Criticizing Belichick the GM

[RobertWeathers]

Like I said Bill is a good drafter. As with anyone, especially someone who has made as many picks as Bill, there will be some busts.

You think of the best GMs of the last ~30 years.....Finks, Wolff, Beatherd, Young, Ozzie, asshat Polian, Jimmy Johnson, Tuna....To say BB is not at a minimum equal to them is flat -out wrong.

 

[luuked]

Is he perfect? No! But he's a lot closer than the rest of us.

That's what most of the critics don't get about any aspect of sports really and keep judging players or coaches by results when this is just absolutely idiotic. It is all about the decision making and process. If you get those two things right then on average your outcomes will be more often favorable than not.

People getting upset about a play that failed even though the unknown success probability is maybe at 80%. But then cheer for a ******ed throw on a decision that in 75% will result in a turnover. Noise is a thing and it goes both ways.

And the same is true for drafting.

The team has a process and if that process gives even a 5-10% edge over time it is worth gold. But as with kicking or other things perfection is expected even though no team has outdrafted us even though we essentially always draft at the end of rounds for almost 20 years now.

 

[Ring 6]

Love BB the GM. Love BB the coach. Love BB the tv personality.

And he makes a hell of a PBJ.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

Sure he can be criticized because not all picks pan out, but how often is the team left handicapped because of no starting talent or weak next man up?

But, who else would you rather have and would it be worth it, if you were out of sync with BB the coach? And given where we usually pick, hard to complain about the occasional miss (*cough*cough* 2nd rounds)

Easy answer is no, because of the results. Sometimes other teams win.

 

[LJRomanoff]

Is he perfect? No! But he's a lot closer than the rest of us.

Oh man. Captain Stone is going to be furious when he reads this.

 

[LJRomanoff]

Love BB the GM. Love BB the coach. Love BB the tv personality.

But do you love BB the secret flamenco dancer? What about BB the frustrated amateur architect? How deep does your love really go?

 

[h0c2000]

I really never understood the argument of separating out Bill the GM or Bill the coach. Unless Pink Stripes is some kind of cloning program ala Paul Rudd, I doubt Bill the person is thought process is binary.

 

[NG Pats Fan]

Since 2015, BB has been very poor at drafting.

However he was incredible at drafting 2000-2005 and later 2009-2014 that led to 6 Super Bowls

He is incredible on trades and in free agency

He is the GOAT coach

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

Teams go to the Super bowl and playoffs every year with average to bad QBs. If the Eagles for instance can win a Super Bowl with Foles then they must have a good enough team to surround him. Same with Eli, half dead Peyton and many others.

But the patriots almost always require heroics from Brady to win. In fact Bill’s defenses have pooped their pants in many Super Bowls. So if every year several teams put teams together that are good enough to drag mediocre QBs to the Super Bowl, then why don’t the Patriots? Presumably because they can’t, or couldn’t. Because this year they are good enough to do so.

 

[SBLIII]

Since 2015, BB has been very poor at drafting.

However he was incredible at drafting 2000-2005 and later 2009-2014 that led to 6 Super Bowls

He is incredible on trades and in free agency

He is the GOAT coach

Poor isn't an accurate description.

 

[NG Pats Fan]

Poor isn't an accurate description.

Agree to disagree. Post our last 5 drafts, an incredible amount of high misses in first 3 rounds

 

[tasmlab]

"BB the GM is hurting BB the coach" is usually used a joke around these parts, certainly for the last few years of winning and super bowls.

 

[Wordsmyth]

The people that claim Cyrus Jones and Duke Dawson were not busts says otherwise.

Straw man.

 

[farn]

But do you love BB the secret flamenco dancer? What about BB the frustrated amateur architect? How deep does your love really go?

DEEEEEEEEEEEP. If you have footage of a BB flamenco act, please post link !

 

[NashuaPats]

Belichick stands alone as both a coach and gm. I mean that. He’s brilliant.

 

[borg]

It’s an interesting dynamic in NE.

QB on a below market contract..... more money for a deeper roster.
Team drafts from least expensive slots.... more money for a deeper roster.
Cheap FAs (usually) willing to come to this high profile team on a discount to win / revitalize career / boost future earnings ...more money for a deeper roster.
Stingy GM for the most part ... money for a deeper roster.

Yearly whiffs in the second round, allowing UDFAs and minimum wage players to catch on for a week or two or 19 or more

 

[Deus Irae]

I'm always frustrated by the fans that whine about Belichick the GM when he is undoubtedly one of the best TEAM BUILDERS in all sports. This article captures his greatness.

The notion that Belichick the GM hurts Belichick the head coach is utterly preposterous

Is he perfect? No! But he's a lot closer than the rest of us.

The article is garbage

 

[203Pat]

Straw man.

Cyrus and Dawson are on a NFL team last I checked. They are underachieving compared to expectations.

For a true bad pick or bust look at the 3rd round guy the Jets dropped. (Note: never seen him play. Using PatsFans as a source of this players suckitude.

You said:

I said:

JC Jackson beats out Duke Dawson for the last spot at corner on defense. Doesn't mean Duke Dawson sucks, we don't know that. It just means JC Jackson was better. We'll find out if Duke Dawson sucks or not in the next few seasons.

Cyrus Jones was NOT a bad player. Reports are he's a likely starter for the Ravens. There are a LOT of situations that can cause a player to get let go. Wilson was stuck in the S glut that was McCourty, Chung, Harmon, but he's been a productive starter for the Lions for 3 years now. Dawson was the 7th man in a 6 man depth chart, but the guys he was behind make up the best and deepest secondary in the league. He probably was good enough to make 90% of the rest of the league's rosters

Of that group, only Richards was an out and out failure. The others were proven to be good football players who for some reason or another just didn't fit in this system. Either there was a glut of other good player at their positions or injuries and how they affected their development.

BTW- It just occurred to me that every one of the players you listed were DB's, a position of strength of the Pats for many years. Curious, don't you think? You know what I think it indicates? Bill shows that is one step ahead of the game when he realized the only way to compete with today's rules and passing attacks is to be great in the secondary. And that is why we see him year after year loading up on DB's

As much as I love tall CB's, I was irate with the Williams pick, just because we looked so strong at CB to begin with....and I was wrong again. Bill understood that you can never be too good in the secondary and Williams was a unique talent that you couldn't pass up, even in a crowded CB room. And after a slow start, he has shown why this pick will end up in the Gronk, Volmer category in the end. He will be an amazing match up asset this year.

This post below had 5 disagreements.

This is insane. Cyrus Jones is a bad player. He was given every opportunity at both punt return and corner. He failed miserably at corner and couldn't beat Justin Coleman who came into the year having been a healthy scratch multiple times the prior season. He couldn't beat out an undrafted free agent in Johnathan Jones and I cant imagine the trade for Eric Rowe had nothing to do with out Cyrus looked. In addition to being a terrible corner he was an equally terrible punt returner fumbling five times. Then he tore his ACL and that was that.

As for Wilson he's a role player and he's a role player for a team that didn't draft him. This isn't a farm system where we bring guys up and let them walk to a new team where they produce there. He was a bad pick for the New England Patriots.

What in gods name makes you think that a guy who has never played one minute of regular season NFL football could make 90% of the leagues rosters? He has shown absolutely nothing aside from a total lack of ability as a football player. We wouldn't have drafted and re-signed a corner this year had Duke Dawson show the ability one could reasonably expect from a second rounder.

You were saying....

 

[Oswlek]

But the patriots almost always require heroics from Brady to win.

This strikes me as an overstatement. Sure, there were losses like the 2006 AFCCG and SB 52 where Brady was asked to carry enormous weight, but there are plenty of losses where the defense did fine and the offense just underperformed.

Even games like SB51 where Brady had to play miracle worker, it was largely because the offense could barely get out of its own way for 30 minutes. Allowing 21 points to that Atlanta team was a terrific job. Same for last year's AFCCG, holding KC to 7 points through three quarters was remarkable, it took a couple offensive blunders to let KC stay in a game that could have easily been 27-7 by that point.

 

[Deus Irae]

This strikes me as an overstatement. Sure, there were losses like the 2006 AFCCG and SB 52 where Brady was asked to carry enormous weight, but there are plenty of losses where the defense did fine and the offense just underperformed.

Even games like SB51 where Brady had to play miracle worker, it was largely because the offense could barely get out of its own way for 30 minutes. Allowing 21 points to that Atlanta team was a terrific job. Same for last year's AFCCG, holding KC to 7 points through three quarters was remarkable, it took a couple offensive blunders to let KC stay in a game that could have easily been 27-7 by that point.