Bill Belichick has won three Super Bowls in his 14-year tenure as head coach of the New England Patriots, while coaching his team to the big game on two other occasions. This year wasn't one of them, as the Patriots fell short to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship game. Yet, when you factor in everything this team went through, you can't help but wonder if this may have actually been Belichick's most impressive coaching performance.
Having a Hall of Fame quarterback to run your offense certainly helps any team to be a playoff contender, but let's be clear. As great as Tom Brady is, he can't do it alone. Given the talent around him this season, the Patriots had no business winning 12 games, earning the AFC's second seed and making it to within one game of a sixth Super Bowl appearance. Yet, remarkably, they did it.
It's been no secret this season that New England's offense struggled through a drastic overhaul this season. When the season kicked off back in September, Brady was missing his top five most targeted receivers from last season! Try finding another team whose quarterback ever had to deal with that. Danny Woodhead fled to San Diego in free agency, leaving Shane Vereen to take his place. The third year RB missed half the season with injury, yet still managed 47 catches in only 8 games. Brandon Lloyd was cut after one mildly disappointing season and decided to retire rather than return at a discounted rate.
The previous few seasons we had seen a Patriots team built around two dynamic tight ends, but that philosophy needed to be revised on the fly due to unforeseen circumstances. Chaos ensued back in June when Aaron Hernandez was arrested on murder charges. It was bad enough that the team's third most targeted receiver would spend the season in a prison cell rather than on the field catching more passes from Brady. It became a bigger issue when the rest of the team became bombarded with questions from the media regarding their former teammate. That enormous distraction could have derailed the team from the start and crippled a weaker locker room. But not this Patriots locker room. Hours after the arrest became public, Belichick cut Hernandez from the team, washed his hands of the troubled tight end and moved on. Belichick, his players and the Patriots ownership handled the situation about as well as anyone could expect. By the time the season began, the team's focus was on football, not on an ongoing police investigation.
Of course, by the time the season began, they were also still without their other stud tight end. Rob Gronkowski missed the first six games of the season while recovering from multiple off-season surgeries to his arm and back. When he did finally return to the team, Gronk once again looked like his old dominant self, until a vicious hit to the knee in a Week 14 game against Cleveland ended his season with a torn ACL. An unfortunate string of injuries accounted for a lost season where the league's best tight end managed to be on the field for only about six and half games.
Belichick's harshest critics will still crucify him for his most controversial decision of the year - letting Wes Welker get away. The loss of Welker stings even more considering he joined the same Broncos team that just knocked New England out of the postseason and is headed for the Super Bowl. But blaming Belichick for Welker leaving isn't entirely fair. For one thing, the Patriots last offer to Welker (2-years, $16 million - if you include incentives) was more than what he ended up getting from Denver (2-years, $12 million). At the time, Welker was seeking substantially more than that and felt disrespected by the Patriots offer. Yet he ended up overestimating his own value on the market and had to settle for a lesser deal after the Patriots had moved on. Welker may be a better player than Danny Amendola right now, but Welker wasn't going to stay here for the same money that Amendola got (5-years, $28.5 million - but only $10 million of that is guaranteed). Amendola is also four years younger, so Belichick felt he was a better option in the long run. While the decision may not have worked out so far, Belichick saw Amendola as a player with a similar skill set that was younger, cheaper and had more long term value. Regardless of what you think of Amendola so far (who, by the way, was hardly a bust as the team's second best receiver), Belichick made a sound business decision that made sense at the time.
Despite all the drastic losses on offense, the Patriots still managed to finish tied for second in the league in points scored (27.8 per game) and 7th in yardage (384.5 per game). While that may be a decline from years past, it's still better than any team outside of Denver's record setting season. Given all the losses in personnel, some decline was inevitable. But give credit where credit is due. As much as Pats fans want to lament Amendola's production compared to what we were used to seeing from Welker, those complaints ignore the breakout season from Julian Edelman. Not to take anything away from Edelman, but Belichick's system gets a lot of credit for turning a former 7th-round draft pick into one of the league's top receivers (105 receptions this season, which was 4th most in the league). Or what about having a 9th ranked rushing offense, despite not having a traditional workhorse starter in the backfield? Carries were primarily split between a guy that has struggled to hang on to the football and a Tampa Bay cast off that was acquired for a little used kick returner and a 7th-round draft pick. Yet Belichick made it work.
Even more surprising than what the offense accomplished under those circumstances was how the defense held up after being ravaged by injuries. Over the course of the season, New England lost four key starters on the defensive side to the season ending Injured Reserve list. None of those losses was more devastating than the Achilles injury to captain Vince Wilfork, who was the heart of this Patriots defense. Things got even worse when fellow DT Tommy Kelly went down for the season soon after. Instead of having two mountains anchoring their defensive line, the Patriots were forced to plug holes with unproven talent. Star linebacker Jerod Mayo also missed more than half the season, depriving the team of their leading tackler. Then they lost Brandon Spikes to a knee injury during their playoff run. Those four accounted for the team's best run stuffers, which explains why the defense sunk to 30th in the league in run defense (allowing 134.1 rushing yards per game). Lock down corner Aqib Talib battled through injuries in the second half of the season, missing time and struggling with inconsistency after making it back to the field. Despite being limited, he was still the team's best cornerback. For the second straight season, New England lost in the AFC Championship game after their pass defense fell apart following an in game injury to Talib, highlighting his importance to this defense.
Despite all the losses to key defensive players, the Patriots still managed to finish 10th in points per game allowed (21.1). By season's end, they were literally picking guys up off the street to plug into games, yet still ended up being the second best team in the conference. That's due to Belichick's ability to get the most out of his players. Nobody taps into the potential of as many late round and undrafted players as Belichick does.
Belichick has been named Coach of the Year three times, but probably would have more if not for his prickly demeanor with the media. The award will probably go to someone like Andy Reid, who turned around a 2-win Kansas City Chiefs team and led them to 11 wins and a Wild Card spot in the postseason. That's impressive, but Reid inherited a team loaded with Pro-Bowl caliber talent that upgraded their biggest position of need by trading for Alex Smith to be their new QB. Or Chip Kelly, who took the Philadelphia Eagles from the bottom of the NFC East to the top, while implementing his fast paced offensive system. Kelly also gets credit for sticking with the unproven Nick Foles over Michael Vick, which helped turn their season around. However, if the biggest obstacle he faced was losing his starting QB to injury and that turned into a positive when Foles flourished in his place, then that does't quite compare to what Belichick dealt with.
The Patriots are currently on a streak of 13 consecutive seasons with a winning record under Belichick. After getting off to a rough start in his first season in New England, Belichick's teams have only failed to miss the playoffs twice. One of those years was when his Patriots lost a complicated three team tie-breaker for the division title (2002). The other came in a year when Tom Brady missed nearly the entire season (2008). They missed the playoffs that year, despite winning 11 games! He has an 18-8 record in the postseason with New England and his teams have won 11 division titles. He's the best coach of this generation, but given what he's overcome, none of those seasons have been more impressive than this one.
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