Bill Belichick Wins 2010 AP Coach of The Year: Was This His Best Job Ever?

The belief was that this New England Patriots team would be a transition team, and that some bumps could be expected along the way. This was made equally more evident by the fact that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick would be both the offensive and defensive coordinator.

Fourteen wins later, most critics were swallowing their words.

Much of the Patriots success can be attributed to Belichick putting players in the right position to make plays, and also recognizing a player's strengths.

The stats aren't really what matters. The only stat that matters for a head coach is wins, because that's the only one he has any real impact on. The yards and points will come depending on how the game unfolds; it's up to the coach to adjust to that.

Look no further than the Week 6 overtime contest against the Ravens, or the Week 12 showdown with the Indianapolis Colts. The games may not have unfolded exactly as they were drawn up, but in the end, the Patriots came out with a win.

The Patriots did a great job of taking it one game, one quarter, and one play at a time in the regular season. Not every coach would be able to keep those young guys disciplined, hungry, and attentive. Belichick can.

Never before has Belichick had to work with so much young talent, but in 2010, he made it look easy. In the past, he had a cupboard that was left stocked with All-Pro talents like Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy and Willie McGinest on defense.

Now, the New England Patriots have Bill Belichick's thumb print from top to bottom.

And he didn't just do it against the scraps of the NFL. He did it against the cream of the crop. Each of the four teams that participated in the Conference Championship games were defeated by the Patriots, three of them handily so. Among other playoff teams the Patriots bested were the Colts and the Ravens.

Of course, Belichick also had some guy named Tom Brady playing quarterback all year, but he also got rid of some other guy named Randy Moss and went without Logan Mankins for the first seven games of the season.

The latter two factors alone might have had most head coaches shaking in their boots. Not Belichick.

Although no award matches the reverence of a Super Bowl trophy, if one does for head coaches, it's the AP Coach of the Year award. In that regard, the 2010 season will always carry an asterisk next to it in terms of Belichick's best head coaching jobs because it doesn't carry a Super Bowl trophy.

Although that diminishes the value of the 2010 season to most fans and analysts (as it should), it has no bearing on the Coach of the Year, which is a regular season award.

So how does this measure up with his other best seasons?

Belichick won the award in 2003 and 2007. After a rough 2-2 start in 2003, the Patriots won 12 straight to claim their second AFC East title in three years, and took that winning streak straight to the Super Bowl for their second Lombardi Trophy in team history.

In 2007, the Patriots ran the table, but he had the help of an all-star roster, as well as Tom Brady and Randy Moss' historic seasons. It may have ended in a terribly disappointing loss, but the magnitude of beating all 16 teams...in the words of Tom Coughlin, "nobody does that."

But his best year as head coach may have been one in which he didn't even win the award. In 2001, the Patriots were coming of a 5-11 season. When their star quarterback Drew Bledsoe went down with an injury in Week 2, the outlook was very grim for the rest of the season, but the Patriots persevered. They won their last six games, and three more in the playoffs.

He may not have won Coach of the Year in 2001; he did, however, win the more important award that year: the Lombardi Trophy.

Belichick has now won three Super Bowls and three Coach of the Year awards in his career. His legacy as one of the game's all-time greatest head coaches grows with every passing year at the helm of the Patriots.

Check out Erik Frenz's football curator page at myspace.com/football. Follow Erik on Twitter at @e_frenz.