Crediting the Assistants

Bill Belichick's staff is being dismantled piece by piece.  NFL teams can't hire assistants from other teams until they're eliminated from the playoffs, which means all of the head coaching jobs are usually taken by the time the Patriots are done.  Except that's beginning to change.  Two teams waited until after the Super Bowl to make their coaching announcements so that they could hire New England assistants. 

Matt Patricia has officially been named Head Coach of the Detroit Lions, and Josh McDaniels will take over as head coach of the Colts by the end of the week.  We have no idea how they'll do as head coaches (McDaniels was fired after less than two seasons in Denver).  And we'll also have to wait and see if the Patriots' run of dominance continues without both of their coordinators.

Last week, in all the pre-Super Bowl hype, I saw an article asking whether Brady or Belichick deserved more credit for the dynasty.  I'm not taking anything away from either of those future Hall of Famers (or owner Robert Kraft).  But I'm not saying they deserve all the credit, either.  Because Belichick has surrounded himself with some pretty good assistants over the years.  And that's been the real secret to the Patriots' success.

It's easy to forget because they've won three of the last four AFC titles and are in the AFC Championship Game every freakin' year.  But the Patriots went 10 years without winning the Super Bowl between their runs of three in four seasons (2001-04) and two in three (2014-16).  During that time, a lot of Belichick's top assistants left to become head coaches elsewhere.

Let's look at the early years of the Patriots dynasty.  They won their first Super Bowl in the 2001 season.  Assistants on that New England staff included Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel, Rob Ryan, Eric Mangini and Josh McDaniels.  They were joined in 2003 (the second title) by John Hufnagel, with Patricia replacing Rob Ryan on the staff in 2004.

Rob Ryan never became a head coach, but all of the others did.  In 2005, Weis left to take over at Notre Dame, Crennel became head coach of the Browns, and Hufnagel went to the Giants as their offensive coordinator.  He left for Canada in 2008 and won two Grey Cups in eight seasons with the Calgary Stampeders, including one in his first season.  Mangini, meanwhile, spent one more season with the Patriots before being hired as head coach of the Jets in 2006, where he made the playoffs in his first season.

The only two guys left once Mangini departed were McDaniels and Patricia, and McDaniels got the Broncos job in 2009.  After he got fired in Denver, he came back in 2011.  McDaniels' return coincided with the Patriots' second Super Bowl loss to the Giants, and, of course, the latest run of three in four years (he was there for all eight Bradicheck Super Bowl appearances, and Belichick's never been to one without him).  Now he's once again leaving to become a head coach, while Patricia is the seventh different former Belichick assistant to get a major head coaching job.

To review, here's a list of the Belichick assistants on the 2001-04 Super Bowl teams who moved on to head coaching jobs (four of whom have been the head coach of two different teams):

• Romeo Crennel: Patriots Assistant (2001-04), Browns Head Coach (2005-08), Chiefs Head Coach (2011-12)
• Charlie Weis: Patriots Assistant (2000-04), Notre Dame Head Coach (2005-09), Kansas Head Coach (2012-14)
• Eric Mangini: Patriots Assistant (2000-05), Jets Head Coach (2006-08), Browns Head Coach (2009-10)
• John Hufnagel: Patriots Assistant (2003), Stampeders Head Coach (2008-15)
• Josh McDaniels: Patriots Assistant (2001-08, 2012-17), Broncos Head Coach (2009-10), Colts Head Coach (2018-)
• Matt Patricia: Patriots Assistant (2004-17), Lions Head Coach (2018-)

And, while he wasn't on one of his Super Bowl staffs, Texans Head Coach Bill O'Brien is also a former Belichick assistant.

Sure, Belichick gets a lot of credit (and deservedly so) for grooming McDaniels and Patricia, while Weis and Crennel were Bill Parcells assistants with him.  But I don't think its a coincidence that when all of his top assistants left, Belichick stopped making the Super Bowl every year. 

So, I wouldn't be surprised if they "struggle" (by Patriots standards) with two new coordinators next year.  Because as brilliant as Bill Belichick is, a good football coach is only as good as his assistants.  He would know.  After all, that's what everyone was saying about Belichick when he won two Super Bowls as Giants defensive coordinator under Bill Parcells.