Best/Worst Pats Head Coaches

[Actual Pats Fan]

Best:

1. Bill Belichick

Good Points: Too many to list. We didn't always have the better team, but with Bill we had the advantage coaching. Those six Super Bowl titles have his stamp all over them.

Bad Points: Bill likes to go against convention, and he often misses the forest for the trees. This turns some players off. But he turns enough players on to more than compensate. He's got an inoperable sentimental spot for his old Giants, and that hurt us in those two big game losses. And he just couldn't help but not trust Ghost when winning depended on him letting the kid kick instead of going for it on miserably low-percentage fourth down situations.

I've always liked Bill. Always. But that aside, he deserves to be on top.


2. Chuck Fairbanks

Good Points: Chuck was a genius. And he did what he did here with egregious obstruction from ownership.

What's the difference between Belichick/Brady and Fairbanks/Grogan?

The former got Walt Coleman. The latter got Ben Dreith.

That's it.

Bad Points: Can't think of any. No, I don't take the recruiting violations sh*t at Oklahoma seriously. Do I beware of Icebanks' Evil Wandering Eye? Well, if I got it I know I probably deserved it.


3. Bill Parcells

Good Points: So what's a .500 coach doing this high on the list? Because when you look at the whole picture, you see it. New England - we - are special to him. He chose us over more lucrative and flashy venues. And he came this close to winning a title. In SBVI, Landry had Staubach hand it off to Garrison and Hill 21 times, and to the rookie kid Duane Thomas 19 times. That's why they won. All Parcells had to do was give it to C-Mart. Did the Jets thing distract him? Sure. But that's what you get with Bill. He almost walked away (from Kraft) with another Lombardi Trophy.

Bad Points: He annoyed me, but that had a lot to do with me. I despise the Giants. And his pompous arrogance rubbed me the wrong way. But TBH I think Orthwein's identity suicide introducing the flying elvis within a couple weeks of hiring Bill (who was not in favor of it) just jaded me, it was so ugly, insulting and stupid.

So, he didn't tell Perk to protect Drew and have him hand it off to the rookie. But, he did try to reconcile with Kraft, even at the end...and Robert yelled and stormed out of the room.


4. Raymond Berry

Good Points: Raymond is a grounded, Christian, detail-oriented, quiet leader. His hiring is obviously the best decision Pat Sullivan ever made as GM. Ray Clayborn talked about a motivational psychologist Raymond had speak to everyone in the '85 training camp. Eyes rolled...but the message was still received. The innovative ball hawking turnover recovery drills ultimately led them to carry a mediocre QB to the Super Bowl, in an era when a team like the Patriots was definitely NOT supposed to make the Super Bowl. Winning was no surprise under Coach Berry - it was expected.

Bad Points: Raymond is emotional, cares about people, and unfortunately, he took a real shine to Tony Eason. The competitive aspect of Super Bowl XX ended the Monday morning after Championship Game Sunday, when he failed to announce Steve Grogan as the starter for the title game in two weeks. Everybody in the media and prognosticators knew. Nothing - even Tony getting the flu days before kickoff - would change Berry's mind. The SNL cold open the night before featured a group of monks discussing the odds for the big game. They correctly stated that Eason had no chance at all.

And Berry never learned. A year later, Grogan again was the reason they were back in the playoffs, and he still started Eason in Denver. Two years later he benched Flutie for Eason and a tremendous opportunity was again washed down the drain.


5. Mike Holovak

Good Points: Mike coached five outstanding, very good teams who came as close as you can get to winning a title in the AFL. They just barely could not get over the hump. He was ambushed by Sid Gillman in the Pat's only title game appearance.

Bad Points: He was tone deaf to black players' mistreatment in New Orleans and their boycott for the AFL All-Star game, ultimately moved to and played in Houston. It's a lot to expect anybody of these old eras to openly go against racist convention.


Worst:

1. Rod Rust

Rod's a good guy and a good coach. And he has zero makeup to be a head coach. Hiring Rod is the second-worst decision GM Pat Sullivan ever made, the third being ignoring his players' complaints that Lisa Olson has a wandering eye for naked black guys, which ultimately got Pat fired. I suppose the fourth was taunting Long & Millen from the sidelines during and after the playoff win in L.A. (although his emotions are understandable). The first and foremost, of course, is releasing Doug Flutie, and letting him be there in Natick for six months before being exiled to Canada for eight years.

So to me, it was not Rod's fault.


2. Clive Rush

Unsuccessful just begins to describe Clive's tenure here.

But, there are so many stories...from electrocuting himself at his own introductory press conference, to telling his kicker - and only his kicker - to do an onside kick, whereupon a huge Falcons up lineman scooped up the ball and rumbled all the other way for a touchdown...that are so ridiculously hilarious and entertaining that I just find myself in stitches whenever his name comes up.


3. **** MacPherson

It was not ****'s decision to pay Hugh Millen $1 million here while Doug Flutie rewrote the record book and won titles north of the border. So, I don't blame him.


4. John Mazur

I feel like John did the best he could with what he had. But, we can't call him a great head coach. Plunkett made him - and everybody else - look better.


5. Jerod Mayo

Likewise, I think Jerod did the best he could with what he had. It was his decision, and his decision alone, to do all that personnel crap? Of course not.

This is his only experience as a head coach. Is he worse than Dan Campbell? Maybe time will tell.


I have to give an honorable mention out to our very first head coach, Lou Saban.

Lou is forever immortalized in the NFL Films clip from when he coached the Broncos, where he yells (Lou was always yelling) to his OL coach,

"THEY'RE KILLING ME, WHITEY, THEY'RE KILLING ME!!!!!!!"

*Fun fact: Who was Lou's Defensive Backfield Coach in Denver (1967-70)?

**** MacPherson

 

[Pape]

New England Patriot Head coaches, ranked


this topic slid off the first page w/o any traction... deserves to be discussed

 

[upstater1]

I would drop both Meyer and Erhardt into the lower category, where it's not worth debating who is better.

I would also put Fairbanks, Parcells and Berry in the same category.

 

[Triumph]

Mayo is not 5th.

Kraft played both sides against the middle.

 

[Stu Pidassle]

New England Patriot Head coaches, ranked

I like this list with the possible exception of Carroll. History proved him to be a good coach after getting his act straight at USC. He was not good with the Pats. The players did not respect him and he had a number of Mayo moments with the press.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Best:

1. Bill Belichick

Good Points: Too many to list. We didn't always have the better team, but with Bill we had the advantage coaching. Those six Super Bowl titles have his stamp all over them.

Bad Points: Bill likes to go against convention, and he often misses the forest for the trees. This turns some players off. But he turns enough players on to more than compensate. He's got an inoperable sentimental spot for his old Giants, and that hurt us in those two big game losses. And he just couldn't help but not trust Ghost when winning depended on him letting the kid kick instead of going for it on miserably low-percentage fourth down situations.

I've always liked Bill. Always. But that aside, he deserves to be on top.


2. Chuck Fairbanks

Good Points: Chuck was a genius. And he did what he did here with egregious obstruction from ownership.

What's the difference between Belichick/Brady and Fairbanks/Grogan?

The former got Walt Coleman. The latter got Ben Dreith.

That's it.

Bad Points: Can't think of any. No, I don't take the recruiting violations sh*t at Oklahoma seriously. Do I beware of Icebanks' Evil Wandering Eye? Well, if I got it I know I probably deserved it.


3. Bill Parcells

Good Points: So what's a .500 coach doing this high on the list? Because when you look at the whole picture, you see it. New England - we - are special to him. He chose us over more lucrative and flashy venues. And he came this close to winning a title. In SBVI, Landry had Staubach hand it off to Garrison and Hill 21 times, and to the rookie kid Duane Thomas 19 times. That's why they won. All Parcells had to do was give it to C-Mart. Did the Jets thing distract him? Sure. But that's what you get with Bill. He almost walked away (from Kraft) with another Lombardi Trophy.

Bad Points: He annoyed me, but that had a lot to do with me. I despise the Giants. And his pompous arrogance rubbed me the wrong way. But TBH I think Orthwein's identity suicide introducing the flying elvis within a couple weeks of hiring Bill (who was not in favor of it) just jaded me, it was so ugly, insulting and stupid.

So, he didn't tell Perk to protect Drew and have him hand it off to the rookie. But, he did try to reconcile with Kraft, even at the end...and Robert yelled and stormed out of the room.


4. Raymond Berry

Good Points: Raymond is a grounded, Christian, detail-oriented, quiet leader. His hiring is obviously the best decision Pat Sullivan ever made as GM. Ray Clayborn talked about a motivational psychologist Raymond had speak to everyone in the '85 training camp. Eyes rolled...but the message was still received. The innovative ball hawking turnover recovery drills ultimately led them to carry a mediocre QB to the Super Bowl, in an era when a team like the Patriots was definitely NOT supposed to make the Super Bowl. Winning was no surprise under Coach Berry - it was expected.

Bad Points: Raymond is emotional, cares about people, and unfortunately, he took a real shine to Tony Eason. The competitive aspect of Super Bowl XX ended the Monday morning after Championship Game Sunday, when he failed to announce Steve Grogan as the starter for the title game in two weeks. Everybody in the media and prognosticators knew. Nothing - even Tony getting the flu days before kickoff - would change Berry's mind. The SNL cold open the night before featured a group of monks discussing the odds for the big game. They correctly stated that Eason had no chance at all.

And Berry never learned. A year later, Grogan again was the reason they were back in the playoffs, and he still started Eason in Denver. Two years later he benched Flutie for Eason and a tremendous opportunity was again washed down the drain.


5. Mike Holovak

Good Points: Mike coached five outstanding, very good teams who came as close as you can get to winning a title in the AFL. They just barely could not get over the hump. He was ambushed by Sid Gillman in the Pat's only title game appearance.

Bad Points: He was tone deaf to black players' mistreatment in New Orleans and their boycott for the AFL All-Star game, ultimately moved to and played in Houston. It's a lot to expect anybody of these old eras to openly go against racist convention.


Worst:

1. Rod Rust

Rod's a good guy and a good coach. And he has zero makeup to be a head coach. Hiring Rod is the second-worst decision GM Pat Sullivan ever made, the third being ignoring his players' complaints that Lisa Olson has a wandering eye for naked black guys, which ultimately got Pat fired. I suppose the fourth was taunting Long & Millen from the sidelines during and after the playoff win in L.A. (although his emotions are understandable). The first and foremost, of course, is releasing Doug Flutie, and letting him be there in Natick for six months before being exiled to Canada for eight years.

So to me, it was not Rod's fault.


2. Clive Rush

Unsuccessful just begins to describe Clive's tenure here.

But, there are so many stories...from electrocuting himself at his own introductory press conference, to telling his kicker - and only his kicker - to do an onside kick, whereupon a huge Falcons up lineman scooped up the ball and rumbled all the other way for a touchdown...that are so ridiculously hilarious and entertaining that I just find myself in stitches whenever his name comes up.


3. **** MacPherson

It was not ****'s decision to pay Hugh Millen $1 million here while Doug Flutie rewrote the record book and won titles north of the border. So, I don't blame him.


4. John Mazur

I feel like John did the best he could with what he had. But, we can't call him a great head coach. Plunkett made him - and everybody else - look better.


5. Jerod Mayo

Likewise, I think Jerod did the best he could with what he had. It was his decision, and his decision alone, to do all that personnel crap? Of course not.

This is his only experience as a head coach. Is he worse than Dan Campbell? Maybe time will tell.


I have to give an honorable mention out to our very first head coach, Lou Saban.

Lou is forever immortalized in the NFL Films clip from when he coached the Broncos, where he yells (Lou was always yelling) to his OL coach,

"THEY'RE KILLING ME, WHITEY, THEY'RE KILLING ME!!!!!!!"

*Fun fact: Who was Lou's Defensive Backfield Coach in Denver (1967-70)?

**** MacPherson

No way Mac is a worse coach than Mayo.

 

[Pape]

I like this list with the possible exception of Carroll. History proved him to be a good coach after getting his act straight at USC. He was not good with the Pats. The players did not respect him and he had a number of Mayo moments with the press.

I thought he was ok when he was here... but things slowly slid down hill... if you were to rate him after his time in new england, he would be an A rated coach

 

[scott99]

Great thread Actual Pats Fan ! Great discussion so far about these coaches. I was just thinking about this subject the other day, while watching highlights of the Pat’s 1976 season.

I became a fan in 1975, and I agree about Chuck Fairbanks, what a great coach he was. The Pats were 3-11 in 1975, and went 11-3 in 1976, and went to the playoffs for the first time in 13 years. Also got them to the playoffs in 1978, but had a Parcells like exit at the end of 1978. But it doesn’t take away from what he achieved in New England.

 

[sb1]

1. Mayo
Everyone else tied for last


What other coach united the fan base like he did?

 

[Pape]

1. Mayo
Everyone else tied for last


What other coach united the fan base like he did?

Rod Rust

 

[RobertWeathers]

Rod Rust

Yea. A corpse would have done a better job

 

[RobertWeathers]

Worst:

1. Rod Rust

Rod's a good guy and a good coach. And he has zero makeup to be a head coach. Hiring Rod is the second-worst decision GM Pat Sullivan ever made, the third being ignoring his players' complaints that Lisa Olson has a wandering eye for naked black guys, which ultimately got Pat fired.

While she was harassed by the players, there was a rumor she and Johnny Rembert had a fling which is what prompted Pat Sullivan to issue the, "Careful about skeletons in your closet." comment.

 

[Stu Pidassle]

Rod Rust

Good call, the article from the Herald that I copied below agrees with you. The writer called him Je-Rod Rust, LOL. At least Rust had a long track record as coordinator before taking the HC job.

For the first time in 34 years, the Patriots have a Rust problem.

This time, it’s Je-Rod Rust whose team has begun to corrode along the edges, is unable to free itself from indecision, and remains frozen in the grip of inept assistant coaches.

Gillette Stadium needs to be power washed with Rust-Oleum. Starting in the owners’ suite.

The affable Rod Rust helmed the local AFC East squad in 1990. Rust was a first-year head coach whose career had been spent as a defensive coordinator. Je-Rod Rust is also a first-year head coach. Patriots lore has it that Je-Rod Rust (known elsewhere in these pages as Jerod Mayo) was christened as Bill Belichick’s successor some five years ago after a speech he delivered during a visit to Israel with owner Robert Kraft and several other Patriots folk.

A giddy Robert Kraft expanded on this when he was interviewed by Taylor Rooks of the Amazon Prime NFL Thursday Night Football crew before the Patriots-Jets game in Week 2.

“Jerod learned a lot from Bill. You know, the technical background,” Kraft said. “I’ve gotten to know Jerod over the last 15 years. I picked him five years ago to be our next head coach. He’s very special and had the ability to train under Bill.”

It’s all about the “culture,” you know.

At the time, the Patriots were 1-1 and were coming off an oh-so-close 23-20 OT loss to Seattle.


Duck Boats had begun to amass. The flight plan to Kraft Force One to Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans was about to be filed with the FAA.

Less than three months later, the Patriots were officially eliminated from the playoffs on Dec. 1. Some 70 days ahead of the Super Bowl. The first season with just the final third of “The Dynasty” in residence became a Red Line derailment.

This is the first time since Kraft bought the team in January 1994 that he’s worked without a net. Until this season, Kraft has had Bill Parcells, Drew Bledsoe, Bill Belichick and/or Tom Brady in his employ as team owner.

John Henry wielding the tightest wallet possible would be hard pressed to screw up under those circumstances for more than a year or two. Even Pete Carroll’s Patriots reached the playoffs in two of his three seasons.

“A lot of things were going on that made it difficult for him to stay, some of which were out of his control. And it began with following a legend,” Kraft said at the time he fired Carroll after the 1999 season.

That’s a big hint that Kraft is going to be far more patient with Je-Rod Rust than the old Patriots’ regime was with plain old Rod Rust.

Rod Rust did not earn his job as Patriots head coach when he went to the Remington shaver factory in Bridgeport with then-owner Victor Kiam.

Rather, he was pulled out of head coaching obscurity when then-GM Patrick Sullivan fired Raymond Berry in February. In typical Patriots dysfunction of the time, Sullivan and Berry had a falling out after a disagreement over hiring an offensive coordinator.

Like Je-Rod Rust, Rod Rust was a Patriots’ defensive assistant when the team reached the Super Bowl. That was Super Bowl XX during which the Patriots were massacred by Richard Dent and the Chicago Bears live on NBC.

Rod Rust’s 1990 campaign was indisputably the worst season in franchise history on and off the field. It gave us the Lisa Olson sexual harassment scandal, Victory Kiam’s “Patriot Missile” one-liner, and a 1-15 season that set all-time franchise records for futility in victories, scoring, and watchability.

The 2024 Patriots won’t even crack the bottom five when it comes to all-time worst Patriots teams.

The optimists among us could liken this team to the 1993 Patriots.

First-year coach. Rookie QB. 5-11 finish.

OK, five wins might be asking for a lot here.

And Je-Rod Rust is no Bill Parcells.

But Drake Maye is giving off plenty of DB11, if not TB12, vibes.

And here’s where the Je-Rod Rust problem could lead to massive collapse of the entire structure that is under construction on Route 1.

Do you want to blow out Alex Van Pelt? Fine, but what does Maye think about his current offensive coordinator? Would a change after Week 1 slow Maye’s rocket ship development? Will Van Pelt finally trust Maye enough to let him throw in the red zone, as opposed to settling for a field goal try? Will he ever let Maye throw on first down?

The Rust problem on offense has let the fear of losing outweigh the desire to win when it comes to the most critical of decisions.

Foreigner hit No. 1 on the charts 43 years ago with “Urgent.”

Rumor has it that song has been removed from every play list at One Patriot Place.

And when you’re in the midst of a down-to-the-studs rebuild, learning how to win is the most paramount of tasks. In addition to not holding on every other play and handling the snap-count on the road.

When the only problem on this team was the offense, it was so simple. Just stack the draft with offensive lineman and wideouts.

Now the defense, too, has quickly rusted to its core. Save for the silver star bestowed on Christian Gonzalez. Defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington appears to be simply overwhelmed with his first-year task. The Colts’ 1945 Red Army-like game-winning drive Sunday bodes doom for those two upcoming games against MVP-in-waiting Josh Allen and the Bills.

Je-Rod Rust could multi-task and handle the defense, or at the very least step in to stop the carnage.

All that cash the Patriots once had to burn might not cover their post-season winter heating bill.

 

[AQPE]

Agree with Fairbanks as #2, Tuna as #3. After that for me it’s Holovak over Berry, then “all the rest,” with Mayo behind them and Clive Rush last by a lot. I wasn’t a huge Berry fan in spite of the AFC championship and hated the way he handled things with the QB position in general and Flutie in particular. Given the team he inherited from Fairbanks I view Erhardt as one of the poorer coaches but can’t ignore the Sullivan factor he had to work under, they were the main culprits in destroying the team Fairbanks assembled starting with aggravating him out of here. I’d put him ahead of Bengtson, Mazur, MacPherson, and Rust but certainly behind Carroll (I’m only considering Pom Pom’s Pats stint).

Great thread!

 

[Pape]

I would drop both Meyer and Erhardt into the lower category, where it's not worth debating who is better.

I would also put Fairbanks, Parcells and Berry in the same category.

I think Erhardt & Meyers are a category above the jete level... Erhardt took over after the awful Fairbanks kerfluffle, and his second season was a good year... Meyer might have been a ****, but he had the team on an upwards trajectory when he was ****canned in favor of Raymond Berry... and I knocked Fairbanks down a peg because of the whole Hannah/Gray affair and the way 1978 ended... the sullivans might have been cheap bastards, but Fairbanks knew that, and there was no excuse for Fairbanks agreeing to go to Colorado during the regular season when his team was primed for the playoffs...

just my take on it... ymmv

 

[Grogan14]

Now do GM's

 

[Family]

... and I knocked Fairbanks down a peg because of the whole Hannah/Gray affair and the way 1978 ended... the sullivans might have been cheap bastards, but Fairbanks knew that, and there was no excuse for Fairbanks agreeing to go to Colorado during the regular season when his team was primed for the playoffs...

As i remember it, Fairbanks was on the players side, and this Sullivan drama was the reason Fairbanks left.

Fairbanks didn't agree to go during season either in my recollection.

It was a long time ago but I recall Fairbanks being locked out of the stadium.

 

[Pape]

As i remember it, Fairbanks was on the players side, and this Sullivan drama was the reason Fairbanks left.

Fairbanks didn't agree to go during season either in my recollection.

It was a long time ago but I recall Fairbanks being locked out of the stadium.

Fairbanks guaranteed Hannah and Gray a new deal. Then had to do a Mayo and walk it back. The Best linemen in the league - he basically guaranteed their hold out by first promising them a new deal then walking it back. and Fairbanks was suspended for the last game of the 1978 season because he took the job in colorado... the suspension was lifted for the playoffs, but the damage was done...

 

[Force Zero Boomer]

Yea. A corpse would have done a better job

So you're saying a corpse beats Mayo. Agreed.

 

[Family]

Fairbanks guaranteed Hannah and Gray a new deal. Then had to do a Mayo and walk it back. The Best linemen in the league - he basically guaranteed their hold out by first promising them a new deal then walking it back. and Fairbanks was suspended for the last game of the 1978 season because he took the job in colorado... the suspension was lifted for the playoffs, but the damage was done...

Right he guaranteed the deal as GM, that Sullivan nixed.

Either way if Fairbanks was wrong the fault would have been as Fairbanks the GM, not coach.

And Fairbanks took a new job after dealing with those bozos. So what? It was the owner who suspended him and locked him out ruining the team's promising season.