In addition to Virginia college sports, a little overseas golf, and some Ovi talk, the Junkies asked John Feinstein during his weekly Friday visit to weigh in on the hypothetical of Bill Belichick leaving New England, and the Commanders being a favorite for his next destination if he does.
The Junks’ Twitter poll Thursday saw an overwhelming number of respondents say they didn’t want Belichick, and in fact prefer Eric Bieniemy sticking around if changes are made.
“I don’t think Bieniemy has been fantastic, but I don't think he's disqualified yet,” EB said, and Feinstein threw out one major qualifier with the Belichick hate.
“I think it's an age thing. I mean, I think he would be 72 next season, and he does not appear to be the same coach he was and, and it's not just without Tom Brady,” Feinstein said. “Obviously that's a major factor but, you know, he went 11-5 the year Brady was down with an ACL. That was a long time ago, and he’s not the same coach he was, but he made Matt Cassel a lot of money with that year.”
That said, Feinstein would go younger, too.
“I would go with the younger guy, and you guys know I believe Bieniemy deserves a shot to be a head coach and has for a long time,” Feinstein said. “I don't think you can fairly judge Bieniemy at this point after six games with a rookie quarterback, because he is a rookie in reality, and with an offensive line, that’s been good and bad – often in the same game – so my choice if somebody asked me would be go to Bieniemy if they are at a point where they make a change.”
Feinstein is friendly with Belichick and has the Navy connection with Bill’s father, Steve, from working around the football program in Annapolis.
“When I did the Army-Navy book, I had coffee with Steve Belichick almost every morning, and it was great because he's so unlike Bill,” Feinstein said. “He's so open and entertaining and funny, and Bill is anything but, and I joked about it when I was introducing Bill at a dinner.”
So he’s a Belichick guy, but yeah, he doesn’t see it happening.
“I do like Belichick, and if he was 62, I'd probably say, yeah, if you can get him, get him, but he's 72,” John said, “and you wonder if he'd want to coach somewhere else. They always say ‘I still want to coach,’ and he’s been a coach since he got out of college. We all know he’s a different guy, and I just couldn’t see him coming to a place where he'd basically be starting over. I could be wrong, and I could see, and understand, if new ownership said they had to take a crack at it, but I would say give Eric a shot.”
That’s when EB mentioned Grant & Danny’s segment about Ron Rivera surviving if the Commanders lose to the Giants this week, and Feinstein doesn’t see that being an immediate move, but can see it being a nail in Rivera’s eventual coffin.
“If they lose to the one in five Giants and, and, and that would be a tall task, although losing to the Bears was a tall task, I would think Josh Harris is gonna start to look around,” Feinstein said. “It would be pretty apparent if they can't beat the Giants for crying out loud, they're not gonna be a playoff team, and these days it's not that hard to be a playoff team. That’s not a terribly hard ask when they were 8-8-1 last year. Every owner has a list of who’s available or a hot coordinator or college coach, especially when you've got a guy who's been the coach for three years and doesn't have a winning record yet.”
