The inside story of the Patriots’ fall to rock bottom in the Bill Belichick era

[sb1]

Belichick might accept Matt Groh or Dave Ziegler as GM. But that is because he is confident that they would just do what Belichick wanted anyway.

Yup. I guess by "someone else" I mean someone that won't allow themselves to be undermined by the HC.

 

[sb1]

The fact that BB wanted to keep Matt Patricia as OC is mind blowing. Almost like a f-you to his 3rd year starting QB. It's either that or he really is that stubborn.

 

[Toofy]

I think at this point you don't want bill near your highly drafted QB . If bill is around , I don't want us to invest a high pick on QB. We will end up ruining them.

 

[Mack Herron]

 

[sb1]

Was Klemm really a highly acclaimed OL coach in the pros? I remember Steeler fans saying he wasn't a great OL coach and we'd regret bringing him here.

 

[patsinthesnow]

The only way the pats will return to a superbowl contender is drafting well on offense in the 2024 & 2025 drafts.

Bill cannot be in charge of drafting or coaching them.

 

[Sciz]

It's funny. I think one of the greatest strengths of the Pats' in the early dynasty was its coaching staff. You had talent up and down the coaching staff. Romeo. Weis. Scar. Fears. McDaniels. Brad Seely. Daboll. You had position coaches who were among the best in the league at their jobs.

Now the coaching staff seems to be mostly Belichick's cronies and family. I will give Steve Belichick credit. He seems like the real deal. But what about the rest of them?

Hiring practices haven’t really changed at all. Romeo and Weis were “friends of Belichick” from their time together with the Giants, 1996 Pats, and Jets. McDaniels and Daboll were “friends of friends of Belichick” after working for Saban at Michigan State.

 

[Snooky97]

Was Klemm really a highly acclaimed OL coach in the pros? I remember Steeler fans saying he wasn't a great OL coach and we'd regret bringing him here.

He also didn't leave the steelers in the best way if i remember correctly? Wonder who we could bring in to replace him

 

[203Pat]

I heard it was Ferentz helping Yates. Lol, I wonder what @captain stone has to say about that one. Two straight seasons with an OL coaching cluster****. But yea, Trent is the problem.

This article, similar to last season's one about the dysfunction in the offense (coaches, QB, OL, etc.), gives us an inside look at what most consider the excellent job Bill is doing as a HC. What a joke.

It's abundantly clear that once Bill lost the leadership that Brady gave him in the locker room, the entire model fell apart.

I am done with Trent Brown but with all that is going on behind the scenes I at least sympathize with him more now. To have your position coach come on in the spring change the approach/technique, then scream at the GM, then go MIA, then go back to the way you used to do things with your teammate as a defacto coach I don't blame Brown as much. How many times are we going to see one of these articles at the end of a season before we move on? It's time to pull the plug.

That's where it all starts. Find a QB who the coaches and players can rally around and the pointing fingers goes away and people start headed in the right direction again and then you can start fixing your other issues.

That's where it starts but even if we get lucky and hit on a rookie QB Bill has shown he isn't the guy to coach and develop him. Even if Bill puts his big boy pants on and stops sulking about getting rid of Patricia and lets BOB hire his own guys if BOB has a good season with the rookie QB he's gone for a HC job somewhere soon and then were cycling through coordinators with a young QB. If we get a rookie QB that does show promise I would be nervous with Bill being the guy in charge of bringing him along.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

you would have thought 2022 would have taught us we needed to get our **** together but of course we just waste another year with more nonsense.Didn’t we interview a couple former wrs for positions? It was pretty obvious we needed help there but to my knowledge nothing came out of it, they only brought in klemm to handle the ol.

I love bb for all hes done but each year he stays is just going to go to waste. Sure the next guy could fail miserably, just like the next qb has, but youve got to start the process asap and evaluate in a few years until you get it right.

 

[VrabelJr]

I mean our OL has gotten better since Klemm took leave...

Klemm deserves to be sidelined for blowing up about a lack of talent. It's the middle of the season and very little can be done. Imagine how the guys he's coaching felt hearing that? That's just bad coaching and BB is right to push him aside.

 

[VrabelJr]

All of these media people who are only relevant because of the success of this team are biting the hand that feeds them. Everyone of them that hasn't made it to a national job will become irrelevant with the tumbling of this franchise when we enter a post BB era.

 

[venecol]

you would have thought 2022 would have taught us we needed to get our **** together but of course we just waste another year with more nonsense.Didn’t we interview a couple former wrs for positions? It was pretty obvious we needed help there but to my knowledge nothing came out of it, they only brought in klemm to handle the ol.

I love bb for all hes done but each year he stays is just going to go to waste. Sure the next guy could fail miserably, just like the next qb has, but youve got to start the process asap and evaluate in a few years until you get it right.

Actually those two former wrs were interviewing for the OC position. They both also had ties with Bill. It was all fake. BoB was always going to be the guy. Bill hates the NFL hiring process and just wants to surround himself with his guys. Nothing is going to change with him. Forget about bringing in an offensive coaching staff that will modernize the offense. BoB tried and was hampered.

 

[Sciz]

He also didn't leave the steelers in the best way if i remember correctly? Wonder who we could bring in to replace him

If O’Brien is around and has a say, it’s going to be Brian Ferentz. It’s who he wanted with the Texans in 2017, but he was promoted to OC at Iowa instead. Well, he’s newly available now after having his OC contract “non-renewed.”

I’m sure fans would react very rationally if that’s the move that ends up being made.

 

[JohnJH]

Wow.. this just washes dirty linen completely on bills side of house.


Not sure how Bill can be back . Looks like we are looking at a 3-5 year rebuild. These look nasty . At this point I feel our best bet as a stop gap would be to have Bob/Mayo as the HC and find a new GM who is autonomous .


Should Bill even be allowed to coach the last game when we need a loss to secure our future.

I know it's not a popular opinion of others, but I hope that they loose to the Jets to aid the rebuild.

 

[JohnJH]

I think at this point you don't want bill near your highly drafted QB . If bill is around , I don't want us to invest a high pick on QB. We will end up ruining them.

I don't want Bill having anything to do with any personnel decisions at this point.

 

[venecol]

All of these media people who are only relevant because of the success of this team are biting the hand that feeds them. Everyone of them that hasn't made it to a national job will become irrelevant with the tumbling of this franchise when we enter a post BB era.

I'm sorry that your fantasy world is crumbling down on your head but the franchise has already tumbled. Worse record in Kraft's time as an owner. Worse record in Belichick's career. Worse Patriots record since 1992.

Time for you to assume your defensive position.

 

[203Pat]

All of these media people who are only relevant because of the success of this team are biting the hand that feeds them. Everyone of them that hasn't made it to a national job will become irrelevant with the tumbling of this franchise when we enter a post BB era.

Lol yes lash out at the reporters and not the coach who's ego and arrogance is destroying the team.

 

[Nunchucks]

Yeah, the FA tackles that were available were overrated. Also, unless they moved up in the draft, they weren't going to get a good one. The real problem was that by ignoring tackle in the draft for the last few years, it left the team in a place where tackle was an absolute need but they weren't able to get one.

There were better tackles in FA than what they signed and there were tackles taken in the draft...the guy the Browns picked up from Ohio Dawand Jones was hyped and just fell to the 4th round...That is a devastating oversight

 

[condon84]

Over months, sources described an offense undone by a quieter type of dysfunction, a broken quarterback and finger-pointing between the coaching staff and front office.

This to me reads Billy O blaming Bill for the scraps he has to work with on offense. It also mentions Billy O being unsure of his assistants. That never made sense to me to bring Billy O back but not let him hire his own offensive coaches. Always read to me that Kraft told Bill the Patricia experiment is over and this was Bill's way of pouting. The fact this article claims Bill wanted to double down on Patricia is OC solidifies my feelings he should have been canned last January.

an offensive lineman unofficially working as a coach to round out a shorthanded staff; another veteran proclaiming, with four games left, he would play for another team next season.

Definitely sounds like Andrews or Ferentz have been coaching and Trent Brown formally announcing he's checked out. It is also insane to me that after Klemm left with a "medical absence" that Bill decided to go back to the way Dante coached the O-line instead of trying to maintain continuity. What a complete disaster.

Anyone who reads about all this dysfunction and still believes Bill is the guy is nuts. He threw a hissy fit about getting rid of Patricia and hired Billy O only to not let him pick his own staff. He hired Klemm who apparently yelled at the GM then disappeared. The article mentions that the sources don't think Bill can evaluate offensive personnel or hire a staff that can put together an offense. I really hope this time next week we are looking for a new coach.

The main issue to me is that Kraft forced BoB on Bill. It's not surprising that it lead to the domino effect that we've seen with our offense this year.

Whatever happens next year and going forward whether it's Bill or a new regime, Kraft needs to stay out of football decisions.

This also now makes sense why BoB made the chain of command comment when he was asked about benching Mac.