Billl Belichick is Here with a Gentle Reminder He is Not Done Harvesting Souls

Adrian Kraus. Shutterstock Images.

We've had a couple of days now to sift through the wreckage of the 2021 Patriots season. And we don't need anyone to find the black box to determine the cause of the crash. It's strewn all over the ground, as far as the eye can see:

The league's second best defense in terms of points and yards allowed that he carefully constructed had absolutely zero answers for the one offense in the league they need to have all the answers for. The Bills test is 75% of their grade, and they flunked it twice. And maybe were only a night of Category 5 winds away from flunking it three times. Saturday night was like one of those dreams where you're back in school and you have no idea what's going on or even if you're in the right class. You're just staring at the blank blue book without a clue what you're supposed to be writing. Except there was no waking up from it. 

There's no mitigating how bad it was. And no exaggerating the size of the gap between this defense and Sean McDermott's offense at the moment. There is only one saving grace. And that is the fact that the one person in the history of the human race most qualified to fix this is the man in charge of fixing it. 

Belichick has had a lot to say in his few media appearances the last couple of days. And none of it was more important than this:

On how he personally feels about coaching and if it's something he still wants to do in 2022:

 BB: I would say that would be accurate.  

In other words:

First and foremost, let's acknowledge that. Belichick built this Death Star from the exhaust ports to the throne room to the planet-killing lasers, deconstructed it, and then built it again, 20 times over. He knows every nut, bolt, circuit and relay, because he put them in. And if there are weaknesses and parts that need replacing (Spoiler: There are), no one is more aware of it. And no one will be more ruthless when it comes to eliminating them. 

Here's what he said on WEEI this morning:

“For me, I enjoy the job," he said. "It’s challenging, but I enjoy all aspects of it. Robert and Jonathan [Kraft] have been very supportive and they’ve given me great opportunity to try and do the things we need to do to have a good team. And the players have worked hard. The coaches have worked hard. We certainly have made a lot of improvement from where we were last year, but we certainly have a way to go as well. We’ll work hard and continue on that path.”

Which is precisely what we need to hear. One, that he loves what he does, appreciates that he has free reign from ownership to do what he thinks is best, spend money however he wants, and make whatever moves with his players and coaches he believes will get them the seventh banner that has eluded them for three seasons now. While correctly pointing out they've come a long way in a short time, but acknowledging there is a long way to go still. 

Which echoed something he said yesterday:

Certainly [the Buffalo] game was important and not in any way trying to minimize that, but at the same time, there were 17 other meaningful games, so 18 in all, that I think we really need to look at and see how we can do a better job of everything, coaching, playing, schematically, whatever adjustments we need to make there and so forth, and just in season planning for next year. … We all need to step back and again, catch our breath, take a longer view of things and at some point, we'll talk about certain situations, players that aren't under contract, players who whatever their future is, or is with the team or whatever their individual situations are, those will all be dealt with at a later point in time. …

“We’ll take a good long look, again, not just at one game but at all 18. [That] game was the least competitive game that we played last year. Is that what we are or is that a bad night? We’ll see when we start playing next year, I guess.”

First of all, I love that less than 24 hours after the game was over, he was already calling this season "last year." More to the point, this is exactly the right approach. Fans, media, talk radio hosts and sexy, charming bloggers have the luxury of freaking the fuck out and demanding wholesale changes. But the way to fix this thing the right way is dispassionately, logically, and by looking at the whole organization. I've heard from a lot of people who want Steve Belichick fired. And I honestly believe that if it would improve things, Belichick the Elder would have no problem making him a position coach again or moving him to some quality control something-or-other role. None whatsoever. His main loyalty is to those owners who give him all the latitude anyone could ever dream of, to the millions who are counting on him, his own legacy and his respect for the game. Professionalism over nepotism. 

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That said, I reject the premise that Belichick the Younger is the issue. His first year as de facto DC, his unit led the league in defense and carried a struggling, receiver-thin, tight-endless offense to 13-3. No one was complaining about the game plan that had Tom Brady tied into mental knots in Week 4. I think the problem is a lack of athletes on that side of the ball. You can only scheme so much when receivers are coming open on vertical routes against slow defenders. 

And therein lies the first issue that has to be addressed. This roster has been intentionally built around size, physicality and toughness. Which is a positive. Roger Goodell hasn't yet succeeded in his evil scheme to legislate hitting and tackling out of the game. But you're not going to beat Buffalo - or Kansas City, Tampa, Green Bay or several other teams filled with freakishly gifted athletes with big, slow, Dont'a Hightower types. No one wants a team of trackletes, but the Patriots either need to replace the slower, older guys or supplement them with some top end speed. A team that has never really paid attention to 40-times at the Combine needs to make that a point of emphasis if they're going to avoid watching the back of Stefon Diggs' jersey running into the end zone for the next 10 years. 

And what that will require is exactly the kind of ruthless, emotion-free, uncaring decisions that Bill Belichick has built an empire on. He might very well have to move on from Hightower, Matthew Slater, Ju'Whaun Bentley, even J.C. Jackson. And any number of veterans who have helped get him to the mountaintop. Just as he did with dozens of team Hall of Famers once their time was up and they were no longer useful to him. And if you read between the lines, even as he singled out the names I just mentioned for their effort and leadership, he signaled that's exactly what he's prepared to do:

We'll do what we always try to do, Dan, and that's take advantage of every opportunity we have, whatever that is, whether that's preseason, whether it's training camp or offseason program, individual meetings, OTAs, training sessions, we'll try to prepare the team the best that we can, the individuals the best that we can and then put the best team out on the field and most competitive team that we can. … We just have to try to find the ways that'll maximize the results. And that's what we're searching for, individually and collectively.

I say again, there's no one anyone would rather have calling these particular shots than the man who is. The last I looked, GM Bill was the favorite to win Executive of the Year. If they're going to find the Cheat Codes for solving the Buffalo problem, he'll have to win it in 2022 as well. And if you bet against him, you deserve to lose your money. Even with his 70th birthday coming up, he's still the best there ever was at this. And he's not fucking leaving.