Midway through the third quarter of Sunday’s game between the Colts and the Patriots, a game we would generously describe as unwatchable, Myles Bryant intercepted a tipped pass which led the NFL Network crew to note that the Patriots have not had a negative turnover differential on the season since the tail end of the George W. Bush administration.
In the booth, longtime Bill Belichick–lieutenant Jason McCourty tried to quietly emphasize the fact that this team has accumulated more turnovers than they have lost every year for the past seventeen years. His voice emphasized the number as he did the same math we were all doing at home. It is an unbelievable testament to good coaching, and one of the few Tom Brady–proof records remaining on Belichick’s resume (while Brady certainly contributed to most of this run, it is noteworthy that the Patriots maintained a positive turnover margin through a year of Cam Newton, through Mac Jones’s rookie season, and through Jones’s steady spiral out of favor).
The moment was a very brief reprise amid this period of Belichick handwringing. At this point, most of the greater Boston area is ready to move on, or at least titillated enough by the idea of it to keep Belichick’s next destination as a major talking point. We have spent a great deal of time talking about the only man Belichick answers to, Robert Kraft, and his clear unhappiness with relation to the football product.
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And, almost on cue, the game action followed the narrative. After the pick, Mac Jones nearly tossed points away by alley-ooping a ball to nowhere in an effort to avoid a sack. Then, the Patriots missed a field goal. Later in the game, with a chance to score a winning touchdown, Jones threw another horrific interception, cementing his league lead in the category (10), and narrowing the very thin turnover margin advantage the Patriots hold on the season. Not to be outdone, Jones was benched for Bailey Zappe. The Patriots ran the ball without any timeouts near midfield with less than a minute to go, then Zappe faked a clock-stopping spike and threw another pick. It was a reminder that while very brief pillars of the Belichick era we knew remain, this is not a team in the same stratosphere as any of the Patriot teams that defined the previous two decades.
This juxtaposition, though, is where I get stuck and wonder why few others do. Belichick helped set and maintain a standard unfathomable in its consistency. And so, when he finally has a few seasons that are obviously short of that standard and those expectations, we are so quick to assume he is no longer effective as a coach. What an incredibly sad message we are sending to anyone setting out on a quest for greatness in any discipline. Unless all of your paintings hang in the Louvre Museum, unless all of your medals are gold, unless all of your records are Rubber Soul, you are nowhere near the person you once were. You are no longer valued here. Do we think that replacing Belichick and holding that person to the standard with which we are holding Belichick is healthy and conducive to a winning environment? Let’s play that scenario out. Even the strongest of people are going to wither under that pressure, just like Jones is withering under the massive weight of being Brady’s replacement.
Why doesn’t it feel ridiculous to anyone else that three seasons out of four without a playoff berth cements a divorce, when sixteen of the previous seasons ended in the playoffs? Doesn’t it feel ridiculous that the last time the Patriots have been this bad was 2000, and we’re freaking out?
Belichick doesn’t need to be fired or traded, he needs a general manager. He needs someone to look him in the eye and explain that Jones should have been replaced a year ago. He needs someone in his ear during the first few weeks of training camp forcing the message down his throat: We are one of the worst quarterbacked teams in the NFL. We must do something to resolve this talent discrepancy. We must stop flinging draft picks into the hydraulic press.
And if we are blaming Belichick for his own blind spots in that regard, then what is an ownership group for at this moment? Kraft can hire whoever he chooses. Kraft has degrees from Columbia and Harvard; he has more experience dealing with people in high pressure situations than any of us. Isn’t there a path forward from here, with Belichick being allowed to do what he does best, and someone else advising him on a more sustainable path forward? Isn’t that an option worth exploring than firing, trading or parting ways with someone without whom this ridiculous idea of sustained perfection is simply a fairytale? Of course Belichick wants to control personnel. I want to put Kelvin Kiptum on the cover of every issue of Sports Illustrated, but thankfully there’s someone more sensible explaining to me why that decision is short-sighted.
Belichick doesn’t need to go. The managers need to manage. The tough conversations need to be had. Sanity needs to be restored. High draft capital needs to be spent wisely this offseason. The quarterback needs to be replaced. Bill Parcells had four seasons that were this bad. Andy Reid had three seasons that were this bad. Sean Payton has as many seven-win seasons on his résumé as 13-win seasons.
Want to talk about Belichick’s ineffectiveness after that? Fine. If Belichick is more willing to leave the place that he helped create to preserve his autonomy, then make it known publicly. Up until then, let’s stop diminishing greatness at the expense of our unrealistic expectations.
