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OK I have to say it -- that's incredibly unrealistic. As a rule the Patriots have had one of the top 5 overall rosters in the league every year since 2003. Yes Brady elevates that roster from "among the best" to "best in the world," and that's to his credit, but every team in the goddamned league had some flaw to point out that was equal to or worse than anything you're suggesting, in every single one of those years. That's what the cap era is all about, there is no such thing as a perfect football team.
The system has given Brady enough to compete with and make playoff runs with year after year after year after year after year, and that's literally all they're here to do. That's "their job" if you will. And they do that job head and shoulders better than anyone else in the NFL.
Hell, they nearly got Matt Cassel into the playoffs.
I get the need not to take anything from Brady, but you don't need to crap on the Patriots system to do that.
What is the Patriots system? No one seems to be able to define it. Josh McDaniels couldn't bring it with him to St. Louis or Denver. Charlie Weis couldn't bring it with him to Notre Dame. Bill O'Brien is unable to run it in Houston.
Matt Cassel ran it in 2008...and had a passer rating roughly 30 points lower than Brady. The Patriots, in that season, (a) missed the playoffs for the only time in the last 14 seasons, and (b) scored over 21 points in only 8 of 16 games.
I would like to know specifically what the system is. I don't believe these offensive schemes are incredibly arcane and impossible to explain. The NFL is a copycat league; why isn't anyone else running it?
I used to hear about the system in 2003-04 and about how the quarterback has it easy and guys like Troy Brown, David Givens, and Deion Branch were very underrated, and that Charlie Weis is the secret behind Brady's success. Then the offense changed to a 5-WR spread in 2007 under Josh McDaniels. Then a 2-TE offense under Bill O'Brien. And now a complete chameleon assimilating all of these different personnel groupings.
No coach has ever left New England and successfully coached up a quarterback to make him elite.
Belichick is a great coach. Brady is the reason why the offense is always elite.