New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick may have been more involved in Tom Brady’s development than most think.
Though Belichick is touted as a defensive mastermind, he seems to have invested a lot of his time working with on the team’s offense, at least during the tenure of Dean Pees, who was on the Patriots’ staff from 2004 to 2009 and was the defensive coordinator for four of those seasons.
Probably not coincidentally, those were the years when Brady’s game took the biggest leap forward. He went from being the Patriots’ game-manager to their perennial MVP. Here’s what Pees said on the Make Defense Great Again podcast, as transcribed by For The Win’s Steven Ruiz.
“Coach Belichick was a really great defensive coordinator but he spent maybe 45 minutes a week with us on defense,” Pees said on the podcast. “[The rest of the time] he spent with Tom Brady, telling Tom Brady ‘Here’s what those defenses are doing against you,’ which was perfect. He sat in the meeting room with Tom every day in individual meetings and unit meetings. [Belichick] would have team meetings but I’d have unit meetings and he was never in there. …
“He did an incredible job of sitting with Tom and we’re playing the Jets or something and he’s telling Tom ‘Here’s what to look for. Here’s what that safety’s showing you. Here’s what the linebacker’s showing you.’ I mean, what a great tool to have a guy like that, with that experience, sitting with your quarterback, teaching him how to read defenses.”
This illuminating tidbit casts an interesting light on New England’s success.
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