Having Brady was huge but I am under the impression that it was BB that drafted him, kept him on the roster and was the one who negotiated the contracts with him.
So what? BB had no clue who he was eventually going to be getting when he drafted him. He didn’t know any more about Brady’s future here than he did about Kingsbury’s or Etling’s. If he did, he wouldn’t have waited until the sixth round. He caught lightning in a bottle and it turned him around from being a career sub-.500 coach into the GOAT.
The fact he took a little less than he could have is not some sort of mark against BB.
Nope. But it damn sure made his life a hell of a lot easier as a GM. The rest you and I mentioned didn’t have that luxury.
That "decade of failure" averaged 12 wins a season. Made the playoffs 9 times, 5 conference championship games and 2 Super Bowls plus had a team in 2007 that dominated the league like no team in history. The fact they lost of handful of heartbreaking playoff games had little to do with not having enough talent on the roster. His down stretch was a better stretch than majority of those names you listed best stretches.
Because he had the GOAT in his absolute prime. I can’t fault him as a GM too much for the 2007 team. Circumstance and injuries prevented them from going all the way. As a coach, I can definitely throw some blame on him. Forgoing the FG attempt to go for it on 4th and long was a terrible decision. It ended up being the difference between an L and overtime.
There are 3 non-Lombardi seasons in which this team definitely could have gone to, and very likely won, the Super Bowl had the drafts been better between ‘05-‘09: 2010, 2011, and 2012. The competition in the AFC was relatively weak during those seasons. 2010’s defense was a feast or famine D, reliant on turnovers to stop the opponent. The pass rush was non-existent. That ended with Mark Sanchez, in all his glory, eating a hotdog in the pocket before redirecting Braylon Edwards for a key first down. Embarrassing exit.
2011’s defense at least had two edge rushers, but the secondary was the worst BB has had in his time here. At the time, they were the second-to-worst pass D in NFL history (behind the Packers that season). With whiffs on stiffs like Wheatley and Ras-I Dowling, plus drafting Chung as a deep safety, and McCourty’s regression once teams realized he was a zone corner at best, this was bound to happen. In the big game, the 9-7 Giants saw Eli go 30-40 while they dominated time of possession. The lack of a legitimate downfield threat, which BB the GM also could have solved but chose to take on the ghost of Chad Ochocinco instead, to take them out of Cover-1 Man Under and to take the pressure off an injured Gronk sealed another L.
In 2012, he learned his lesson. He brought in Brandon Lloyd, drafted Chandler Jones and Hightower, moved McCourty to FS, and traded for Talib. Unfortunately, in years prior, he also decided to draft one of the slowest and most lumbering LB corps in the league, as if it was still the year 2000, and Flacco exploited that with success leading to another exit early of the Super Bowl. That situation only got worse once Talib exited. These are all on BB the GM.
I would put 2013 for sticking Brady with the likes of Kembrell Thompkins and Aaron Dobson, but injuries derailed that season more than anything else.
You literally put Ernie Accorsi on a list of GMs better than BB. His career record is 138- 140 with 5 total playoff wins. Can you please explain what compelled you to include him? I went through his draft history and it is putrid. Equivalent to naming someone like Jeff Fisher as a better coach than BB (and that probably does a disservice to Jeff Fisher to be up against Accorsi)
His draft picks include:
Johnie Cooks #2 overall
Art Schlitcher - #4
John Elway #1, traded away
Mike Junkin #5
Clifford Charlton #21
Ron Dayne #11
The only top player he ever selected was P. Rivers who he then traded for Eli Manning. Probably ended up with the worst of the 3 QBs drafted early that year but they were all very solid players so I will give him credit there.
Well, I’m glad I was literal about it, and didn’t figuratively put Accorsi on that list. I mentioned him because he helped turn the Browns and Giants franchises around, with the latter winning two Super Bowls against us. But that’s fine. If you don’t want to include him, then throw him out and replace him with Paul Brown or Al Davis
