Was it Bill Belichick’s coaching and system or was it quarterback Tom Brady’s talent and drive to succeed?
That was the debate when Brady left New England in 2019 after 20 seasons. Together, Belichick and Brady won six Super Bowls, 17 AFC East division titles, and posted 19 straight winning seasons. Opinion was initially split on who was most responsible.
That is no longer the case. The Patriots have a 29-38 record since Brady’s departure, and they haven’t won a playoff game in four years. Brady, meanwhile, won his seventh Super Bowl in his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, solidifying his case as the greatest quarterback of all time.
“To answer the question, it’s TB12 [Brady’s nickname]. One-hundred percent,” former New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis said in 2021. “It’s the way that he knows how to run the offense in and out.”
Offering an argument for Belichick grew more difficult when Patriots ownership and Belichick “mutually agreed” to part ways on Jan. 11 after the team posted a dismal 4-13 record.
The reality seems to be that Belichick had the good fortune to coach a team featuring the best player the league has ever seen.
No one can doubt Belichick’s accomplishments. He has more Super Bowl rings than any other head coach, and his 333 career wins put him behind only Don Shula (347) on the all-time list. But it’s arguably not because Belichick is a one-in-a-million coach.
He went 36-44 in five seasons as head coach of the Cleveland Browns. In his first season in New England, he went 5-11 — without Brady under center.
Without Brady, Belichick is a losing coach over the course of his career.
The Patriots finished this season with their worst record since going 2-14 in 1992. Belichick benched starting quarterback Mac Jones, the 15th overall pick in the 2021 draft, a number of times in favor of Bailey Zappe — a player he initially cut in August.
It seems to leave little doubt that Brady was chiefly responsible for winning those Super Bowls. And he was surrounded almost entirely by talented players but not Hall of Fame players. He did not have the help of, say, the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers, who were loaded with players destined for the Hall of Fame.
Brady did the same thing in his first season in Tampa Bay.
Four years have passed and the data is in: It was Brady all along.
