Three Dimensional Chess?

[Ivan]

No, it turned out once again that someone made up a rumor that the media wanted to run with.

He brought in Levis for a visit. Belichick drafted QB’s routinely when Brady was here, but he never brought in one who was a projected first round pick. I don’t think he had any intention of drafting Levis, but I do think he’s been making the message as clear as possible that QB play on this team needs to improve dramatically. Mac Jones needed his bubble burst, he came into last season way too ****y and played like ****. He needed a serious wake up call, and I’m guessing the message was received. If nothing else this is going to be a fascinating season for this team, we will get to see if they sink or swim.

 

[Ivan]

This is like rocket science for some here to figure out.

Nobody gets a free ride…everyone including the coaches have to earn the right to play / coach.

Everyone should be optimistic about a new NFL season. I am.

Unlike some here I believe the likelihood of Kraft firing Belichick is 0%, that’s what winning 6 Lombardi’s, and increasing the value of your franchise by billions gives you. But I also believe Belichick won’t coach past 2024, and Mayo will be their next coach, and Groh the GM. There will be a setback however, as Goodell will take away their first round choice that year for violating the Rooney Rule, and not interviewing black coaches, All that said if Belichick if applied his own standards to his job he would be fighting for it, because last season was by far his worst coaching job of his career as Patriots HC, if not the worst of his career overall. His Matty P. decision was the highlight of it, but overall it was just really lackluster, as they looked lost all the way through the season. This may or may not be another playoff season, but I think we will see a much different team than we saw last season, as I believe they will at least fight their asses off all season. We will see?

 

[DarrylS]

Unlike some here I believe the likelihood of Kraft firing Belichick is 0%, that’s what winning 6 Lombardi’s, and increasing the value of your franchise by billions gives you. But I also believe Belichick won’t coach past 2024, and Mayo will be their next coach, and Groh the GM. There will be a setback however, as Goodell will take away their first round choice that year for violating the Rooney Rule, and not interviewing black coaches, All that said if Belichick if applied his own standards to his job he would be fighting for it, because last season was by far his worst coaching job of his career as Patriots HC, if not the worst of his career overall. His Matty P. decision was the highlight of it, but overall it was just really lackluster, as they looked lost all the way through the season. This may or may not be another playoff season, but I think we will see a much different team than we saw last season, as I believe they will at least fight their asses off all season. We will see?

I agree with your point, but do not understand how the "Rooney Rule" fits into this.. if anything after the way Goodell treated the Pats in the past they are very careful how they play by the rules to avoid future jeopardy.. BB is building this team not only for this year but for the future.
What is not mentioned all that much in these discussions is that in '24 the Pats have something like $100 million of salary cap available., my hope is they extend some of their current core players Judon, Duggar, Barmore etc. instead of just knee jerk shopping for other players.

 

[Ivan]

I agree with your point, but do not understand how the "Rooney Rule" fits into this.. if anything after the way Goodell treated the Pats in the past they are very careful how they play by the rules to avoid future jeopardy.. BB is building this team not only for this year but for the future.
What is not mentioned all that much in these discussions is that in '24 the Pats have something like $100 million of salary cap available., my hope is they extend some of their current core players Judon, Duggar, Barmore etc. instead of just knee jerk shopping for other players.

It was a joke.

 

[Triumph]

 

[n6249c]

It was a joke.

Obviously. Rooney Rule wouldn‘t apply, because the assistant coach taking over the head position is a minority.

it was a good reference to Goodell’s penchant for witch hunts targeting the Patriots. And how he’d go crazy if the Patriots have a deep playoff run this season, when they’re not expected to.

Anyway, I got it.
but I disagree with your scenario. I think the team will greatly outperform expectations this year, enough that BB will stick around for another year or two to complete the project before handing the reins to his successor in a few years.

 

[Ivan]

I agree with your point, but do not understand how the "Rooney Rule" fits into this.. if anything after the way Goodell treated the Pats in the past they are very careful how they play by the rules to avoid future jeopardy.. BB is building this team not only for this year but for the future.
What is not mentioned all that much in these discussions is that in '24 the Pats have something like $100 million of salary cap available., my hope is they extend some of their current core players Judon, Duggar, Barmore etc. instead of just knee jerk shopping for other players.

I hope they can re-sign them as well, but given the money being thrown at good players it’s impossible to count on re-signing anyone. They are obviously preparing not only for impending free agents, but also foot players like Guy and Andrews hanging it up.

 

[n6249c]

You seem unaware that the Patriots *didn’t* draft the QB they visited with. Why would Jones think he might be dumped when they ended up *not* drafting the QB in question? Do you think Jones has some major motivation over a simple pre-draft visit??

It is pathetic how far the Belichick krishnas will stretch in a desperate attempt to make every routine move look like absolute genius.

From this it seems other teams thought Mac might be on the way out.

Mac Jones Rumors: 'Something Weird' Happening With Patriots QB?

 

[XLIX]

From this it seems other teams thought Mac might be on the way out.

Mac Jones Rumors: 'Something Weird' Happening With Patriots QB?

You are conflating 2 things. I imagine no Patriot player is immune to being traded for the right offer, and Jones is no exception.

That is not the issue in this thread. The issue in this thread is the ridiculous notion that Bill Belichick was playing "3-d chess" by bringing Levis in for a visit. It was a typical pre-draft visit, which every team does every year with a couple dozen players. It was not some grand mastermind plan and it sure as **** didn't make any other teams panic into moving up into the first round to take him.

- The Titans bring Levis in for a visit: Business as usual
- The Colts bring Levis in for a visit: Business as usual
- The Falcons bring Levis in for a visit: Business as usual
- The Panthers bring Levis in for a visit: Business as usual
- The Texans bring Levis in for a visit: Business as usual
- The Patriots bring Levis in for a visit: OMG!! Belichick is such a genius!! He's playing super duper 4-d tesseract chess while everyone else struggles to learn tic tac toe!!!

 

[ctpatsfan77]

He brought in Levis for a visit. Belichick drafted QB’s routinely when Brady was here, but he never brought in one who was a projected first round pick. I don’t think he had any intention of drafting Levis, but I do think he’s been making the message as clear as possible that QB play on this team needs to improve dramatically. Mac Jones needed his bubble burst, he came into last season way too ****y and played like ****. He needed a serious wake up call, and I’m guessing the message was received. If nothing else this is going to be a fascinating season for this team, we will get to see if they sink or swim.

Tebow was a borderline first. . . .

 

[PatsFanInVa]

I honestly think on this subject, you can take him at face value. If Mac knocked everybody's socks off, you'd get "it's always an open competition" with some sprinkles of reference to the good showing, flavoring it as "it's his job to lose." Right now I'm getting a really straightforward feeling of "if you can't forget 2022, nancy, we'll see if someone else can." I think it's chillier for Mac than it would have been if he'd never gone outside the building with his frustrations (and the fact he was right doesn't totally fix that.)

 

[Ivan]

Tebow was a borderline first. . . .

I don’t think Belichick wanted Tebow to play QB. I think he wanted him to be an H-Back.


It does however remind me of one of my favorite Onion headlines, from Jets training camp : GROUND EMERGES AS TEBOW’S FAVORITE RECEIVER

 

[Tunescribe]

 

[Ring 6]

I don't think so.

I think Bill felt Mac fell short (performance, behavior, etc) of proving himself to being a true leader as the QB of the team. Because of that, like all players who in his mind, "have not earned it" he let him twist in the wind. He has the opportunity to prove himself this year.

It was a weird season, which does happen to a lot of young QBs.
We started the season with a clear plan to have Mac throw the ball down the field. The DPI that wasn’t called against Miami early in game 1 that resulted in a pick set a bad tone, then he made a couple of rare dumb decisions, and had an early high Int number.
Then he got hurt. He wasn’t 100% when he came back, the offense still had no identity or rhythm. The OL fell apart and then we were afraid to call drop back passes because the Ts couldn’t block.
There was never a time when there really was a clear plan of what the offense was supposed to be and what the wanted Mac to be.
Ask yourself if you analyze Macs season just focussed on his role what were his shortcomings?
Early on he made some dumb throws but that was almost rookieitis as he seemed to be cut loose after having the handcuffs on in 2021.
Later he was scrambling for his life, then he threw a bunch of screen passes and got hammered by the rush every time we had to throw on 3rd down.
A consistent identity and game plan and some blocking takes everything he did in 2022 and has him do it under totally different and more favorable circumstances.

 

[Ring 6]

1 playoff win in his 10 seasons without Brady.
Just sayin…..

More playoff wins, by far, than anyone, ever. Just saying

 

[crawhammer]

Is BB really playing 3D chess while everyone else plays checkers?

Considering how many on this board got wrapped around the axle thinking Bill was about to dump Mac and draft a QB high there’s some credibility to Rapp’s hypothesis:

and on top of that the uncertainty was also a ploy to motivate Mac to push harder to be ready for the season. It’s a good bet that if Mac thought he was going to be dumped he wanted to be ready to deliver a stellar performance and show it as a mistake.

3D chess.

Is this why Bill Belichick took so long to endorse Mac Jones?

Belichick has been borderline irrelevant over the last few seasons. Hasn't won a playoff game since 2018. Got pummeled in the one unfortunate playoff appearance in the last 3 years. Can't win a division to save his life without Brady. His teams are routinely collapsing after Thanksgiving (to go along with the annual "extended training camp" in September). Now clearly the 4th best team IN THE DIVISION. We couldn't even fathom being ranked below 3rd in the conference for two decades.

So seriously, no one was holding their breath on draft night waiting on Belichick to make his move. And bringing in Levis for a visit was a bluff? Holy **** that's pathetic. In a way I wish it were true, it would have been such a desperate move befitting of a once revered head coach losing his grip. But alas it's just far too ridiculous to be true.

 

[Vindicate]

Belichick has been borderline irrelevant over the last few seasons. Hasn't won a playoff game since 2018. Got pummeled in the one unfortunate playoff appearance in the last 3 years. Can't win a division to save his life without Brady. His teams are routinely collapsing after Thanksgiving (to go along with the annual "extended training camp" in September). Now clearly the 4th best team IN THE DIVISION. We couldn't even fathom being ranked below 3rd in the conference for two decades.

So seriously, no one was holding their breath on draft night waiting on Belichick to make his move. And bringing in Levis for a visit was a bluff? Holy **** that's pathetic. In a way I wish it were true, it would have been such a desperate move befitting of a once revered head coach losing his grip. But alas it's just far too ridiculous to be true.

Something tells me....


Hmmm....


This guy is a big Belichick fan.

 

[Joker]

Something tells me....


Hmmm....


This guy is a big Belichick fan.

I politely disagree...I believe Belichick USES a big fan to keep the persistent flatulence emanated by this "fan" at bay....

 

[TomPatriot]

Belichick has been borderline irrelevant over the last few seasons. Hasn't won a playoff game since 2018. Got pummeled in the one unfortunate playoff appearance in the last 3 years. Can't win a division to save his life without Brady. His teams are routinely collapsing after Thanksgiving (to go along with the annual "extended training camp" in September). Now clearly the 4th best team IN THE DIVISION. We couldn't even fathom being ranked below 3rd in the conference for two decades.

So seriously, no one was holding their breath on draft night waiting on Belichick to make his move. And bringing in Levis for a visit was a bluff? Holy **** that's pathetic. In a way I wish it were true, it would have been such a desperate move befitting of a once revered head coach losing his grip. But alas it's just far too ridiculous to be true.

If BB is irrelevant, there is a graveyard of coaches out there. Last year, Sean McVay was 5-12. Pete Carroll was 9-8. Kyle Shanahan has 3 losing seasons in the last 5 years and no rings. Tomlin was 9-8. None of the younger guys has anywhere near a sustained record of winning.

McDermott and Beane have five years of Josh Allen and can’t make it to the SB.

So there’s Reid, who is a great coach and had Mahomes fall in his lap.

Bill makes mistakes and I think parts of his philosophy are a bit dated. He screwed up the offense last year by leaving it rudderless. But you should ask yourself: who are you replacing Bill with?

 

[crawhammer]

If BB is irrelevant, there is a graveyard of coaches out there. Last year, Sean McVay was 5-12. Pete Carroll was 9-8. Kyle Shanahan has 3 losing seasons in the last 5 years and no rings. Tomlin was 9-8. None of the younger guys has anywhere near a sustained record of winning.

McDermott and Beane have five years of Josh Allen and can’t make it to the SB.

So there’s Reid, who is a great coach and had Mahomes fall in his lap.

Firstly, I said borderline irrelevant, meaning he's not suddenly disrespected by the NFL. He's an all time great head coach, everyone knows it, and that can't be taken away. But the fact of the matter is the Patriots dynasty died in 2019, they were inept offensively in 2020, and despite the 1st round QB, they haven't sustained any momentum in a positive direction. Sporting a 6-15 record in December and January over the last four seasons, with no playoff wins, and now widely considered the 4th best team in the division. This isn't the perennial top 3 conference team for two decades anymore.

So my point was, at the very least, the NFL isn't looking at Belichick as a 3D chess player at a checkers convention. In the AFC alone there are about 9 teams that were being watched more closely than the Patriots. The Patriots aren't one draft pick or even an overall solid draft away from contention. The Ravens, Steelers, and Bills all had excellent drafts, worthy of catching the eye of the conference.

And this nonsense about the Levis visit. He easily could have been a 1st round selection. He was drafted at 33. The notion that BB brought him in for a visit just to **** with the psyche of some others teams is ridiculous.