#coachingtree

Arguably the greatest NFL coach of all time, Bill Belichick, will leave a lot of marks in the highest level of football. With six Super Bowls he is the winningest coach but despite that one mark that seems sealed in stone is the awful mark his culture leaves on franchise after franchise as his coaching tree continues to flounder.

Look no further than this off season for the curse of the Belichick culture. Bill O'Brien is a solid coach but continues to wreck the Houston Texans as the general manager who continues to try and do it the Patriot's way. That has lead to the worst modern day trade with DeAndre Hopkins being sent the Arizona Cardinals for not even a 1st round pick. A ridiculous situation where the coach couldn't understand his player and work with him.

There was another example, though a more minor one, with Darius Big Play Slay to the Philadelphia Eagles. Immediately Slay came out and said he had no relationship with Matt Patricia and was glad to leave Detroit. Yet again, it's a case where the Belichick coaching tree tries to do things the Patriots way and loses a star player.

Josh McDaniels, Jim Schwartz, Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel, Charlie Weis they're all busts. They have talent as coordinators but could not find any continued success as the head guys. A lot of the criticism was the same, they tried to do things the Patriot's way but there's only one coach and organization that can pull that off.

Now, the whole Belichick coaching tree is not a failure. It does contain the greatest college football coach ever in Nick Saban. Kirk Ferentz has been a fixture at Iowa with his own amount of success, but it's not a surprise they've had the college success since the coach in a college program has much more control like the Patriot way. That's not to take anything away from very talented coaches, but the Patriot way works in college.

Six Super Bowl wins and nine Super Bowl appearances is what has made the Patriot way something to emulate, BUT it's not just because of Belichick. With arguably the greatest QB of all time lock and step and reiterating the message of the coach it keeps the message the same on the sideline and in the locker room. It has been well stated that Brady constantly taking less than he's worth lets management do that from the top down with every other player. Plus have the GOAT under center covers up some of the shortcomings that could have been on the roster.

The truth is Brady and Belichick may not find the same success apart, and I would argue they won't. While the culture is well established in New England, without the GOAT carrying Belichick's message in the locker room and on the sideline things may change. Big shoes to fill and a new quarterback, or quarterbacks, could have the Patriot way fall apart.

For Brady, not having the strict man in control may also harm him too. Brady will be in Tampa Bay the next two seasons and was wooed this off season to find his new home. This could have the NBA type effect on his career. He has earned having control and say, but there are plenty of cases where players with too much control don't find success. Belichick having so much control left Brady to just do what he needed to on the field and it worked. This isn't also mentioning his age and the fact that New England seems to be pretty good at knowing when to let players go and they didn't really seem to try and retain Brady.