Does Belichick Last Beyond 2023, and What Needs to Happen?

[Kontradiction]

What 8 years? I count bad drafting for 6.

Now 6 is a long time.

BUT if you're also trading picks to add veterans to a championship level team, if you lose 4 prime draft picks to Deflategate, if you're always picking at the bottom of the 1st round, bad drafts can happen.

Anyway, I count 6.

Not to even mention the fact that some of those drafts were so long ago (2014) that the vast majority of players from then have retired. James White was a hit, but he's gone. A bad 2014 draft is not impacting this team right now.

Go look at the 2014 2nd round. Outside of Davante Adams and Joel Bitonio, no one else is contributing. 32 guys, only 2 are contributors.

2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. I count 8. You admit that we are in a rebuilding phase, but you discount 8 years of bad drafts? Why?

 

[Rob0729]

Hahaha, this sounds so familiar, yet he still has his job. Lol

I never said he was going to lose his job this year. But he is definitely on the hot seat next year.

 

[upstater1]

I didn’t. I gave him credit for those years, but the fact remains - he had a lethal advantage at the most important position - a player he thought highly enough of to draft in the 6th round who ended up being the GOAT and only missing one entire season. If BB is still “irreplaceable” at 71 (your original question), shouldn’t his record be better than mediocre in the rest of his time as a HC? How about from 2020-2022? Shouldn’t he have won a playoff game by now while his counterpart won a Super Bowl?

I start by realizing that in 2020 we began a rebuild. Unfortunately, we had a year of covid pandemic where not much of anything happened, where we took salary cap hits and signed a vet QB for $1m. It was a lost season.

I see an influx of talent here, we're at the end of the rebuild. I don't see what can be done about QB other than signing a guy like Garoppolo. Next year is the year. I expect this team to compete at the highest levels of the AFC at the end of the year. I imagine we'll still work thru coaching and staff changes at the beginning, and the schedule is tougher, but I expect a better record by 2 and playoffs.

 

[Ring 6]

You’ve quite clearly been lurking every day. The posters here are the same they’ve always been. The performance of the team is what has changed your “enjoyment of the team.”

Nope

 

[JR52]

Interesting to see the Mac vs. Zappe debate has become the Mac vs. Belichick debate. You Mac fans are abnormal.

 

[Ring 6]

Keep whining Andy. I’ll send you some tissues

Im not whining at all. In fact I left because of whiners (like you), and probably will again. Enjoy your misery.

 

[upstater1]

2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. I count 8. You admit that we are in a rebuilding phase, but you discount 8 years of bad drafts? Why?

I already answered that.

First, Jamie Collins, Logan Ryan and Duron Harmon were all good picks. Dugger, Uche, Onwenu is a good haul from 2020.

But as I already said, the 2013, 2014 drafts, those players have already cycled out of the NFL. 2 of the 32 second rounders from that year are still contributors in the NFL. Whether or not those were good drafts or bad drafts has no impact on where we are today.

And as bad as those drafts were, many of those players were key to Super Bowl victories, like Trey Flowers, James White, Stork, Shaq Mason, Elandon Roberts, Mitchell, Joe Thuney.

 

[Kontradiction]

Nope

So the alternative is that your life and happiness are so invested in a pro football team that criticism (often valid) from complete strangers online ruins your enjoyment of it. Again, this sounds like a “you” problem rather than a board problem. If that’s not it, then the only other plausible explanation is that the team is ruining your enjoyment of the team, which explains why your incessant complaining about the board began after 2020.

There’s nothing wrong with being a fair weather fan, mind you. Most fans are fair weather. That’s why stadiums empty when teams are bad and fill up again when they’re good.

 

[State]

I don't think Jonathan has the loyalty to Belichick that Bob has. But that is just me speculating.

Good insight.

 

[venecol]

Do you imagine they care about getting a good google review or a 5 star rating? Sorry, I am not trying to be a d!ck to you. I don't think they give two chits about people b!tching on the internet/twitterverse. I don't think that's unique to any NFL team. As long as the coffers are full, they don't care.

All good, don't take anything personal.

They care. A lot.

 

[Ring 6]

So the alternative is that your life and happiness are so invested in a pro football team that criticism (often valid) from complete strangers online ruins your enjoyment of it. Again, this sounds like a “you” problem rather than a board problem. If that’s not it, then the only other plausible explanation is that the team is ruining your enjoyment of the team, which explains why your incessant complaining about the board began after 2020.

There’s nothing wrong with being a fair weather fan, mind you. Most fans are fair weather. That’s why stadiums empty when teams are bad and fill up again when they’re good.

There is no “alternative”. What I said I feel is what I feel, and what you are trying to tell me i feel is wrong.
Pretty simple actually.
But nice to see that posting on this board still subjects you to receive verbal diarrhea from the peanut gallery.
Carry on, I won’t be responding.

 

[venecol]

A whole host of you are talking about McVay

My only comments about McVay have been that he's a good coach. Doubt he comes here.

 

[crawhammer]

I will say this. If Belichick thinks Mac Jones isn't the answer putting a lot of the blame on the offense on Jones and decides to trade him, he could lose his job if Jones goes to another team and becomes a top 10 QB. Say Belichick trades Jones to Las Vegas and McDaniels turns Jones around and Jones gets 4,000 or so yards and 25-30 TDs with the weapons in Vegas, I think that could be the breaking point for Kraft.

If letting the GOAT walk and watching him immediately win a Super Bowl elsewhere wasn't the breaking point for Kraft then I doubt watching Mac ascend to an average season elsewhere is going to phase him.

 

[StockingAnarchyNumber12]

I'm not even thinking AFCCG. I just want a playoff win and a sign we are moving in a positive direction.

 

[venecol]

Again, same story. The guy still knows X's and O's better than the majority of active coaches and they were bad this year and having a thin staff with no experience at their positions playing a role in a fair amount of their issues. I understand that's on Bill, but his football prowess is what makes him an asset and I expect the other issues to be addressed this offseason.

Bill has a sub .500 record the last 3 seasons. There are a dozen active coaches with better records. He also continues to lose against Rookie HCs. Your statement is based on the past which is irrelevant now.

You should sort of be excited. Bill's back is up against the wall in a critical year in 2023. Surprised you're not looking forward to that.

It'll be more of the same. Probably between 8-10 wins, no division, maybe back into the playoffs and lose again. I have no faith anything will change as long as Bill is the HC. Another wasted year. Hopefully he gets Shula's record so we can move on.

 

[upstater1]

My only comments about McVay have been that he's a good coach. Doubt he comes here.

The posts are all up above in this discussion. It's not a mystery. 2 posters recommend him here.

On other threads, there's call to fire Bill and hire McVay or other innovators like him.
And yet Bill is 8-9 and that is simply UNSATISFACTORY! Let's hire the guy with 13 losses!!

 

[Rob0729]

If letting the GOAT walk and watching him immediately win a Super Bowl elsewhere wasn't the breaking point for Kraft then I doubt watching Mac ascend to an average season elsewhere is going to phase him.

First, anything that happens next year would just compound the mistakes of Belichick of recent years. Trading away Mac Jones and he became a top 10 QB somewhere else in a vacuum wouldn't be enough to hurt Belichick. Compound that will all the mistakes of this year that would include the fact that we never got a proper evaluation of Jones because of Patricia and others in recent years (including the Brady situation if Kraft blames Belichick for how it ended), this could just be the final straw.

Second, I didn't say average season. I said top 10 which is above average.

Third, you don't know if Kraft felt it was a good risk at the time to move on from Brady. Let's face it, he was 42 and coming off arguably the worst season of his career. Kraft might have felt it was a good bet that Brady was heading in the wrong direction when he left. A lot of teams did. Hence why he only had a handful of suitors.

But I am done rehashing the Brady stuff. So that is all I have to say on it. I only said it because I don't know if Kraft blames Belichick or not.

 

[farn]

The team Brady took over was coined the Tampa Bay "Suckaneers", they had losing season after losing season until Brady came, and now they were a stacked team?

Hell, even the Broncos made it to the divisional round of playoffs with TIM TEBOW before Manning took over and lost in the same divisional round that Tebow did in his first season. That was a stacked team.

The Bucs were a doormat team until Brady made them champions

‘were a doormat’. True. But to overlook the talent that team had in Brady’s first season in Tampa…

 

[crawhammer]

I'm not even thinking AFCCG. I just want a playoff win and a sign we are moving in a positive direction.

Frankly a playoff win will be a tall ask for this team in the immediate future. There's no indication they will overtake Buffalo in the division anytime soon. So you're looking at a wild card ceiling. The only way through that right now is the AFC South. Any team in that division is beatable currently. Otherwise you're looking at a gauntlet of Buffalo, Kansas City or Cincinnati for likely the next few seasons at least.

 

[crawhammer]

Second, I didn't say average season. I said top 10 which is above average.

You said 4000 yards and 25-30 TDs which is kinda average by current standards. Mac has to break the top 20 first so I don't think top 10 is realistic for next season.