Bill Belichick’s preparation and his ability to adapt in every situation is what separates him as a coach. Now, more then ever, Belichick will need to adapt on the fly, and work with these unprecedented circumstances. Covid-19 and the pandemic in general has made things difficult in everyday life. Now with constant testing, and new restrictions, how will Bill Belichick look to build this Patriots team in the post-Brady era?
You could argue that this season will be one of the biggest challenges of Bill Belichick’s. Losing Tom Brady, Dont’a Hightower, Pat Chung, Kyle Van Noy, Jamie Collins, and Duron Harmon all in one offseason are a challenge in itself. In a typical season, Belichick would use training camp and the preseason as a competition for positional battles. But, with the preseason being completely eliminated, things just got difficult for the Patriots and the rest of the NFL. The Patriots have question marks at right tackle, tight end, defensive end, linebacker, safety, and even at quarterback.
A traditional NFL season includes four preseason games. These games may do more harm then good when it comes to injuries. But, it allows for coaches to truly evaluate the talent on the back-end of the roster. Finding those hidden gems is something that Bill Belichick has truly mastered, and the preseason is a major reason why. I mean it’s almost every year that Patriots fans get excited about a guy fighting to make the team. Whether that’s Tim Tebow, Austin Carr, or Jakobi Meyers to name a couple.
So, without a preseason how will Belichick evaluate his roster in 2020? How will he replenish the system? Well, he did not seem too concerned about it when he was asked about it last week on his zoom call with the media:
“It will be a little different set up, but that’s what college teams do every year. I think ever since the beginning of college football back in – well, I don’t know about all the way back when Rutgers started in the 1870’s – but that’s the way it’s been. You go to camp for three weeks, then you start the season. There are no preseason games, and you evaluate your team and you get ready to play. I mean, that’s what all college football teams do. So, I don’t think it’s anything that’s revolutionary here. This is just we haven’t done it that way in the National Football League for a while, and I certainly haven’t done it that way. I mean, I haven’t coached in college, but as a college player and growing up around college programs, I can remember those periods of time leading up to the start of the season. Teams had their scrimmages or whatever you want to call them and ways to prepare their team and at the same time evaluate the players. It’s a process that certainly goes into the early part of the season. This is just football, that’s all. I don’t really see it any differently.”
Bill Belichick seems relatively comfortable about playing 2020 without a preseason, and he referenced college football as being one of the main reasons why.
It’s well-documented that Bill Belichick has great relationships with some of college football’s greatest minds. Former head coach of Florida and Ohio State Urban Meyer, Greg Schiano of Rutgers, UCLA’s Chip Kelly, Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, and of course Alabama’s Nick Saban all have had a connection to Bill Belichick at some point.
In particular, everyone saw first-hand in HBO’s, Belichick & Saban: The Art of Coaching, how close Belichick and Saban are. Belichick’s respect and admiration for Nick Saban extends more than anyone else in football.
“There’s nobody I respect more in football than Nick Saban. I’ve learned an awful lot from him. We’ve had a lot of great conversations throughout the years.“
It’s time for Bill Belichick to take a page out of Nick Saban’s book. Whether the key to success is more team scrimmages, or more practice reps for bubble guys, Belichick will need to figure out a solution.
I believe that Belichick will come into training camp this summer with a college football mindset. Belichick has never coached college football, but between Saban and others, he should have a pretty good understanding how they evaluate talent.
While the rest of the coaches in the NFL scramble around trying to makeshift their way through this unique training camp, Bill Belichick always seems like he’s ahead of everyone, and this situation feels no different.
For example, you have coaches like Bill O’Brien publicly giving up on his young players due to the lack of a preseason and unorthodox training camp:
“It’s going to be difficult for younger players.”
As always Bill Belichick is ready to adapt and ready to get ahead of the rest of the league.
The key to success might be an old friend…