A question on my mind virtually every day [Would BB draft Maye]

[BUSTAMOVE]

He seemed more intrigued by McCarthy anyway, tbh. I think that would've been the pick.

From what I read when doing research on the draft that season
He loved Jayden Daniels

 

[condon84]

I love Bill. after the split, I supported Bill. I still do not think he should have been fired, but that is beyond my control. He was, its water under the bridge.

With that said, BB had lost his fast ball by then. He was not making decisions that were for the betterment of the team. Instead the decisions were expedient for Bill, allowing him to retain his shrinking cadre of people he trusted in positions of power. Small hiring circle, smaller staff.

The Matt Patricia as OC experiment should never have been allowed to happen. It absolutely hindered the development of Mac Jones as a quarterback. and I do not care what you think about Mac Jones - There is nothing negative about Mac Jones that you have thought that I haven't said here. With that said, Bill Belichick ruined his potential with his poor decisions.

I see no decision Bill made during that period that would give me confidence that he could responsibly develop a "raw" rookie quarterback like Drake Maye. The only good decision made during those years, even though it did not work out in the end) ? Jettisoning Patricia for Bill O'Brien - and even that was forced on him by Kraft....

The Bill Belichick who made those decisions was not the same Bill Belichick who built the foundation of a 20 year NFL Dynasty.

Looking back, when these images were made public, we all should have known Belichick had lost his mind

 

[Hugepatsfan]

Speaking for myself, I didn't realize the depths that BB had mentally lost it until North Carolina. I saw the bad drafting decisions in the end of the dynasty but I thought they kept making pretty good veteran additions. And then I felt they kept chasing ghosts. They never really acknowledged that the roster had deteriorated and they needed to rebuild. They were the epitome of a treadmill team post-Brady until they bottomed out in BB's last year. The one thing that really gave me pause was Judge/Patricia as OC but he still had a long track record.

Coming off an actual bad season at 4-13 his last year, I figured they'd be in position to actually rebuild and I thought his resume warranted the chance to lead that if he wanted to. Thank god they didn't let him. He's mentally gone. I don't even mean football wise. I keep saying it but some form of dementia/paranoia/something seems to be going on there. Way past time for him to go.

I still think it's sad the way fans have turned on him to huge degree. Regardless of how bad he got at the end, he should be like your old senile grandpa that you still love anyway. Even the grumpy, unsentimental a-hole he mostly was, in his final press conference here talking about how he loved the fans was when he almost broke down in tears.

 

[DoubleDeluxe]

I still think it's sad the way fans have turned on him to huge degree. Regardless of how bad he got at the end, he should be like your old senile grandpa that you still love anyway. Even the grumpy, unsentimental a-hole he mostly was, in his final press conference here talking about how he loved the fans was when he almost broke down in tears.

I never turned on him, I still think he is the greatest coach in the history of this league.
However he was always an A-hole, but it was tolerated because he won.
The big problem I have about your last sentence is, it's not what you say about someone when they're gone, or what you say when you're walking out the door. It's how you treat people along the way.

 

[Hugepatsfan]

I never turned on him, I still think he is the greatest coach in the history of this league.
However he was always an A-hole, but it was tolerated because he won.
The big problem I have about your last sentence is, it's not what you say about someone when they're gone, or what you say when you're walking out the door. It's how you treat people along the way.

How was he ever an a-hole to the fans? The only time I can think of that would qualify was when they lost the WC game to TEN in Brady's last game the media asked him what he had to say to fans who stuck with the team through tough times and he scoffed that there really haven't been many tough times... and you gotta admit, that's kind of true and funny.

Sure he was prickly with the media and the league but are we gonna pretend that we didn't all mostly embrace and love the darth vadar hoodie memes and laugh at his press conferences. As a whole, did the fan base really "tolerate" him being an a-hole or did we all love it as a hilarious little side story to the on field product?

 

[DoubleDeluxe]

How was he ever an a-hole to the fans? The only time I can think of that would qualify was when they lost the WC game to TEN in Brady's last game the media asked him what he had to say to fans who stuck with the team through tough times and he scoffed that there really haven't been many tough times... and you gotta admit, that's kind of true and funny.

Sure he was prickly with the media and the league but are we gonna pretend that we didn't all mostly embrace and love the darth vadar hoodie memes and laugh at his press conferences. As a whole, did the fan base really "tolerate" him being an a-hole or did we all love it as a hilarious little side story to the on field product?

Yes, I didn't mean he was necessarily an A Hole to the fans, just everyone else.
He may have truly appreciated the fans, but he certainly didn't really show that during his time here, or anywhere as a coach.
I truly appreciated him as a coach, and I'm glad we had him for 20 years.
But let's not pretend that he hasn't made his own bed. When it comes to his current situation, and lack of NFL coaching opportunities he had after leaving here, those are all squarely on him.

 

[Bill Lee]

Speaking for myself, I didn't realize the depths that BB had mentally lost it until North Carolina. I saw the bad drafting decisions in the end of the dynasty but I thought they kept making pretty good veteran additions.

Your post makes for an interesting contrast to our current FA thread:

Thread 'Evaluating 25 FA signings at midseason mark:'

Oct 21, 2025

Felt like it would be a good exercise to do a midseason report on this class. There hasn't been a single move so far that feels like a complete whiff. Nearly everyone has contributed decently in some way. Just to varying degrees

Moves that look great, A tier signings:

Milton Williams
Harold Landry
Stefon Diggs
Khyriris Tonga
K'Lavon Chaisson

Williams is looking like the dominant force we paid for. Landry and Diggs are both playing at a borderline Pro Bowl level. Chaisson and Tonga are playing much better than their contract values indicate. Both really good chess pieces. These so far...

• Joey007
• Replies: 137
• Forum: PatsFans.com - Patriots Fan Forum

Compare and contrast to:

How the New England Patriots spent $159.6 million over nine days to overhaul their roster

The Patriots shocked the NFL by throwing big money at big names in free agency. Here's an inside look at how it played out and why they did it.

www.espn.com

Bill dumped all kind of salary during the Cam Newton season so had cap space and a pile of money to spend. After such a crap season much was expected from the FA splurge, but the end result was meh. Judon was a great pickup but other than that, meh. Two tight ends. Agholor and Bourne. Choosing to not re-sign Joe Thuney. An early sign he lost his fastball, shortly followed by the MP/JJ debacle.

I still think it's sad the way fans have turned on him to huge degree. Regardless of how bad he got at the end, he should be like your old senile grandpa that you still love anyway.

Our grandpa is dating someone his age's grand-daughter, so either our family is dysfunctional as hell or Grandpa DGAF or both.

 

[Hugepatsfan]

Your post makes for an interesting contrast to our current FA thread:

Thread 'Evaluating 25 FA signings at midseason mark:'

Oct 21, 2025

Felt like it would be a good exercise to do a midseason report on this class. There hasn't been a single move so far that feels like a complete whiff. Nearly everyone has contributed decently in some way. Just to varying degrees

Moves that look great, A tier signings:

Milton Williams
Harold Landry
Stefon Diggs
Khyriris Tonga
K'Lavon Chaisson

Williams is looking like the dominant force we paid for. Landry and Diggs are both playing at a borderline Pro Bowl level. Chaisson and Tonga are playing much better than their contract values indicate. Both really good chess pieces. These so far...

• Joey007
• Replies: 137
• Forum: PatsFans.com - Patriots Fan Forum

Compare and contrast to:

How the New England Patriots spent $159.6 million over nine days to overhaul their roster

The Patriots shocked the NFL by throwing big money at big names in free agency. Here's an inside look at how it played out and why they did it.

www.espn.com

Bill dumped all kind of salary during the Cam Newton season so had cap space and a pile of money to spend. After such a crap season much was expected from the FA splurge, but the end result was meh. Judon was a great pickup but other than that, meh. Two tight ends. Agholor and Bourne. Choosing to not re-sign Joe Thuney. An early sign he lost his fastball, shortly followed by the MP/JJ debacle.



Our grandpa is dating someone his age's grand-daughter, so either our family is dysfunctional as hell or Grandpa DGAF or both.

I meant good vet pick ups more during the 2014 through 2019 end of dynasty years. Gilmore, Hogan, Van Noy, J McCourty, etc. Even as they were drafting poorly, they were still hitting on a lot of good vet signings yearly to supplement the roster. Drafting is inherently really hard so I have a tolerance for bad drafts even in a good operation and it did seem like they still had a good operation.

Let's also give this FA class some time before we compare to 2021. Free agency generally produces better early returns than it does lasting results. For instance, I'd argue that Godchaux came in and was just as good as Spillane has been as an example. They're both quality starter level but Godchaux declined as he approached and got into his 30s. In free agency you're mostly talking about guys who are in their late 20s. A lot of guys are good for the first half of their FA deals and then sputter out by the end. I would expect that to be the case for some of this class too. Wouldn't surprise me if Spillane, Moses, Davis, Landry, are viewed more negatively by the end of their deals than they are now. That's kind of just the natural progression of things when you're building through FA - shorter term results but not as sustainable long term.

 

[borg]

Jerry Thornton borrowing material from PatsFans ?

In a Fascinating Hypothetical, the Internet is Asking Whether Bill Belichick Would've Drafted Drake Maye

Read more about In a Fascinating Hypothetical, the Internet is Asking Whether Bill Belichick Would've Drafted Drake Maye on https://www.barstoolsports.com/

www.barstoolsports.com

 

[Patriot Missile]

That is true and it's likely BB would believe JJ McCarthy or Bo Nix has a much better chance of being a franchise QB than Maye does and that's one reason why he would draft one of them.

BB only had two picks in the top third of the draft that I recall - Seymour (6) and Mayo (10). Warren was 13 and I thought that was a trade down then a trade back up. Mayo was a trade up. I agree with the last part that he often traded down when he had picks in the latter part of round 1.

Mayo was a trade back. Think we had the 49ers 7th pick and traded back with the Saints for the 10th and picked up a 3rd for one of the the best draft picks of all time “Thee Shawn Crable”

 

[Patriot Missile]

Wasn’t too happy with Chris Simms evaluation of Drake Maye either. Had him ranked as the 6th best QB on his board. He has since then retracted and states he was dead wrong. I know a lot of guys over in draft forum respect his opinion on some of his takes.

I’m sure if BB had a do over he’d probably do the same with hindsight.

But yeah, I doubt he takes Maye and we are AJ Brown mad x10.

 

[Schmo]

BB is omniscient, infallible, and everything he does is for a reason. I will not put up with all the blasphemy being spewed in this thread. Our lives would be nothing without him.

*yes, sarcastic, but I'll always love BB*

 

[TheRainMaker]

It was time for BB and Bob to part ways. Bill should've retired after Tom left. Better yet, should've kept Tom which helps him reach Shula.

But if Bob allowed BB to return in 2024, I think one of the main conditions was that the team was taking a QB with their top pick. I also think Bob would've asked Bill to bring in a GM - John Robinson and Thomas Dimitroff come to mind. But then again, Bill just didn't want to do thinks like he did in the past. The well of coaches and execs were running dry. It was a long and enjoyable ride, but the tough decision to split had to happen.

 

[Love The Drake]

It was time for BB and Bob to part ways. Bill should've retired after Tom left. Better yet, should've kept Tom which helps him reach Shula.

But if Bob allowed BB to return in 2024, I think one of the main conditions was that the team was taking a QB with their top pick. I also think Bob would've asked Bill to bring in a GM - John Robinson and Thomas Dimitroff come to mind. But then again, Bill just didn't want to do thinks like he did in the past. The well of coaches and execs were running dry. It was a long and enjoyable ride, but the tough decision to split had to happen.

I loved Bill but I can’t remember how much fun I’ve had watching Pats games how entertaining lockeroom clips were.

Vrabel is already a favorite of mine at Coach, his personality his style the way way he has the team as a extension of him is something that can’t be learned or copied.

That’s god given.

This is why Josh is a Great OC but make no mistake the team would not be moving like this with Josh As HC,

I don’t think I would trade Vrabs for any current head coach.

This is a TEAM.

I am proud to be a fan.

Teams Will be scrambling to find the next Vrabel in their HC search this is the prototype.

 

[PP2]

Speaking for myself, I didn't realize the depths that BB had mentally lost it until North Carolina. I saw the bad drafting decisions in the end of the dynasty but I thought they kept making pretty good veteran additions. And then I felt they kept chasing ghosts. They never really acknowledged that the roster had deteriorated and they needed to rebuild. They were the epitome of a treadmill team post-Brady until they bottomed out in BB's last year. The one thing that really gave me pause was Judge/Patricia as OC but he still had a long track record.

Coming off an actual bad season at 4-13 his last year, I figured they'd be in position to actually rebuild and I thought his resume warranted the chance to lead that if he wanted to. Thank god they didn't let him. He's mentally gone. I don't even mean football wise. I keep saying it but some form of dementia/paranoia/something seems to be going on there. Way past time for him to go.

I still think it's sad the way fans have turned on him to huge degree. Regardless of how bad he got at the end, he should be like your old senile grandpa that you still love anyway. Even the grumpy, unsentimental a-hole he mostly was, in his final press conference here talking about how he loved the fans was when he almost broke down in tears.

The same thing happened with the great Bill Walsh who coached at Stanford after his legendary stint with the 49ers. He managed one winning season before falling off the cliff. And he fell pretty badly. There are anecdotes about him falling asleep during coach meetings. It took him two years to realize and accept that he didn't have it anymore.

I'd say it's pretty hard for the best to acknowledge or accept that the game has passed them by as it always does to each and every player or coach who has participated. And I imagine, even harder for them to accept their increasing irrelevance. But one good-feel story is Bernie Kosar who went through a lot but has made his peace with it and is happier than ever.

Hopefully BB accepts his fate sooner or later so he doesn't tarnish his legacy too much.

 

[abdul7]

Firstly a Big hello from the Kingdom of Bahrain and some may remember me, and although I have not posted for a while I always keep up reading the latest news and enjoy doing the NFL Picks contest.
As much as I am happy with our great start and always wanted Drake in last year's Draft ,,due to my son also watching him in College and convinced me that he Was The One to pick as our future QB.
My mind can't help thinking " what if " ,,,BB was still our HC ,,would he have picked him last year ??
In my opinion and my son also agrees that it was a Blessing that BB was not at the Draft last year ,,,that may sound bad for our greatest Coach ,,but I can't stop thinking about it. We certainly have our QB for the future and we should be Blessed that it took us only 4 years,,,when many are still trying after decades.
8-2 so far after going with 4 wins two seasons in a row is just a fantastic start.
Good luck Pats fans for the remaining games,,,and let's just win the Division first and maybe,,,just maybe do the unthinkable for many and get the No1 Seed.
Greetings and Blessings from Bahrain.
GO PATS

 

[Patsfan1645]

Bill would not have taken Maye. He would have more than likely taken a 5'8-5'9 DB from Rutgers.

 

[NFL Mystique]

Bill would have wanted to trade down. They do not end up with a franchise QB. You can't keep Bill here and tell him who to draft. So Kraft let him go.

 

[jboston19]

Welcome back. It’s hard to know for certain, but I wouldn’t be totally surprised if he went with a lineman at that point.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Bill would not have taken Maye. He would have more than likely taken a 5'8-5'9 DB from Rutgers.

...who has a middle school lacrosse background.