BB Admits 2020 Is Bridge Year

[Doctor DDS]

Amazing the thrill so many people get in "calling out" the Coach/GM that led the team we root for to the greatest 19 year run in the history of the NFL. How dare he have a couple less than stellar drafts and free agent pick ups and choose to rebuild. We demand a Super Bowl contender every year. If they had traded away multiple picks (Texans) or were in cap hell (check out half the leagues cap situation next year) I could understand the angst but they are well positioned to turn things around quickly.

 

[Brady6]

I don’t remember Belichick needing bridge years when Brady was around. Sounds like a coach who is on his way to being 0-3 playoff appearances without Brady.

 

[Brady6]

You must learn to look backwards when analyzing. Obviously, we are a yard away from being competitive for the division. We are certainly 1 yard, Cam's Covid and trading for a WR away.
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For Bill, a bridge year is competing for the playoffs, rather than expecting to be in the teams who are favorites to be in the Super Bowl mix.
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Consider if Belichick had trade a pick for WR after Game 1, losing a future pick. We certainly might have been in competition for the division or a playoff spot. Once in the playoffs, any team can get hot.

I say the same thing about my DraftKings lineup every week, but I still don’t win any money.

 

[Brady6]

Belichick has a 21-24 record without Brady. This season Belichick is 2-5 without Brady and Brady is 5-2 without Belichick.

 

[Betterthanmost]

Belichick has a 21-24 record without Brady. This season Belichick is 2-5 without Brady and Brady is 5-2 without Belichick.

Really? You are falling for this cheap take? This team was built with Brady in mind, they will need some time to get back. Yes, BB drafts have not been good in some positions but we are not as far off as people are making it to be.

 

[sb1]

Really? You are falling for this cheap take? This team was built with Brady in mind, they will need some time to get back. Yes, BB drafts have not been good in some positions but we are not as far off as people are making it to be.

It still is. Not sure why they think Cam can run that kind of offense.

Maybe that will change now to focus on Harris.

 

[203Pat]

I don’t know what’s happening. He can claim it’s not an excuse but he is the one who manages the cap.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

"Appearing Monday on WEEI in Boston, Belichick said that his explanation isn’t an excuse. Even if it is.

“We sold out and won three Super Bowls, played in a fourth, and played in an AFC Championship Game,” Belichick said. “This year we have less to work with. It’s not an excuse. It’s just the facts.”

Belichick bristled at the notion that he was making excuses.

“I didn’t say it as an excuse,” Belichick said, via ESPN.com. “I never said that. Look, we paid Cam Newton a million dollars [on July 8]. It’s obvious we didn’t have any money. It’s nobody’s fault. That’s what we did the last five years. . . . It was an honest answer to an honest question. No more, no less than that. I’m sure you can read a lot into it if you want to. That wasn’t the intent.”

 

[SVN]

Belichick has a 21-24 record without Brady. This season Belichick is 2-5 without Brady and Brady is 5-2 without Belichick.

Lets list the records of all the great coaches without their HOF QBs. This media stat is the most overrated stat. BB himself says its a players game . Players win games and coach lose them . Yet people think BB calls himself greater than the players and keep saying Brady is more important.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Lets list the records of all the great coaches without their HOF QBs. This media stat is the most overrated stat. BB himself says its a players game . Players win games and coach lose them . Yet people think BB calls himself greater than the players and keep saying Brady is more important.

It's so weird for Brady fans to care so much that it was only Brady. Belichick is obviously an awesome coach. No one tries to argue Joe Montana did it all and Bill Walsh did nothing

.

 

[SVN]

people forget 2005/2006 or 2009. We were not very good. Yes having brady made us win us more games and gave us a chance but that is what is expected of having a HOF QB on your team. What is so wrong with relying on your QB to win games ? it is the most important position on the team.

 

[Boomer B]

Amazing the thrill so many people get in "calling out" the Coach/GM that led the team we root for to the greatest 19 year run in the history of the NFL. How dare he have a couple less than stellar drafts and free agent pick ups and choose to rebuild. We demand a Super Bowl contender every year. If they were having like this and had traded away multiple picks (Texans) or were in cap hell (check out half the leagues cap situation next year) I could understand the angst but they are well positioned to turn things around quickly.

I don’t think too many are getting “a thrill” out of calling out Belichick. It’s a Pats Forum so everything will get discussed, good and bad. Belichick has received much love (well deserved) over the years from the vast majority of the fans, but many people have talked about the bad drafts over the last number of seasons, it’s not like the lack of talent, especially on O, just happened over night.

I think it’s fair to question the drafting but I also wouldn’t want anyone else leading the rebuild. I just hope Bill finds the magic he had in the draft from 00-12.

 

[cmasspatsfan]

Let's see in a year or two how the rebuild looks, he obviously has a plan, lets see how it plays out.

 

[lancerman]

Amazing the thrill so many people get in "calling out" the Coach/GM that led the team we root for to the greatest 19 year run in the history of the NFL. How dare he have a couple less than stellar drafts and free agent pick ups and choose to rebuild. We demand a Super Bowl contender every year. If they were having like this and had traded away multiple picks (Texans) or were in cap hell (check out half the leagues cap situation next year) I could understand the angst but they are well positioned to turn things around quickly.

He has like a 6 year run where his top pick was either a bust or got injured right before the season. Easley, Brown, Jones, Rivers, Wynn, Harry. Wynn was the only good one and he missed his first year and nearly half his second year. Then the only other first rounder he drafted was Michel who is clearly not a feature back. When you can pretty much burn your top picks for nearly half a decade, yeah it’s going to lead to issues later on.

People here are having a huge issue of causation =\ correlation. Just saying “oh we won SB’s” doesn’t change the reasons for the current predicament, not does it mean those issues now are responsible for SB wins. From 09-14 we drafted extremely well and it resulted in a SB burst. We stopped drafting well in 2015, especially in the first few picks where most value is. Even worse when you consider a complete inability to draft a pass catcher since 2010.

Also..... they were in cap hell this year, largely because of overextending on free agency talent. We got saved last minute by once in a lifetime opt outs caused by a pandemic (which also hurt the team).

I really don’t think people understand how much of a floor Brady gave us in 2018-2019. This is a not a good team right now. If we were 3-4 or 4-3 we could maybe find something to hang our hat on. But we are 2-5 and our season ended before the halfway point. We aren’t even in a position to be fighting for a wildcard spot or have meaningful games at the end of the season. Right now only 4 teams in the league have less wins than us and we are 7th in line for wildcard spots and the closest team to us are the Broncos who have a head to head tiebreaker which means we are more than 1 game out from all of 6 teams in front of us. In a 16 team conference, we are currently in a 3 way tie for 11th place. This is not a good team period, and it did not need to be this way

 

[DarrylS]

This is my 4th rebuild.

Rebuild #1- Too young to know the late 70s teams but started following early 80s when they bottomed out at 2-14 in 1981

Rebuild #2- 1985 was the zenith and bottomed out in 1989-1993.

Rebuild #3- 1996 being the peak and bottoming out in 2000.

Rebuild #4- Now.

This time, due to BB et al, that I feel more optimistic than during those years.. in those years it seemed like jag coach after jag coach would shuffle through..

A lot of future cap space will also be helpful..

 

[Brady6]

people forget 2005/2006 or 2009. We were not very good. Yes having brady made us win us more games and gave us a chance but that is what is expected of having a HOF QB on your team. What is so wrong with relying on your QB to win games ? it is the most important position on the team.

There is nothing wrong with relying on your QB. Something becomes wrong when you piss your QB off so bad he leaves and you have no plan in place to replace him.

 

[Brady6]

Really? You are falling for this cheap take? This team was built with Brady in mind, they will need some time to get back. Yes, BB drafts have not been good in some positions but we are not as far off as people are making it to be.

The 21-24 record is with the Patriots, add his 36-44 Browns record into the mix and it’s even worse. I think we are regally far away, further than people even think. Thuney, Andrews, White, Guy, Butler, Jackson, Wise, Simon, Calhoun and Burkhead are all free agents after the season.

 

[Uptown]

 

[slash83]

That says a lot.

 

[BTTA]

If the Pats' first run of dominance were this last one, with the four SB's in five years, and three wins, we'd all be so thrilled with it, we'd be glad to have a coach that said, "Yeah, we went all in for those four AFC Championships in five years, with three SB wins. We'll have less talent on the team for a couple of years to compensate for that."

But because this is a 20 year run rather than a 5 year run, we expect little drop off, and certainly no recognition of that as necessary from the coach.