The New England Patriots Dynasty is Over When Bill Belichick Says It's Over

The New England Patriots showed some cracks this season. In the end, it didn’t matter, because they still have the biggest advantage in the NFL. They have Bill Belichick, and other teams do not. He didn’t win the Coach of the Year award, and hasn’t won it since 2010, but we all know the real deal. He’s the Coach of the Year in perpetuity. Just one year removed from everyone, including his own players, questioning him in the wake of the Malcolm Butler benching, he’s back on top again.

Belichick just turned in one of his finest coaching performances, taking perhaps his weakest team in well over a decade–at least on a consistency basis–to a title. They lost five games this season. Those losses were to teams that all missed the playoffs. They were just fifth in point differential, which would be great for most teams, but the last time the Patriots didn’t lead the AFC in that category was 2013 (when they did not reach a Super Bowl).

The fact that it is just “one of his finest” says all you should need to know about the standards of excellence. He won a Super Bowl title at age 66, becoming the oldest coach to win a Super Bowl title.

For some comparisons of just how incredible it is that Belichick is still dominating his coaching brethren, Tom Landry was forced out at age 64, a decade removed from his last playoff appearance. Don Shula’s last season was at age 65, more than a decade since his final Super Bowl appearance. Chuck Noll stopped coaching before his 60th birthday, also more than a decade after winning a title. Bill Walsh left on top at age 57. Joe Gibbs came out of retirement at age 64, coaching four more seasons with a record of 30-34.

Belichick, meanwhile, shows zero sign of slowing down. His teams have won titles in all kinds of ways. He can adapt his strategies like a chameleon. His teams are diverse and can implement game plans that expose opponent weaknesses. He and defensive coordinator Brian Flores (and soon-to-be Miami Dolphins coach) put together a game plan that held one of the highest scoring teams in the league to the lowest point total ever in a Super Bowl (along with Dallas versus Miami in Super Bowl VI).

So I know there was a lot of talk about the end of the Patriots dynasty. Some day soon, Tom Brady–who is already doing it at an age every other star quarterback has been finished–will fall off. But people declaring a premature death are forgetting the other factor. This dynasty doesn’t end until you stop Bill Belichick. He seems every bit as young, in coaching years, as Brady does as a quarterback.

If you are the rest of the teams in the league, you can’t help but be discouraged. Belichick could have produced this particular postseason run, in the manner and method by which the Patriots won, with a diverse and dominating ground game, and shutting down top offenses, with about 20 different quarterbacks. This isn’t to say you could just plug any quarterback in, because you cannot. The Patriots certainly would not have won six titles without Tom Brady. But there are plenty of transition replacements that Belichick could find if necessary that will have the Patriots in the tournament, and with a fighting chance. And from there, well, it takes a lot to get rid of Belichick.

It is commonly and correctly accepted that what is going on now is a continuation of what started in 2001. This is a dynasty where was a nine-year period in the middle where the franchise did not win a single title, so things haven’t always come up roses in the end. You could re-arrange the close games and the Super Bowl-winning pattern might look a little different, with more titles in the middle, but the lesson is that they have always been there, in the mix among the best teams. They’ve had great passing offenses, teams that relied more on defense, but always seemingly they’ve had some key things. They consistently have excellent special teams. They do not lose turnover battles very often. They win the small things far more often than not, such as exchanges of field position. And they consistently are good at red zone defense and limiting points even if they give up yards. In fact, there has been only one year in this entire 18-year run when they ranked worse in points allowed than yards allowed on defense. That was 2015, when they were 9th in yards but all the way down at 10th in points.

The Patriots are also a NFL Dynasty that does not have the typical dynastic all-time talent across the board. The Patriots have had 24 first team-all pros, excluding kicker and punter, in the last 18 years. That doesn’t even rank as the most. Kansas City (29), Pittsburgh (27), and Baltimore (25) all have had more over that span. The 49ers from 1981 to 1998? They had 36 All-Pro seasons over a similar span. The Dallas Cowboys, who were always great (but only won two titles) over the span from 1966 to 1983, had 44 All-Pro seasons over an 18-year period. The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970’s had as many All-Pro seasons in a decade as the Patriots have had over their much longer run.

Yes, it’s very easy for the rest of us outside of Patriots nation to be jealous of the success, and also hate all the stuff around it. But when you strip away having to deal with the fans and the noise, they are a testament to ultimate team football. They are the underdog who is so ruthlessly efficient at what they do that they just win despite not always having the most talented roster, to the point we laugh when they try to call themselves underdogs. They are the team that exposes opponent weaknesses, and feasts on other’s mistakes. They are the anti-thesis of a team built on a few stars. Those teams fade away when stars age. The Patriots are doing it better than ever. We are now nearly a decade removed from when they traded one of their few other potential Hall of Famers, Richard Seymour, in a move derided for playing for the future. They are always playing for the future.

So don’t write the eulogy yet. Don’t write it until you know that Bill Belichick has had enough, and is done doing it better than any coach, ever.