A celebrated past or promising future?
Beware, dear Patriots fans.
No, don’t worry — I’m not about to show you a reel of Jerod Mayo’s most passive coaching decisions. I don’t have the requisite 2 hours and 45 minutes to spare right now for that, and I assume you don’t either.
The word of warning is for this reason: What follows here is the sort of column that comes from what I like to call the Bye-Week Hypothetical genre.
It’s the sort of what-if, would-you-rather, can-you-imagine? angle that tends to get pecked out by the likes of, well, me and my sportswriting ilk during the local NFL team’s bye week, when the content machine must be fed even when there is no game to provide a win, or a loss, and all of the plays, details, and conclusions that serve as a week’s worth of sustenance.
So, here’s my obligatory and kind of irresistible Bye-Week Hypothetical.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though I’ll do my best to provide context to the content:
Would you rather, right now, have Bill Belichick as the Patriots’ head coach, or Drake Maye as their quarterback?
As someone who did not want to see Belichick go, even after a 4-13 record in 2023 and a string of mostly curious-to-dubious personnel decisions, the answer is easy.
It’s Maye, without hesitation or the hint of a second thought.
Maybe most of you will agree with that. I do hope it’s a vast majority.
Now, Belichick is the greatest coach in NFL history, absolutely, and you can argue among yourselves about who is runner-up.
With six Super Bowl victories as a head coach in an era designed to thwart potential dynasties, and two more as a superstar assistant coach with Bill Parcells’s Giants, his singular place atop the podium is definitive.
Yes, he had Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback ever, just as every other extraordinary coach since the days of leather helmets had extraordinary players.
