Raiders fire Josh McDaniels & GM
November 1st, 2023 at 2:53 AM ^
Queue the Jim to NFL rumor mill. Rapoport or Ryan Day with the first scoop?
November 1st, 2023 at 6:53 AM ^
This one kind of makes me nervous with Brady as a potential supporter of this pursuit.
November 1st, 2023 at 9:40 AM ^
Good fit for Deion. He could definitely convince Davis to draft his son in the first round.
November 1st, 2023 at 11:31 AM ^
Oakland is still in play! They have been since the winter of 2014 apparently.
November 1st, 2023 at 3:01 AM ^
Great stat: McDaniels is 20-33 as a NFL Head Coach, and pretty clearly isn't good at his job.
BUT: he went 3-0 against Belichick and 3-0 against the Broncos! He would win when he had the extra incentive!
November 1st, 2023 at 3:41 AM ^
How many chances did he get as an NFL headcoach? Two. Hoo Boy! That Belichick tree looks real flimsy.
November 1st, 2023 at 4:39 AM ^
That Belichick tree looks real flimsy.
Came here to mention this, one more dead branch on the Belichick coaching tree. But then again, the trunk (Belichick) hasn't been looking so hot itself lately...
November 1st, 2023 at 6:07 AM ^
Wayne Fontes has a higher win percentage and the same amount of playoff wins as Belichick minus Brady.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:03 AM ^
Wayne Fontes…the Big Buck. Remember when they found cocaine in his car and he threw his kid under the bus? Classy guy.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:28 AM ^
This was before he was head coach. Fontes had the ability to make NFL coach money while his son didn't. Not necessarily classy, but that's how those decisions get made.
November 1st, 2023 at 9:39 PM ^
Say what you want about Wayne Fontes, but he brought us Barry Sanders and do not forget that. He was smart enough to draft him and don't assume someone else would have done so.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:35 AM ^
People are afraid to say it. But Belichick is an average coach who rode the coattails of Brady.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:48 AM ^
Eh, to be fair, an actual great QB can make any coach look great, but will cover up any team deficiencies that only show up once they are gone. Lafleur in GB is a great example too. Without Rodgers the packers look meh at best but when Rodgers was there they were always dangerous. I choose to look at it not as much of a knock against Belichik, but as more of a testament to just how great Tom Brady was while he was there.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:58 AM ^
Joe Jackson Gibbs
Q.E.D.
November 1st, 2023 at 9:41 AM ^
I'd add that Belichick is also clearly in the down side of his career. I don't think he's been making great personnel decisions, and I seriously question the people on his staff. Bill O'Brien is past his time, and Belichick has not one but two of his kids on staff (Brian and Steve).
He also had Matt Patricia calling plays. Matt Patricia. Calling plays. How is that a good idea?
Patricia at least had the good sense to get a job with the Eagles this year.
November 1st, 2023 at 9:55 AM ^
The downside of Bill's career coincides with the loss of Brady. Interesting.
From 2011 to 2019, the Bucs had one winning season. 9-7 in 2016. Most of their seasons were 4 to 6 wins.
In 2020, when Brady was the oldest he'd ever been (obviously), the Bucs won the Super Bowl, then lost by 3 points to the eventual SB champs in the divisional round in 2021. In 2022 they were only 8-9 but still made the playoffs somehow. Finally Brady retired. Bucs are currently 3-4.
Despite what Pope Lando said, it is only within the last few years since Brady left New England that people have been even suggesting that Brady might have been the key factor to Belichick's success. Most of the dynasty the predominant feeling was Brady was a system QB and Belichick won with defense and his genius mind and could have been equally good with Rodgers, done more with Peyton, or maybe possibly been limited to only 5 super bowls with Matt Hasselbeck.
November 1st, 2023 at 9:57 AM ^
He also had Matt Patricia calling plays. Matt Patricia. Calling plays. How is that a good idea?
Patricia left to take the Lions job, and New England's defense immediately got better. I don't know what else to say...
November 1st, 2023 at 8:51 AM ^
People have been screaming it for 20 years…
It’s a counterfactual so it’s impossible to prove, but I’d say that the time with Bledsoe, and the season Matt Cassel started, are decent examples of Belichick being above average without Brady.
You need a good QB to be good. Brady was damed good.
November 1st, 2023 at 9:35 AM ^
That's fair. But Wayne Fontes arguably never had a QB as good as Bledsoe and Cassel, yet has a better record than Belichick minus Brady.
November 1st, 2023 at 9:46 AM ^
Well maybe as good as Cassel. And I know that the Pats went 11-5 that year and that's a good record, but it wasn't good enough to make the playoffs. Just saying.
November 1st, 2023 at 11:18 AM ^
Not making the playoffs with Cassel is a red herring. They went 11-5 and lost the tie-breakers; most years that's good enough for a wild card.
At least a couple of Belichick's teams won the Super Bowl with 11-5 regular season records.
November 1st, 2023 at 11:44 AM ^
I feel I gave that 2008 Cassel season the proper context. I agree with your elaboration on the subject.
November 1st, 2023 at 11:44 AM ^
They were 16-0 the year before with the same team minus Brady.
November 1st, 2023 at 11:09 AM ^
Wayne Fontes did have Barry Sanders. That might have helped.
Never thought I would see a debate of Wayne Fontes or Belichick.
November 1st, 2023 at 9:54 AM ^
I was thinking about this specifically with regards to Bledsoe. Belichick might have won a Super Bowl if Bledsoe stayed the QB instead of Brady taking over--winning in 2001 was definitely a surprise, but the 2003 and 2004 teams were powerhouses--but on the other hand, it's a lot easier to put together elite talent when your QB is on his rookie contract (as a 6th round pick no less) than it is when your QB is the highest paid player in the NFL (Bledsoe had signed the largest contract in NFL history prior to the 2001 season). So it's no guarantee that the Patriots would have been as good if they didn't have the extra cap space that cutting Bledsoe provided them...
November 1st, 2023 at 10:04 AM ^
He's better than average. He put together some amazing defenses as DC for the Giants and as HC for the Patriots. And he gets at least some credit for Brady--he drafted him, kept him as the starter even after Bledsoe (the highest paid player in NFL history at the time) came back from injury, and fostered an environment that allowed Brady and his teammates to thrive. But without Brady it's clear that he isn't the greatest coach of all time, as most had assumed. He is (or at least was--quite possible he's over the hill now) a good to great coach that benefited immensely from having the greatest QB of all time play for him for nearly 20 years...
November 1st, 2023 at 11:01 AM ^
There are very few good NFL head coaches who's accomplishments didn't coincide with an exceptional QB.
Bill Walsh had Montana & Young
Chuck Knoll had Bradshaw
Jimmy Johnson had Aikman
Mike Tomlin had Roethlisberger
Andy Reid had Donovan McNabb and now Mahomes
Mike Holmgren had Brett Favre
Sean Payton had Drew Brees
Bill Parcells had Phil Simms
Trying to argue who made who is useless. It takes both.
And if anyone brings up Brian Billick and Trent Dilfer, Ray Lewis is going to come after you.
November 1st, 2023 at 11:50 AM ^
I already pointed out Joe Gibbs.
I personally would give Parcells and Reid the bulk of the credit for Simms and McNabb, but I wouldn't go to the wall for it.
November 1st, 2023 at 5:07 PM ^
Gibbs is a bad example and you know it. That's barely modern football, especially on the passing side of the ball. That's like me saying Joe Montana is an average QB because of his numbers pale in comparison to the top 10 QB's starting in 2023.
The point stands that almost all successful long run NFL coaches had long runs with good quarterbacks. The ones that didn't had teams that were exceptional at something else.
ESPN did a very interesting article a year or two back breaking Brady's career into 3 distinct eras. The first, which I think had the first 3 super bowl wins, were very much defensively led teams and were certainly not carried by Brady. The whole "Tom Brady wasn't Tom Brady at Michigan" can be extended to "Tom Brady wasn't Tom Brady until ~2006."
November 1st, 2023 at 10:58 PM ^
I will hear no such blasphemy of Joe Gibbs.
I responded to a post that mentioned Bill Parcels, Bill Walsh, and Chuck Knoll. I think bringing up Joe Gibbs was pretty in-bounds.
And to your point that "almost all successful long run NFL coaches had long runs with good quarterbacks" is exactly why I mention Gibbs.
So yes, other than the excellent example of Gibbs that I provided, and Parcells as I also noted above, very few (if any) other great coaches had such sustained success without a HOF QB. So using that as criteria would eliminate almost all coaches from being above average coaches, which is statistically impossible.
SO FINE!
Bill Belichick is an above average coach who deserves credit for having drafted, kept, helped develop, and started Brady.
But in reality, he held Brady back, refusing to give him weapons on offense, with the exception of 2007 when he got to play with Randy Moss and had 50 TDs. The only other two seasons where he even reached 40 TDs were in Tampa Bay.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:04 AM ^
Don't forget he left the colts standing at the altar, he accepted the job then bailed
November 1st, 2023 at 9:41 AM ^
Belichick did the same to the Jets. Birds of a feather.
November 1st, 2023 at 3:24 AM ^
Current and former Patriot coaches seem to flounder when they don't have Tom Brady around.
November 1st, 2023 at 6:14 AM ^
Brady always made everyone around him better. Now in his absence, teams/coaches/players are realizing his true value. There's no doubt Belichick is a great coach, but It's safe to say there's no longer a much debate on who had more influence in the Patriots dynasty.
November 1st, 2023 at 7:11 AM ^
There's no doubt Belichick is a great coach
I believe he never made the playoffs without Brady. So not only is there doubt. He isn’t
Edit: 46% win percentage w/o Brady. 77% with Brady
November 1st, 2023 at 7:40 AM ^
Cleveland Browns '94.
Again, it's clear that Brady was more influential, but Belichick is the all time winningest coach and it's just silly to imply he had little to do with it.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:07 AM ^
What is he without Brady in his record? Overrated. And probably fired a long time ago.
November 1st, 2023 at 7:42 AM ^
He made the playoffs in Mac Jones rookie year, two years ago. They got bounced in the wild card in a blowout loss to the bills.
November 1st, 2023 at 7:44 AM ^
Good call
November 1st, 2023 at 8:01 AM ^
Also the Matt Cassell year. Technically, they had Brady.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:09 AM ^
Ok, he made the playoffs.
But he never won a division, and this:
Belichick Wins Loss Win% SB
With Brady 249 75 .769 6
W/o Brady 81 94 .463 0
November 1st, 2023 at 8:48 AM ^
Okay. He's a terrible coach.
Belichick = McDaniels.
November 1st, 2023 at 8:50 AM ^
Actually, they didn't make the playoffs in 2008 with Matt Cassel as the starter. They finished 11-5, becoming the first team to win 11 games and not make the playoffs.
November 1st, 2023 at 5:11 PM ^
Tom Brady wasn't an elite level passer until several years into his NFL career. The early Patriots SB's with Brady and Belichick were very much defensive teams. Not Ravens winning the SB with Trent Dilfer level, but the early SB's were not won by TOM MF'ING BRADY like the later years.
November 1st, 2023 at 9:57 AM ^
The more I think about what makes HC successful is less about X's and O's or schemes and more about the culture of a team starting from the coaching staff.
The Lions are a good example here with two recent coaching stints. Matt Patricia was being heralded as the next coaching wunderkind in New England and was the top candidate across the board for NFL teams looking for a HC. It was pretty clear that by the time he was let go, that he had lost the respect of his team and the ownership no matter how good he thought he was at scheming the opposition.
Enter Dan Campbell, who many proclaimed as a meathead, rah-rah type of guy without the coaching acumen of his peers and the results speak for themselves. Having Ben Johnson helps and Aaron Glenn seems to have righted the ship on defense but give me a coach that all 53 players want to play for every down, every game, and you should find success. He did a recent sit down interview before the last MNF game and was close to tears talking about his first year in Detroit going 3-13 and how the team never quit and he truly loved coaching that specific team regardless of their record. That's a far cry from anything McDaniels has done.
November 1st, 2023 at 5:43 AM ^
Should have fired Jimmy G as well.
November 1st, 2023 at 6:52 AM ^
Watching the Monday Night game, I couldn't tell who was more apathetic - McDaniels or Garrapolo. Nor could I tell who was worse at his job...
November 1st, 2023 at 10:57 AM ^
Jimmy the Greek works for the raiders?
November 1st, 2023 at 5:44 AM ^
Has Ryan day all over it
November 1st, 2023 at 5:59 AM ^
Logged in to say let’s get a PR cannon pointed at that rumor asap.