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Will Bill Belichick break Don Shula's all time win record?

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Will Belichick break Shula's coaching record for all time most wins?

  • Yes

    Votes: 22 30.1%
  • No

    Votes: 37 50.7%
  • RLKAG

    Votes: 14 19.2%

  • Total voters
    73
  • Poll closed .
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MrTibbs

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It might sound ridiculous but when does the clock start ticking for Bill and his Patriots rebuild? Does he have the stamina to see it through? Will Kraft start to have doubts and consider a change? Remember, Kraft is a fan just like us who happens to own the team.


Anyone feel free to correct me. I believe the count right now on wins is:

Don Shula 328 career wins + 36 playoff wins (not sure if that's included in the total number of career wins)

Bill Belichick 282 career wins (including this season) + 31 playoff wins.
 
It might sound ridiculous but when does the clock start ticking for Bill and his Patriots rebuild? Does he have the stamina to see it through? Will Kraft start to have doubts and consider a change? Remember, Kraft is a fan just like us who happens to own the team.


Anyone feel free to correct me. I believe the count right now on wins is:

Don Shula 328 career wins + 36 playoff wins (not sure if that's included in the total number of career wins)

Bill Belichick 282 career wins (including this season) + 31 playoff wins.
So he is roughing 40 games back? So that is about 4 years of playing good football. Not sure. I can see him playing 4 more years if things go right, if they dont, I do not think he will stay here that long playing .500 ball.
 
I thought this was a 10 win team this season and boy was I wrong. Can you see Bill coaching until he's 74-75? I don't know about that. He'll most likely end up #2 in my opinion.
 
It might sound ridiculous but when does the clock start ticking for Bill and his Patriots rebuild? Does he have the stamina to see it through? Will Kraft start to have doubts and consider a change? Remember, Kraft is a fan just like us who happens to own the team.


Anyone feel free to correct me. I believe the count right now on wins is:

Don Shula 328 career wins + 36 playoff wins (not sure if that's included in the total number of career wins)

Bill Belichick 282 career wins (including this season) + 31 playoff wins.
Shula doesn’t have 36 playoff wins. He has 36 playoff GAMES. 19 wins.
 
OK, so with Shula having 19 playoff wins (not 36), the difference currently is 34 games?

If we assume that difference will be 30 games (or fewer) by the end of this season (which may not be the case, but that doesn't seem unreasonable), the Patriots (assuming Belichick is coaching them) need to average 10 wins per season over the course of 3 seasons to catch Shula. If the team averages 7-8 wins, Belichick will need to stick around for about 4-5 years. Unless the team tanks and starts averaging fewer than 5 wins per year (which seems quite unlikely), Belichick would need to coach no more than 6 more seasons to catch Shula.

The worst case scenario has Belichick right around 75, and the best case scenario has him at 73. Given he's 69 right now. I really doubt he goes beyond 75, but based on his recent comments about late-60s feeling different than he expected, I don't think it's unreasonable that he coaches until he's 73-75 (if he's physically/mentally well enough to do so).
 
The math isn't far-fetched.

Let's say Belichick coaches through the 2024 season. I don't know if he will, but that seems reasonable to me since it puts him at age 72.

That scenario gives him 62 games to close the 34 win gap to Shula: 11 remaining this season +17 +17 +17 = 62. (This doesn't include any postseason games they may participate in). They'd need to win just over half of those 62 games. In that scenario it'll be close but I'd lean towards 'yes'.

But that scenario only gives him until he's 72. If he extends his coaching window to 73-75 (I have no idea if he will, just thinking out loud), then the odds tilt much more in favor of Belichick, since they'd only need to average 6 wins per season. (This scenario is far from ideal, since it implies the team is not playing well -- that said, if Belichick breaks the record at 72, but wants to coach through 73-75, that's a different, much better possible outcome).
 
Last edited:
The math isn't far-fetched.

Let's say Belichick coaches until 2024. I don't know if he will, but that seems reasonable to me since it puts him at age 72. He's 34 games away.

That scenario gives him 62 games to get there: 11 remaining this season +17 +17 +17 = 62. (This doesn't include any postseason games they may participate in). They'd need to win just over half of those 62 games. In that scenario it'll be close but I'd lean towards 'yes'.

But that scenario only gives him until he's 72. If he extends his coaching window to 73-75 (I have no idea if he will, just thinking out loud), then the odds tilt much more in favor of Belichick, since they'd only need to average 6 wins per season. (This scenario is far from ideal, since it implies the team is not playing well -- that said, if Belichick breaks the record at 72, but wants to coach through 73-75, that's a different, much better possible outcome).

with this oc and the oc's roommate in the front office.... not gonna happen.

.
 
Probably about 4 years away. I think he falls just short and ends up in second.

The other challenge is can he get to .500 as a coach without Brady? Right now he is 13 games under and .500 is starting to look like a formidable task if he only has 3 years left after this one.

For that to happen obviously at minimum Mac has to be the real deal and he takes a giant leap forward in year 2.
 
If postseason wins mattered with these records, Bill is #1. But since they don’t for the widely recognized “most wins” record, he‘s 46 behind Shula and unlikely to get there.

Babe Ruth played a lot of postseason games…would it surprise you to know that he was ahead of Hank Aaron when postseason HRs are counted? He wasn’t? He was? How would I know? The point is 714 and 755 are the numbers.

I’d also like to petition the NFL to recognize George Halas as the all-time wins leader. Not only did he miss four full seasons to serve in WW2 from 1942-45, earning a bronze star, but if you actually count ties as half wins, he has 333.5 to Shula’s 331. Halas was the founder of the NFL and also had just 10-12 game seasons; Shula was a little **** who coached with three Hall of Fame quarterbacks (Unitas, Griese, Marino) and might have been the worst big game coach ever, mustering just two titles in 72-73 despite having incredible talent for 33 years.

 
1. Bill's health. He has to feel well enough to coach another four years at least.
2. If Bill wants to keep coaching. The fact that Shula was an ass is not reason enough to devote this time in your life toward it.
3. All things considered, it would take some really unfortunate bad breaks to keep the Patriots from being competitive in the next five years or so.
4. Our titles were won mostly with home field. I personally would prefer we win another championship or two, perhaps as a wild card, than break Foola's record without one.
 
1. Bill's health. He has to feel well enough to coach another four years at least.
2. If Bill wants to keep coaching. The fact that Shula was an ass is not reason enough to devote this time in your life toward it.
3. All things considered, it would take some really unfortunate bad breaks to keep the Patriots from being competitive in the next five years or so.
4. Our titles were won mostly with home field. I personally would prefer we win another championship or two, perhaps as a wild card, than break Foola's record without one.
5. Belichick and Kraft “mutually agree” to part ways as he “retires” because we have another bad season in 2022.

I mean good lord. You’re not only talking about winning championships in the near future, you’re saying how it’s kind of boring to win them with home field advantage and maybe we can spice things up and win them as a wild card. The ****?! It appears that we’re more likely to not make the playoffs period than win a super bowl in the next few years.
 
If he wants to, yes. If he has always planned to retire at a specified age then maybe not. He did say of Marc Levy that you would never see him coaching at 70.
 
It depends on how the team is doing and when his contract runs out. If the team continues to lose when it expires...say goodnight.
 
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