A few former New England Patriots stars are surprised that Bill Belichick was passed over in the coaching carousel this offseason.
Tom Brady, Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski were each mystified about why teams opted not to hire their former head coach, who won six Super Bowls during his 24 seasons in New England. Edelman seemed to be the biggest critic of the bunch, believing there might be factors other than winning at play when teams hire a head coach.
“It just tells me that not everyone’s really about winning in this league,” Edelman told The 33rd Team when asked about Belichick’s unemployment. “It’s crazy. Yeah, he’s tough. Yeah, he is a force to work with. But any team that brings him in instantly gets like 35 percent better just off-rip because of the amount of knowledge he knows, the amount of experience that he has and he’s seen everything through the game.”
The Patriots parted ways with Belichick in January just days after their 4-13 season came to an end, though there was still speculation that he would wind up getting a job. But of the seven other teams who had head coaching vacancies, the Falcons were the only ones to interview him. Belichick met with Atlanta twice, and although he was viewed as the frontrunner for the job, the Falcons ultimately hired Raheem Morris to be their next head coach.
While Belichick is arguably the greatest and most decorated coach in NFL history, the last few seasons weren’t great for him in New England. The Patriots missed the playoffs in three of the four seasons after Brady left in 2020, going 29-38 over the last four regular seasons.
Edelman acknowledged Belichick didn’t have the best stretch of his career recently, but indicated that he can still win at a high level if he’s paired with the right quarterback.
“Yes, he’s had his struggles these last couple of years,” Edelman said. “But this is a quarterback league. You’ve got to find a quarterback regardless of where you are. He wasn’t able to do that. … It…
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Publish date : 2024-02-06 17:00:40
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