The pure won/lost record doesn't come close to telling the story. BB took over in Cleveland in 1991 at age 39. The 1990 Browns were 3-13 and 27/28 in PF/PA, arguably the worst team in the league (there were 28 teams in 1990). By 1994, in BB's fourth year they were 11-5 and 11/1 in PF/PA. Improvement is NOT coaching failure. And let's not forget that the Browns were 1-8 after Carpetbagger Modell announced the move to Baltimore.
I have long believed that 2000 (5-11) was one of BB's finest seasons, because he was willing to take the hit in order to clean up an ill-conceived roster of overpaid underachievers. This set the stage for the 2001 championship run which had far more to do with BB's coaching prowess than the play of an effective but inexperienced and limited QB.
In Brady's first 7 seasons as starter (2001-2007), the team averaged 12.3 wins per season. In his last five (2009- 2013), they averaged 12.2. The drop off in 2008 to 11 wins was in large measure due to Brady's absence but was also highly predictable reversion to the mean. And why did the team drop to 10 wins in 2009 after Brady's return?
Strongly disagree. There was a 4 win pick up in 2003, a 6 win pick up between 2005 and 2007, and a 4 win pick up in 2010. Same QB, so something else was going on. Something called Rebuilding on the Fly.
The truth is that BB is a better coach because of Brady and Brady is a better player because of BB. I don't think either of them would argue that point.
The contention that BB is otherwise a lousy coach is the kind of in depth analysis that is perpetrated by intellectually lazy commenters on Florio's website and it just doesn't stand up to any meaningful scrutiny.
Maybe I'll write about this in more detail later. Thanks for the idea.