This news shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. Belichick is NOT an obsessive micro manager dictator. If you watch him during games the past few years he barely/rarely speaks into his mic. He lets his staff do their jobs, he steps in very late if it's a bad situation and looks like it won't get better. He let Eric Mangini run a horrible 2005 defense all the way until December when he said enough. He got away with it from 2001-2004 because Romeo and Weiss were experienced, talented coordinators who didn't need a ton of direction or help. Same with Dom Capers in 2007. The problem is that most of Belichick's staff is LUCKY to even be there, most had no success from whatever no-name college program they came from, so Belichick has to simultaneously coach up his players as well as his coaches. This is a big reason why so many of our recent draft picks have been released. It isn't that they drafted poorly per se (aside from McDaniels' horrible personnel input), but more that players that normally would have been coached up or improved over time, did not get better since the coaching staff wasn't that good aside from Belichick and Scar.
Aside from personnel guys like Pioli or Dimitroff, none of Belichick's recent disciples have gone on to be good coaches. Belichick's philosophies may be transferring to team building/GM skills, but it's clear that those coaches only had success while under the tutelage of Belichick who really coached them up and made them look better than they were.
