New England Patriots: Bill Belichick doesn’t deserve all of the criticism

This week is a difficult one for New England Patriots fans.

On Sunday night, Tom Brady will play in his record tenth Super Bowl—as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Meanwhile, Bill Belichick—Brady’s coach of twenty years—and the Patriots will be watching from home, having missed the playoffs for the first time in twelve years after finishing the 2020 season with a 7-9 record.

Given the Patriots lack of success this year relative to that of Brady and the Buccaneers, many people have criticized Bill Belichick. They have asserted that it was solely Brady who was responsible for the Patriots’ dominance of the past two decades, and that Belichick was merely the beneficiary of having the greatest quarterback of all time on his team for twenty years.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick doesn’t deserve the flack

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While Brady making it back to the Super Bowl at the age of 43 with a new team is obviously an incredible accomplishment, it isn’t nearly as much of a knock on Belichick as many people are making it out to be.

Down in Tampa, Brady has one of the most talented rosters in the NFL. He has an absolutely loaded receiving core, lead by the likes of Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Antonio Brown, and old friend Rob Gronkowski. He also has the luxury of handing the ball off to the electric tandem of Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette. And let us not forget the Buccaneers’ tenacious defense, featuring names such as Antoine Winfield, Lavonte David, Ndamokung Suh, and Jason Pierre-Paul.

Meanwhile, up in New England, Bill Belichick has essentially none of those pieces.

The 2020 New England Patriots didn’t have a competent starting quarterback. Their wide receivers had a total of five touchdown receptions over the course of the entire entire season. And their tight ends were effectively nonexistent.

Now, let me make one thing clear. When I’m defending Bill Belichick here, I’m defending Bill Belichick as a coach, not as a general manager.

As New England’s GM, Belichick was fully responsible for putting together the absolute joke of a roster that was the 2020 New England Patriots, and he 100 percent deserves to be criticized for that. (Not to mention the fact that Belichick hasn’t drafted a Pro Bowler since Jamie Collins in 2013.)

As a coach, however, Belichick actually did a decent job this season. The 2020 Patriots probably had the roster of a three or four-win team, at best. While it’s far from winning a Super Bowl, the fact that Belichick was able to win seven games with that roster is honestly somewhat of an accomplishment.

Let me ask you this: how many games do you think that the average NFL coach wins with the 2020 Patriots’ roster? Because by my guess, it’s a lot less than seven.

Now, Bill Belichick still has a lot to prove. While Patriots fans will likely never forgive him for letting the greatest quarterback of all time walk away (even at age forty three), Belichick could do a lot to make up for it by finding the Patriots next great quarterback this offseason, through either free agency, a trade, or the draft. And he also needs to upgrade the team at many other positions, most notably wide receiver, tight end, and defensive tackle.

But the next time that you hear Patriots fans claim that Belichick was purely the beneficiary of Brady’s success—or even that he should be fired—just remember how little the legendary coach had to work with in 2020, and maybe take a step back.