Rotoworld: Belichick Again Ranked #1 GM in the NFL

[IcyPatriot]

http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/53473/57/nfls-best-gms-2015?pg=1
Need to go search for all those Belichick cannot keep wearing both hats posts.

1. Bill Belichick, Patriots

Last Year’s Ranking: 1
Bill Belichick’s blind spots as a personnel man are well known. The greatest football mind of the 21st century can’t draft wide receivers or cornerbacks to save his life. But when Belichick looks in the rear-view mirror, the only object closer than it appears is his fourth Super Bowl title. Even the best have weaknesses, but no one in today’s NFL can match Belichick’s strengths.

Polishing his fourth Lombardi, Belichick didn’t get sentimental. He passed on a bidding war for 30-year-old Darrelle Revis, and one-year-too-early’d instead of one-year-too-late’d 33-year-old nose tackle Vince Wilfork. Popular sentiment would have allowed for a victory lap in New England, but Belichick knows there’s no such thing. If you don’t stay ahead of the curve in the salary-cap era NFL, you’re going to slam into it. No one understands this better than Belichick.

 

[farn]

I love BB the GM. People give him grief, but the drafting process is difficult and inexact. Further, trades and street FAs are a huge bonus and BB excels at both.

 

[JoeSixPat]

We've gone over this before but it's worth recapping

Belichick has his fair share of high draft and free agent pick busts - but he's had more than his fair share of undrafted rookie free agents, secondary free agents and late round picks become valuable contributors

Belichick will sit (or cut) a high pick in favor of an unheralded rookie if that rookie has earned a spot on the roster or on the field

I feel that other coaches/GMs are less likely to do this as they look at it as a sign of failure

Belichick operates under no such delusions - and furthermore he's very much a coach/GM that often has limited and specialized roles for different players - none of which is necessarily reflected in their draft stock

So at the end of the day, regardless of where they were drafted or picked up in free agency (or for how much - though Belichick is more cautious spending limited free agent dollars and has STILL had his fair share of mistakes) Belichick gets the guys he wants, playing in the roles he wants

Other teams will keep playing high draft picks or expensive free agents come hell or high water rather than admit they made a mistake (though it's not always a mistake - just the fact that these players are human and the intangibles can make a difference)

So in the end, it's Belichick's ability to accept that "mistakes" will be made that make him the best

Just the fact that as of last season no less than FOUR of his drafted QBs were starting in the NFL should give any hater pause to suggest that he's a lousy GM

 

[Patstopia]

Everyone criticizes the misses BB has had. But never puts it into the context of compared to whom? Lets face it, the entire draft is a big crapshoot. Nobody is ever going to be perfect!

 

[IcyPatriot]

Belichick has a feeble record with WR's ... perhaps he should let Brady give them a rating this time around.

 

[fnordcircle]

Man, I can't even imagine what sort of grade they'd give the internet GMs on this forum who all are so much better than Belichick.

 

[Joker]

AAAAA+...plus you get a neat T shirt too....

 

[luuked]

I have a feeling we won't hear much from Deus in this thread.

 

[DarrylS]

An interesting factoid in the past 12 drafts we have averaged about #25 as our first pick in the draft.. considering the product on the field we have done very well....

Would like to see some sort of longitudinal study of all of the teams, we suffer from "Pats Myopia" and the continued barrage of how BB is a crappy drafter will start in about 3 weeks..

 

[Danger Zone]

An interesting factoid in the past 12 drafts we have averaged about #25 as our first pick in the draft.. considering the product on the field we have done very well....

Would like to see some sort of longitudinal study of all of the teams, we suffer from "Pats Myopia" and the continued barrage of how BB is a crappy drafter will start in about 3 weeks..

I know I had the number at 25.5 or something a couple years ago when I did the calculation. Since then we've finished 29th and now 32nd and I haven't been too embarrassed to simply round that number up to 26 without rerunning the numbers.

Due to the NFLs policy on forcing parity, Belichick has had to draft in a consistently worse position than any other team since year 2. No other team has had to draft in a worse average starting position than the Patriots.

While it might be anecdotal, lets take a quick peek at the two years Belichick got to use his entire draft arsenal below the #20 spot in the draft.

2001 (6th pick) - Richard Seymour, Matt Light, (Hakim Akbar)
2003 (19th pick) - Ty Warren, Eugene Wilson, Asante Samuel, Dan Koppen, Tully Banta-Cain

 

[Galeb]

Everyone criticizes the misses BB has had. But never puts it into the context of compared to whom? Lets face it, the entire draft is a big crapshoot. Nobody is ever going to be perfect!

Compared to GMs who pick earlier who, over time, have just as many or more busts than BB does.

 

[Clonamery]

Man, I can't even imagine what sort of grade they'd give the internet GMs on this forum who all are so much better than Belichick.

You mean the hindsight grade? joker's got it, AAAAA+.

It's all about the effort.

 

[Haley]

He deserves this just for the FA pickups alone from this past year.

 

[1960Pats]

AAAAA+...plus you get a neat T shirt too....

I think this shirt fits this site to a T