New England Patriots: Bill Belichick Now Second-Longest Tenured NFL Head Coach

Once upon a time, Jeff Fisher was the longest tenured coach in the NFL as the head coach of the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans from 1994-2010. After he and the Titans split, that honor was bestowed upon Andy Reid, head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles since 1999. 

The second-longest tenure belongs to Bill Belichick. In fact, January 27th 2011 was his 11th anniversary with the team.

This article by ESPN Boston's Mike Reiss gives us a nice little laundry list of numbers that correlate with Bill Belichick's tenure as head coach of the New England Patriots.

Numbers that aren't listed there are his winning percentage—a whopping 63.3 percent—and his streak of winning seasons—10.

With one exception (the Jets), each of the teams that made the playoffs both this year and last year—the Eagles, the Packers, the Patriots, the Colts, the Ravens, and the Saints—had one thing in common: Consistency at the top. It leads to Super Bowl Championships.

Why, exactly, is it so key in producing champions? There are less drastic changes at the top. A coaching shake-up trickles down to the players.

When a team is built to the vision of a specific head coach, it often takes a new coach a couple of years to really put his stamp on the team. It's sometimes a quick fit, but if a new system is being implemented, it can often take a coach a couple of seasons to acquire all of the pieces to make it work.

Of course, consistency didn't lead to a championship for the Titans after 17 years, and they had consistent quarterback play from the late Steve McNair. They made it to the Super Bowl, but it's not as easy as those two ingredients.

Is the setback really worth any potential benefit? At worst, the team has the worst record in the NFL next year and drafts Andrew Luck.

It's not as though Bud Adams is going to convince anyone of note to come to a franchise that has no quarterback. Not Bill Cowher, definitely not Jon Gruden.

I heard Jim Zorn's looking for a job...

One number from Reiss' article that bears mentioning, though, is the number of Raiders head coaches since Belichick was hired—six.

The number of starting quarterbacks for the Raiders? Nine.

Since 2000, the Raiders record is 70-106. The Patriots under Bill Belichick boast a 126-50 record.

Now you can truly see the dichotomy of change vs. consistency where it matters most—head coach.

With Belichick, the Patriots look to contend year after year.

For those who say this year was a disappointment, why? They lost to a hated division rival, sure, but not many expected better than a 10-6 record, and others still were saying the Patriots would miss the playoffs entirely.

In an interview on his 11th anniversary, Belichick said to WEEI, "My main expectation of this team was to improve and to try to get better from the first week of the season through the entire year." That's exactly what they did in 2010, winning their last eight straight.

However you want to slice it, Bill Belichick is largely to thank for the success of the New England Patriots, not just this season, but consistently over the past decade.

On the contrary, it's hard to blame any of the head coaches out in Oakland. They do, after all, have to work for Al Davis.