season primarily because the Colts had a good running game, a good offensive line, and a good offensive coordinator.
Much of this could also be said of his little brother. Rookie season 1-6, next season 11-5 with a good running game and what turned out to be a very good offensive line. Offensive coordinator, not so much, but still. It’s amazing how much easier it is to bounce back from a traumatic rookie season when the team around you is good.
What’s also amazing is that the Bears have perennially failed at doing just that. When the Bears got Cutler, no less a Hall of Famer than John Elway opined that it was the best QB acquisition via trade that the Bears ever made. We then proceeded to give Cutler a horrible offensive line and a different OC every season. There is a famous game where the Bears were at the Giants, and Cutler was sacked NINE TIMES in the FIRST HALF. He didn’t play the second half, and our backup was buffeted around pretty good. The game ended with the Bears, NOT the Giants, running out the clock with exclusive running plays so they could get off the field without suffering further damage.