The Credit Pie

[ivanvamp]

More and more stuff about Belichick's drafting got me thinking a little. One thing that simply is not debatable is this: Since Belichick took over the Patriots, they have been the #1 franchise in the NFL in terms of success, over that time span. By any reasonable measurement:

- Most SB victories
- Most SB appearances
- Most division titles
- Most 10+ win seasons
- Most playoff appearances
- Best record
- Most playoff wins
- Biggest point differential

There have been some other really good franchises over that time span (Indy and Pittsburgh come immediately to mind), but they haven't been as successful as New England since 2000.

So the question is this: If you were to make a pie chart giving credit for the Patriots' success, how would you divide it up? I'm going to give you the components you need to put into the pie; obviously some of them overlap (for example, I give you Bill Belichick the GM and Tom Brady the QB as separate components, but unless BB drafts TB, we don't have TB as the QB). You plug them in and give them a percentage of the credit. The total has to equal 100%.

Here are the components:

- Bob Kraft the owner (incredibly competent, stable, etc.)
- Bill Belichick the GM (trades, drafting, managing the cap, etc.)
- Bill Belichick the Head Coach (running the team, game strategy, etc.)
- Tom Brady the QB
- Offensive skill players (Moss, Dillon, Troy Brown, Gronkowski, Welker, etc.)
- Offensive line
- Defense (yes, as a whole unit)
- Special teams

That's 8 components. How would you divide the credit pie up over BB's tenure as HC?

EDIT: For example, it could look like this (just throwing numbers out there...not necessarily my real opinion):

Kraft: 10%
BB the GM: 15%
BB the HC: 30%
TB: 25%
O skill: 5%
O line: 5%
Defense: 5%
ST: 5%

 

[Ring 6]

More and more stuff about Belichick's drafting got me thinking a little. One thing that simply is not debatable is this: Since Belichick took over the Patriots, they have been the #1 franchise in the NFL in terms of success, over that time span. By any reasonable measurement:

- Most SB victories
- Most SB appearances
- Most division titles
- Most 10+ win seasons
- Most playoff appearances
- Best record
- Most playoff wins
- Biggest point differential

There have been some other really good franchises over that time span (Indy and Pittsburgh come immediately to mind), but they haven't been as successful as New England since 2000.

So the question is this: If you were to make a pie chart giving credit for the Patriots' success, how would you divide it up? I'm going to give you the components you need to put into the pie; obviously some of them overlap (for example, I give you Bill Belichick the GM and Tom Brady the QB as separate components, but unless BB drafts TB, we don't have TB as the QB). You plug them in and give them a percentage of the credit. The total has to equal 100%.

Here are the components:

- Bob Kraft the owner (incredibly competent, stable, etc.)
- Bill Belichick the GM (trades, drafting, managing the cap, etc.)
- Bill Belichick the Head Coach (running the team, game strategy, etc.)
- Tom Brady the QB
- Offensive skill players (Moss, Dillon, Troy Brown, Gronkowski, Welker, etc.)
- Offensive line
- Defense (yes, as a whole unit)
- Special teams

That's 8 components. How would you divide the credit pie up over BB's tenure as HC?

IMO, BB runs the show, makes all of the football decisions (or delegates them which is the same thing) and is almost 100% responsible for the good or bad.

Certainly Brady deserves a ton of credit as well, but I see Brady as fitting perfectly into the structure, ideology and philosophy that BB installed.

I'll put it this way.
BB and Brady are more successful together than either would have been apart.
Apart, BB would have been more successful with the other QB he developed and settled on (it certainly wouldn't have been 11) than Brady would have been with the organization he ended up with.

 

[ivanvamp]

IMO, BB runs the show, makes all of the football decisions (or delegates them which is the same thing) and is almost 100% responsible for the good or bad.

Certainly Brady deserves a ton of credit as well, but I see Brady as fitting perfectly into the structure, ideology and philosophy that BB installed.

I'll put it this way.
BB and Brady are more successful together than either would have been apart.
Apart, BB would have been more successful with the other QB he developed and settled on (it certainly wouldn't have been 11) than Brady would have been with the organization he ended up with.

I hear what you're saying. Can you be a little more specific in terms of BB though? Could you divide up the credit that goes to BB into two categories: BB the GM and BB the HC?

In other words, maybe he really does a great job acquiring talent (draft, trades, FA, etc.) but he's not as good a coach as we might think. Or maybe he doesn't acquire a ton of great talent but is an amazing football coach. If you give him, say, 95% of the total credit, how would you divide that up among his two primary responsibilities?

 

[Ring 6]

I hear what you're saying. Can you be a little more specific in terms of BB though? Could you divide up the credit that goes to BB into two categories: BB the GM and BB the HC?

In other words, maybe he really does a great job acquiring talent (draft, trades, FA, etc.) but he's not as good a coach as we might think. Or maybe he doesn't acquire a ton of great talent but is an amazing football coach. If you give him, say, 95% of the total credit, how would you divide that up among his two primary responsibilities?

Thats tough for me to do, because I believe that what a player becomes has more to do with what happens after they are drafted than what they are the day they are drafted. Conditioning, stength, quickness, agility, speed development, having the personality to accept coaching, the quality of coaching you receive, maturity (including discipline in lifestyle) and above all being taught, learning, and gaining mastery of the techniques of your position at the NFL level (which no player walks in with close to enough of) mean more than the evaluation leading up to the pick.
That is why there are so many busts. You can't predict development, every pick will bust if they don't develop and you cannot predict the maturity level of a newly made millionaire truly on their own for the first time.
I think BB the GM and BB the HC are so intertwined because of this, its almost impossible for me to spearate them.