Belichick Finally Lands a Coaching Job. Namely, Steve. At the U. of Washington.

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This is indeed the strangest of timelines in all of the multiverse. We live in an existence where the music stopped on the NFL head coaching vacancies, and the likes of Dan Quinn, Raheem Morris and Dave Canales have chairs, but Bill Belichick is left to stand there in shame and embarrassment. 

And not to be outdone, the universe saw fit to give this story a subplot all the anti-Belichick jihadists swore would never happen. Which is Steve Belichick getting hired by someone other than his father. 

They called him Nepo Baby. They called him unqualified. They said the team is weaker for having him calling the defenses instead of a more experienced coordinator. They literally went on their radio shows and said Steve's presence on the staff demonstrated Bill wasn't committed to winning. But now they have to call him the defensive coordinator of the No. 2 team in the country that just played for the National Championship. 

Say what you will, but just remember to call Steve Belichick one thing: Deserving. 

He earned this shot. And not just because Huskies HC Jedd Fisch was around Foxboro for a while, coaching Cam Newton during the Covid year. He deserves this because he proved he's good at coaching defense. Full stop. 

Belichick the Younger was the de facto defensive coordinator without title for five seasons. In that time, the units he coached finished:

• 2019: 1st in points, 1st in yards
• 2020: 7th in points, 15th in yards
• 2021: 2nd in points, 4th in yards
• 2022: 11th in points, 8th in yards
• 2023: 15th in points, 7th in yards

And while you can argue those last two points-allowed totals were very average, you need to factor into your calculus that the defense was doing this while fettered to the corpse of the worst offense in football over those two seasons. An offense that treated Pick-6s like they were part of a Morning Zoo radio promotion and they'd be giving one away to the third cornerback to call the Listener Line. And which produced so many 3 & outs the NFLPA was ready to file a complaint to OSHA because the punters were facing unfair working conditions. If Steve B. was coaching the exact same group the exact same way but working with even slightly above average offenses and special teams, he'd have been in the playoffs each of the last three seasons instead of just 2021. 

If his squad had a low point, it was undoubtedly the last two games against Buffalo that season. Including the Wild Card playoff at Buffalo, which they lost 47-17 when the Bills scored touchdowns on every single possession until they let the clock run out to end it. Mercifully. It was painfully obvious then that his roster needed to get younger, faster, and more athletic, or they were never going to be even competitive in that matchup, never mind beat them. 

And they did. Thanks to two defense-focused drafts (Jack Jones,Keion White) some free agent additions (Jabrill Peppers, Mack Wilson), and the development of some veterans (Jahlani Tavai, Anfernee Jennings), Steve oversaw a vast improvement. Particularly when it came to matching up against Buffalo. In the last four meetings, the Pats have given up an average of 27.75 points, which while not great, is pretty much the Bill's average in that span. More importantly, it produced a win in Week 7 this year. And another game in which Josh Allen had his worst passing game ever against New England, a 15-for-30, 165 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT, 53.3 passer rating performance in Week 16. That has been a tough code for anyone to break, and seemed like an impossible dream just two seasons earlier.

Nepotism? Sure. Why not? Let's go with that. But the last I checked, Steve has no parents coaching at the collegiate level and just landed one of the most desirable jobs in the nation. Like other Nepos from Presidents to titans of industry, from Kurt Russell to George Clooney, from Kyle Shanahan to Bill Belichick himself, he's succeeded. As famous Nepo Baby Dakota Fanning puts it, "A foot in the door, and so much more.":

So thanks to Steve Belichick for his service. And congrats to him for making the most of his god- and father-given talents and making his own way in this world. I hope the Huskies win the Natty this year and he further advances his career. And I look forward to the possibility of him hiring a certain currently unemployed Belichick as his coordinator some day. It's a Circle of Life thing.