The 6 Rings Postgame Show: Mike Kadlick and Christian Fauria discuss the major overhaul that should take place in Foxborough
March 17, 2020. 8:44 a.m.
"To all my teammates, coaches, executives and staff, Coach [Bill] Belichick, RKK [Robert Kraft] and the Kraft family and the entire organization," former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady wrote in a social media post as he announced that he was moving on from the franchise.
"I want to say thank you for the past twenty years of my life and the daily commitment to winning and creating a winning culture built on great values. I am grateful for all that you have taught me - I have learned from everyone. You all have allowed me to maximize my potential and that is all a player can ever hope for. Everything we have accomplished brings me great joy and the lessons I have learned will carry on with me forever. I couldn't be the man I am today without the relationships you have allowed me to build with you. I have benefited from all you have given me. I cherished every opportunity I had to be a part of our team, and I love you all for that. Our team has always set a great standard in pro sports and I know it will continue to do just that. Although my football journey will take place elsewhere, I appreciate everything that we have achieved and am grateful for our incredible TEAM accomplishments. I have been privileged to have had the opportunity to know each and everyone of you, and to have the memories we've created together."
"FOREVER A PATRIOT," he captioned the post. And the franchise he left hasn’t come remotely close to being the same since.
Since Brady announced his departure on that eerie March day at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Patriots have just a 27-34 record and just one playoff appearance. A game they lost 47-17 to the now-AFC East owning Buffalo Bills.
They’ve started four different quarterbacks in Cam Newton, Brian Hoyer, Mac Jones, and Bailey Zappe, who together have thrown 60 passing touchdowns and 52 interceptions. A 1.15 TD-to-interception ratio.
For context, Brady’s career ratio is three.
The offense as a whole? Abysmal. The Patriots have scored an average of just 21.3 points per game over the last four seasons, culminating in a league-low 13.5 in 2023.
With Brady? New England scored an average of 27.9 points per game, and during his 283 starts managed seven or fewer points in a game just five times.
In 2023, under Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe, they’ve accomplished said ‘feat’ four times.
There should be no more beating around the bush. Myself included. It’s not the weapons. It’s not the protection.
The Patriots, at 2-9 and in last place in the AFC, are the worst team in football. And it’s the quarterback position that’s holding them back.
I already know what the pushback for this column will be:
“Obviously you’d be better with Tom Brady! Get over it, Brady ain’t walking through that door. Stop living in the past.”
But Brady himself isn’t necessarily the point. Bill Belichick is.
From the start of his, albeit legendary, coaching career, Belichick has regularly both neglected and, frankly, disrespected the quarterback position.
During his time as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns he ran Bernie Kosar out of town, abruptly cutting the franchise legend in the middle of the 1993 season.
In New England, of course, he consistently "worked" with Brady in contract negotiations until, when the time came for the QB to stand his ground, he allowed him to walk away instead of ponying up for the now-seven-time Super Bowl champion.
Arguably the worst offense of them all is just how ill-prepared he and his team have been at the quarterback position since Brady decided to walk away.
At the time, the Patriots had just one rostered quarterback in 2019 fourth-round pick Jarrett Stidham. Eight days later, they signed journeyman Brian Hoyer and 105 days after that, following the NFL Draft and nearly three months into free agency, they ultimately bit the bullet and signed the once-great Cam Newton, who ran the offense for one year as the team tallied just a 7-9 record.
The following season, it looked as though the Patriots found a new franchise quarterback after they selected Mac Jones with the 15th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. The former Alabama Crimson Tide signal caller put together a quality rookie campaign where he threw for 4,033 yards and 24 touchdowns.
So, naturally, he was stripped of his offensive coordinator in Josh McDaniels, replacing him with a defensive coach/rocket scientist hybrid, and not given the proper weapons to his left and right and protection in front of him.
After a 9-4 start to his NFL career, Jones has since amassed just a 9-21 record as a starter while throwing 32 touchdowns and 30 interceptions and, after Sunday’s benching, has now been sat down for backup Bailey Zappe five times over the last two seasons.
Not only has Zappe not performed any better, but he was waived by the team this past August before returning on the practice squad.
And therein lies the problem, among many. With Jones performing as bad as he has and (at least to some) with his legacy on the line, Bill Belichick’s Patriots are 2-9 and don’t have a startable quarterback on their roster.
"I think organizationally," Bill Belichick told reporters back in 2014 when drafting Jimmy Garoppolo in the second round, "in our organization, I don’t think we would put together a team the way Indianapolis did it when they lost Manning and they go 0-16, 1-15 or whatever it was."
While, in theory, they took a fourth-round swing with Zappe that simply didn’t work out, it goes to show that at the very least, it's time for general manager Belichick to go, likely bringing down head coach Belichick with him.
"Ultimately," Belichick said himself just last season when asked about the performance of his offense, "I have responsibility for everything that happens on the field."
More quotes? More quotes, because I think former Steelers safety Ryan Clark put it best on Monday morning’s episode of ESPN’s Get Up:
"The separation of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady has provided us with so much. We've learned so much about Tom Brady now that he got to step away from ‘The Patriot Way’ and open up about his mindset… you start to see that so much for those two decades was based off of his mindset, based off of his work ethic, his ability to be coachable."
"And so now when you look at this team," he continued, "you see the indecisiveness of Bill Belichick when you don't have that guy. You see him trying to pull at straws to figure out ways to get these ingredients, that he has selected himself, to make a good pot of gumbo. And he can't do that."
Before stepping off of his soapbox, Clark finished his rant with what I can confidently say a majority of fans, media members, and pundits alike believe is best for the Patriots as a football team. Something Bill Belichick himself says he always does:
"It feels like [he's] earned the right to walk away. He should truly be thinking about walking away from the Patriots."
Editor's note: This story previously, incorrectly, attributed a quote from the book 'Belichick: The Making of the Greatest Coach of All Time' that was reportedly from an unnamed assistant coach to Bill Belichick. The story has been edited for clarity.
Make sure to follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick, and follow @WEEI for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!
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