Listen, i’m not saying his time isn’t coming to an end at the elite level. But one poor season in 23 years does not call for some of the revisionism occurring here lately. Arguably, the defences he’s still producing (2022, 2021, 2020) have kept the Patriots from rebuilding properly. It isn’t easy in this league to escape from 8-8 hell without a franchise QB.
“Brady made him”. You can use whatever stat you want here, but let’s use the most basic one. Points allowed per game. Of course there are influences here. Time of possession, special teams, ability to generate turnovers. But at its most basic level this is what determines the result of a game.
Brady had 20 seasons as a Patriot. He had a top 10 defence in 17 of them. In 3 super bowl victories, the Patriots played 3 of the top 15 offences in NFL history. 01 Rams, 16 Falcons and 18 Rams. 17 points, 22 points(pick six), 3 points. Even throw the record breaking 04 Colts in there, 3 pts. If we change to PTS per drive, he still has 15 top 10 defences!
Manning had 4, Rodgers had 3, Brees had 2. All three had great ball security and time of possession.
Is Brady the GOAT, yes. His consistency in clutch moments puts him ahead of the likes of Peyton and Rodgers. Did he make Bill the greatest defensive mind in history, no!
Brady record when scoring 20+in the playoffs: 32-4. Rodgers is 12-9 in this statistic for a direct comparison.
Average finish in points per drive among notable QBs
Brady: 9th
Rivers: 15th
Peyton: 18th
Rodgers: 18th
Brees: 20th
Mahomes: 20th
And we are trying to pretend Bill didn’t give Brady a significant advantage over his peers? Another 2 super bowls as a DC.
People love to make this “Tom Brady vs Bill Belichick” but in the span of time they were together, the Patriots literally were the most dominant force in football. And the second closest wasn’t even close. I don’t think it’s fair to force you to choose one. It really was both of them.
The Patriots missed the playoffs by a total of 1.0 games from 2001 to 2019 (lost out on tie breaks in 2002 and 2008… 0.5 for each). They played in almost a full season of AFC Championship Games (13). The next QB is Joe Montana… with 7. In 2019 there was a stat that only three teams had not played in a wildcard game since 2010. It was Bucs, Browns, and Patriots. (you might want to re-read that…)
“It’s just Brady” … (close your ears, Browns fans) prior to their playoff win in 2020, the Cleveland Browns’ last win was in 1994. Their coach? Bill Belichick. The opponent? The New England Patriots.
No one is close to the Patriots dominance in the era of the NFL Draft, Salary Cap, and Free Agency. While many credit Brady with the success on the field, part of the reason why he was successful was because he wasn’t saddled by bad contracts and players who were passed their prime but were team legends. He might have been wrong some of the time, but no one spent the salary cap money more effectively than Bill Belichick. It’s what makes the deals like Adalius Thomas stand out so much.
I think we could go on for hours (days?) highlighting stats of how insanely dominant the Patriots were for almost 2 decades. Would they have been without Tom Brady? No. Definitely not. Would they have been without Bill Belichick? I don’t think so. Peyton Manning doesn’t either. I also think there were other supporting cast members that were critical. I give him a shoutout literally every chance I get, but Dante Scarnecchia could (should) be in the Hall of Fame for what he did with the Patriots OL during this era. We haven’t had anything close to the level of talent development on the OL since he left. I feel bad for the coaches that follow him because he set an impossible bar. Tom Brady might have had a quick release, but he had an hour to throw the ball a lot of times, too.
I could go on.
Is it time for Belichick to move on? Unfortunately, probably. I think some of his greatness has entrenched him in places where maybe he shouldn’t be. He’s getting older, so stretching him thin might not be the best. Nor might it be good for him to have control of the offense - something Brady hid well. He’s an abysmal evaluator of offensive skill players.
I’m just worried what will happen when he moves on. I know I’ll be mad watching him take a new team to the playoffs again.