This offseason, address Belichick’s successor
The twenty year dynasty is over, we are now halfway done year 3 with life after Brady and it doesn’t feel like we are at point where we can say things are pointing in the right direction. Our special team unit is relying on a guy who can’t make a kick over 54 yards and our punter had a punt of 7 yards against the Colts on Sunday. Our offense is led by two guys, both of whom were fired as head coaches and is running an Ivy League offensive system. The only glue we have is the defense and Bill Belichick has his finger print all over it.
We need to start thinking long term, Bill Belichick is 70 years old and is 23 wins away from passing Don Shula as the winningest coach in NFL history. The only thing I think that is keeping Bill from retiring is capturing this record and pissing all over Shula’s grave. If we continue to stay mediocre this feat will take 3 years, Bill will be 73 and probably call it a career at that point. So in the next 3 years time we need to establish the next in command.
Everyone thought it was going to be Josh McDaniels, he would be the guy, fought in the trenches with Bill, young enough to lead an organization for many years to come. But instead Josh took the bag and ran to Vegas where it looks like he will be fired before seasons end. Taking a playoff team last year and only winning two games this far shows that Josh isn’t head coaching material. He is better off just being an OC and putting all his time and effort into that.
Then you have the two walking nut sacks as choices, Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. Nope and nope, both guys got fired from organizations because they brought the New England culture with them and the players despised them. The best story out of Detroit when Matt was their was that he banned rap music in the locker room. Would you want this guy getting the keys to Patriots franchise? Absolutely not. Then you have Joe Judge who a year after leaving the Giants with almost the same roster they are sitting at 6-2.
You must be thinking, who does fat boy have in mind? Well I have two options, one realistic that I can see happening and the other could be plucked from the organization before Bill retires. Lets stay in house, with a guy who learned from Bill by playing for him and now under his wing as a coach now.
Jerod Mayo played for Bill for 8 seasons, elected to 2 pro bowls and in 2010 named to the First Team AP All Pro. He’s been a coach with the Patriots sine 2019 and by 2025 if you can keep him would be a great head coaching hire. It would be a change of philosophy, a players coach, something Bill never was. Stories of Bill shitting on Brady for 20 years and never putting any player on a pedestal. Jerod would be a guy that when a player comes here could relate to him. A guy that did it for 8 years and won at the highest level. Could it help recruit players? Sure, if you can make this a destination where players love playing here and win here again it would. The only problem with this is that Jerod has never been a head coach, yet he had interviews last year and i’m sure he will again this offseason. Keeping Jerod would keep the defense playbook here which has been a strong suit for life with out Brady and what kind of coaching staff would he build around him?
The other choice would be older but a guy that had a run as head coach, though the organization he worked for was a shit show run by kid who inherited his daddy’s team.
Bill O’Brien is currently the OC at Alabama and now that they are out of the FBS playoff, could Belichick come and swoon O’Brien for another stint in New England that could lead to him taking over when Bill retires? Our offense is struggling, ranking 26th is not the Patriots way. It is Matt Patricia’s Lullaby offense where he puts fans to sleep by the vanilla schemes he runs. It’s not working and if you want to see Mac progress why not bring in someone who knows how to work with young QB’s and was just at Mac’s almamdtter and can bring some familiarity with him.
Bill O’Brien’s last stint in the NFL was nothing to hang on your fridge. He was the head coach of the Houston Texans and famously shipped out Deandre Hopkins, at the time the best wide receiver in the NFL. As the Texans head coach he went 52-48 in 7 years and only had 2 losing seasons (2017 4-12, 2020 0-4). Not to shabby and at 52, bringing him in here you could see him sticking around if he keeps winning. The positives is that he’s been here before, he can work with a young QB being Mac or someone else down the line if Mac isn’t the guy. He also could rejuvenate the offense which has been stale for 3 years, he could hasn’t been away from the game too long and knows how to evolve with the pass first NFL we are in today. The negatives, he doesn’t give a fuck who you are.
Brady, Hopkins, any superstar player, if you don’t run it the way he wants it then fuck you, you’re on his shit list and with the way the NFL has players that are soft I don’t know how well that would go if you can land these stars and mentally break them by yelling at them.
None the less, Bill…. nope scratch that Robert needs to bring in the next guy and it should start as early as January 2023.