Bill Belichick: The One Man Coaching Staff

The NFL head coach must be a great delegator.  A coach is put in charge of offense, defense, and special teams.  Within those units coaches are put in charge of specific positions.  Players meet with position coaches, coordinators, and the head coach on a daily basis.  Every NFL team trusts this system and puts great responsibility in the hands of its entire staff.  One team bucks that trend.

Profiling the coaching staff of the New England Patriots consists of the study of one man: head coach Bill Belichick.  Belichick coaches all positions and designs schemes for all three phases of the game.  His genius does not end there.  Belichick dominates the draft and has mastered getting more value per pick than any other team in the league.  His free agent steals are legendary and no one understands how to use the salary cap better than Belichick.  Heck for all we know he scrubs the toilets, pops the corn, and brews the beer before every home game in Foxboro.

When quarterbacks coach Dick Rehbein passed away during the 2001 preseason, Belichick took on the job himself.  The result?  Unknown Tom Brady stepped in for the injured started Drew Bledsoe and led the Pats to a stunning Super Bowl victory and in the process became the best quarterback of his generation.  Last season when his future hall of fame quarterback went out in the first game of the season Belichick still managed to guide his team to eleven wins with a quarterback who hadn’t started since high school. 

Since that magical 2001 season the Pats have lost dozens of players and coaches and arguably none of them have been as successful as they were in New England.  Charlie Weis, Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel, Willie McGinest, Lawyer Milloy, Deon Branch, Damian Woody, Adam Viniteieri, Daniel Graham, David Patton, David Givens, and Jermaine Wiggins are just a few of the players and coaches that suffered after leaving Belichick and New England.  There are just too many examples for it to be considered a fluke.  The fact that players and coaches are less successful when they leave the Patriots is a direct statement to the genius of Bill Belichick.  Matt Cassel and Josh McDaniels beware; history is not on your side.

 Admittedly it’s unfair to discredit the hard work put in by the Patriots’ assistants and other members of the staff but in terms of credit it has to go to the man under the hood.  He has proven himself year in and year out.  Give him a team of hard working over achievers and he can win a Super Bowl.  Give him the most talented team in the league and he can run the table in the regular season and come a fluke catch away from a perfect season.  When all is said and done the Patriots’ coaching staff consists of one man: Bill Belichick.  As long as that is the case the Pats will be a threat to win the Super Bowl every year.