[jwplayer JBvgNLwe-ThvAeFxT]
With the news of Miami Dolphins legend Don Shula’s passing yesterday, the football world stopped yesterday to pay their respects — no matter of team affiliations or rivalries. The successes of Shula and his positive impact on so many players and coaches alike transcends rooting interests. The success that followed Shula across the landscape is only a byproduct of his strong management and leadership approach to coaching. Two losing seasons in 33 years is an incredible testament to Shula’s staying power.
And upon his passing, Shula holds two of the NFL’s most incredible coaching records:
- Most wins: 328 (347 including postseason play)
- Most games above .500: 172
But there is a figure looming in the background who may come to threaten both of those marks — New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is in striking distance if the Patriots are able to retain their pace as a the dynasty they’ve become over the course of the last two decades.
Belichick is credited with 273 regular season wins, trailing Shula by 55 wins. Mapping out win totals, Belichick would need to register five consecutive 11-5 seasons to tie Shula’s all-time regular season win figure — that feat would make Belichick 73 years old at the time of a potential tie in 2025. Over the last five seasons, the Patriots have won 62 football games — so this is a pace that is certainly reasonable. With that said, the departure of QB Tom Brady may threaten to derail Belichick’s pace and could ultimately be the deterrent needed to keep Shula’s 328 head coaching wins unmatched.
If the Patriots were to slip to a 9 win average (more in line with the rest of the mere mortals in the NFL), Belichick would need to enter into 7 more seasons with the Patriots to acquire 55 more wins. A challenging 2020 season for the Patriots would be a big wrench in Belichick’s potential challenge to Shula’s win record.
As far as Shula’s status as the best figure for games above .500, Belichick trails Shula by 26 games. Five straight 11-5 seasons for Belichick would allow him to pass Shula at some point in 2025 — but again, one bad season this late in Belichick’s career could tank his chances all together. Even if the Patriots averaged 10-6 for the rest of Belichick’s career, he’d need 7 full seasons averaging 10-6 to get the mark.
So with that in mind, it should be all that much easier to root for a regression season from the Patriots in 2020. They’re overdue by about 20 years, anyway.