There was a time the Patriots cycled through head coaches. What BB brought to New England was stability. That stability brought success that has been unparalleled in the history of the NFL.
A majority of that success was based on the work ethic of Tom Brady. Year in year out he did more than any team could possibly ask. I cannot stress how much he did for this team. At the same time BB kept this team competitive for not years, but decades. As good as Brady was, he couldn't do it alone.
That particular sentiment may not be fully appreciated by many posters here who fell into the rat trap of Tom vs Bill, which was relentlessly driven by sports talk talking heads. Why not, it lead to boffo ratings. Felger and Maz built a multi million dollar career doing it. Where they lead, others followed.
This team as it's currently constituted has talent on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. The major ( in comparison ) deficiencies are on the offensive side of the balanced equation.
Sack Jones is not a great football player. But, grudgingly I admit, he's not as bad as some, including myself ( I don't like him, if that surprises anyone by now ) think. What he can't do, isn't good enough to do, is elevate the team in it's current state.
The first most important task to do moving forward is not add a wr1 etc... It's fixing the line. It's paramount to mine free agency and the draft at the tackle position. Priority number 1. The interior of the line can compensate for its flaws if the tackle play is better. Get rid of TBrown, turn Conor McDermott into a Russ Hochstein-like swing tackle for depth. If that's done, the offense, and by extension Sack Jones's play will improve.
Getting rid of Bill is a mistake. Getting him help to address the short comings is the correct avenue to take so we can take advantage of his abilities.
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@Ian, nice article. I enjoyed reading it.
just my 2 cents on the topic at hand.