TIMBERRrrrrrr!!!

Belichick coaching tree falls down again.

On Halloween night, Josh McDaniel’s was fired for the second time in his career, this time by the Vegas Raiders. Despite his failure in Denver, his flip flop with the Indianapolis Colts 5 years ago, the Raiders gave this guy a six-year contract and handed him a 10-6 playoff team and in less than two years he turned them into the laughingstock of the NFL (NY Giants not withstanding). So how did we get to this point? He is not the first disastrous limb from the Bill Belichick coaching tree that gets cut down like lumber jacks on crack in the middle of Canada. But how does it keep happening? This Bozo has a surprising answer that may ruffle the feathers of patriot faithful but here goes: Bill Belichick is over rated and struck lightning in a bottle.

Way back when, Bill was head coach of the Browns for 5 years. He went a very underwhelming 36-44 while head coach and was a sub .500 coach in four out of the five seasons he had the helm. He soon went back to doing what he does best and that is a defensive coordinator under the Tuna (Bill Parcells) with the NY Jets. When the Tuna left, he went to the Patriots and was an eye popping 5-11 his first year and was 0-2 in his second year when Drew Bledsoe got popped by Marvin Jones of the Jets and some skinny kid from Michigan came in and led the team to an 11-5 season and the first of nine super bowl appearances that included six wins. Amazing how Bill was suddenly the greatest coach of all time after 7 years of mediocrity. Hall of Fame QBs can do that for a legacy and Bill was no exception and the proof is in the pudding. Since TB12 left the Pats they have been average at best and currently have the worst record in AFC east. In fact, in games without Tom, Bill has a career record of 80-95. Not exactly G.O.A.T. material, Meanwhile Tom went off and won another Superbowl, then went to the NFC championship and made the playoffs in his last year. But if you need more proof, look at the disasters of the Belichick coaching tree.

In no particular order, Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel, Josh McDaniels, Joe Judge, Eric Mangini, Al Groh, Matt Patricia, Brian Flores to name a few. To his credit, Bill O’Brien has had some success and Nick Saban became the GOAT of college football but was a disaster in the NFL. So, what can explain this rotten tree coming from Bills trunk? It’s easier to explain than most realize. The greatness of Tom Brady covered a lot of Warts.

In his prime, which lasted for seemingly 147 years, TB12 would take his teams on extended six, seven, sometimes eight-minute drives and would use almost all his downs with surgical strikes to an assortment of running backs and receivers off the streets. He turned a quarterback from Kent State into a Hall of Fame receiver (Julian Eddleman). He took a washed-up Corey Dillon and revived his career with 1000-yard seasons. He even got a troubled Randy Moss to stop doing foolish things and set receiving records. He turned Aaron Hernandez into a $50 million player who went to a pro bowl before his penchant for murder got the best of him. While he surgically carved up defenses, his own defense was lounging on the bench, relaxing, and waiting to get back on the field and once they did, they were fresh and ready to go after a QB. Suddenly every defensive coordinator was a guru, and every Offensive coordinator was quickly hired to repeat the “Patriot Way”. Unfortunately, they all flopped. When TB12 went to Tampa, he did the same exact thing and suddenly the Bucs defense was the closest thing the “Legion of Doom” that we had seen in years. They literally beat up on Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl and Todd Bowles was once again a Defensive guru and new comber Byron Leftwich was the wonderkid offensive coordinator that every team wanted to interview.

Everything was amazing for all these coaches (Including Bill Belichek) when they had Tom Brady, and now all of them are a study in mopishness. In the 3 ½ years sins Brady left Bill, he has basically repeated his Cleveland Browns act and it’s painfully obvious he rode the coat tails of Tom for a long time and a lot of assistant coaches made a lot of money doing the same.