Is this Belichick's best coaching job ever?

[Ron Sellers]

Is this Belichick's best coaching job ever? - Extra Points - Boston.com

As far as football opinions go I'm not much of a fan of Bob Ryan, and am definitely not a fan of Dan Shaughnessy, but the two actually have a somewhat decent discussion on the topic of whether or not this year has been Belichick's best coaching job ever to this point.

 

[Kontradiction]

Nope. 2008 was, IMO.

 

[ALP]

its starting to get real comical taht this question is asked every single year.....


man I'm gonna miss this guy when hes gone

 

[Modest]

I really hope Belichick coaches for at least another 5 years. Please Bill, please.

 

[RayClay]

Absolutely. Might be the best coaching job by anyone ever.

 

[HowardRoark]

Nope. 2008 was, IMO.

Came here to post this. Such a shame we got robbed of the playoffs.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

I'd still go with 2001. They were a more experienced group but still the talent level was very iffy aside from LB and CB. This team probably has more talent at almost every other position

 

[RobertWeathers]

Every year he does a great coaching job. There is no one better every week of every year.

It's debatable that every year he does a great GM job and that is true for every GM.

 

[Uncle Rico]

Here's Shaughnessey's SI column on the subject, for those who need to stay audio-free at work (or just prefer reading):

New England Patriots' Bill Belichick doing his best coaching job - Dan Shaughnessy - SI.com

 

[Fball]

There is an argument to be made that BB is the best coach of all time.

Over a decade, with personnel that has fluctuated wildly & the only constant being Tom Brady (and not even that one year), he has kept the Pats atop the division and contending for not just the playoffs most years, but also being legit SB contenders year after year.

And so much of it IS coaching. Guys go down at key positions, and he makes the backups & starters look almost interchangeable in the schemes he draws up. Beyond that, after all of this time, there are certain things he does - particularly in terms of mixing up the defense from half to half and week to week - that the rest of the league still hasn't quite figured out.

Guy's a genius, imo....

 

[NovaScotiaPatsFan]

I'm torn between 2007 and 2008. '08 was a rough year because of Brady, but the fact we won 18 games in a row in '07 with the crap storm of distractions that surrounded the team that year was simply amazing.

One of my favorite Beli memories is him getting a huge ovation at the end of the first game after Spygate. It was nice that we could show him how much he means to all of us, if only a little.

 

[patfanken]

Absolutely not. 2001 is the best coaching job over a single season in NFL history. Next comes 2008. THEN comes 2010....so far.

 

[Uncle Rico]

So many great coaching jobs to choose from. Local media like to rank on fans for being supportive of Belichick, but there's a reason they give him the benefit of the doubt.

I'd argue this year over '08 because, Brady or not, that was a very veteran team. Still had all those core players, plus Josh to work on Cassel. Not diminishing what BB did that year by any means, just saying this team full of young players has called for him to get his message across more completely and clearly than it would have in '08.

Edit: Of course, this is all with 7 games to go. If this team misses the play-offs I might put '08 above it.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I said all of them but 01 by far.

His best "GM" year was 03. Draft. Trades. etc.

 

[The Dynasty]

Pretty tough to pick one year.

I would have to go with 2008, they had the season that they had with a QB who barely played more than a game since high school, and now he has developed into one of the most underrated QBs in the league.

2001 is up there too, probably ahead of this year. So I would say 2008, 2001, 2010 (in order) are his best coaching years

 

[PatsDeb]

Too early to tell. Let's see where we are by the end of the season.

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

Too early to tell. Let's see where we are by the end of the season.

Agree. As of right now i say 2008. If we end the season with some hardware, then I would say this year.

 

[TBradyOwnsYou]

If we win the Super Bowl this year with all our rookies and no coordinators, then this year.
If we end up 7-9 this year, nope.
I'd say there is a large gap between 7-9 and a Super Bowl win, both of which are still possible at this point. We probably have to wait at least until the end of the regular season to start discussing this.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

Surprised 2004 is not seeing any love. Repeating as champs is an amazing feat...between avoiding the champion hangover, getting everyone's best game every week (the proverbial "bullseye on your back") and meeting a very high bar set by everyone's expectations, it's no wonder repeat champs are rare.

Then add in the particular circumstances of that year: Pats had their usual bout with injuries (No Ty Law, 40+ guys started during the year*) and one of the most impressive post-season runs ever** and 2004 was a season for the ages. A lot of that credit goes to BB and his staff.



* Both the '03 & '04 Pats met this criteria. Not only did they win the SBs with 40+ different starters, but I remember seeing a stat that every other team that started that many guys didn't even have winning seasons.

** Pats beat the 13-4 Colts, the 16-1 Steelers and 15-3 Eagles...that's 44-8 right there. Then factor in that the Colts and Steelers laid down for their last regular-season games (Pittsburgh won anyway, but I'll still take it out for consistency's sake) and the Eagles laid down for their last TWO regular season games and that puts the playoff opponents' collective record at 43-5. And how the Pats beat those teams was unreal, particularly the 1st two: Holding Manning and his 49 TD pass-offense completely out of the endzone, putting up 41 on a great Steelers D in Heinz Field, then finally knocking off the undisputed best team in the NFC.

Regards,
Chris

 

[sieglo]

Could those two guys look any more Irish?