Tom Brady is back in the Super Bowl for a record TENTH time. But this will be his first time playing on the NFL’s biggest stage without Bill Belichick coaching him, so, unsurprisingly, the whole Belichick v. Brady debate has been re-sparked this week.
Who was more important to the Patriots dynasty? That’s the question at hand, right? Well, I’m not going to give you a firm answer. I’m only here to point out that this is an impossible question to answer because we’re talking about a two-decade run by an organization that evolved throughout the years. As coach and general manager, Belichick probably laid the foundation on which the dynasty was built. But without Brady, it’s unlikely that the run continues on into the late 2010s.
The two won six Super Bowls together. Three of them came during a four-season stretch that started in 2001 when Brady first took over as the starting quarterback, and 2005. The other three were won during a five-season stretch that spanned from 2014 to 2018.
During that second stretch, Brady was a perennial MVP. The Patriots did have a top-10 defense by EPA for each of those last three championships, but it’s fair to say New England was carried by its offense.
But there are some ardent Brady stans out there who claim that Belichick is nothing without the greatest quarterback in league history. They’ll point to his sub-.500 record without Brady as proof.
It’s a compelling argument for sure, but it also short sells the quarterback Brady eventually evolved into. Before he was that perennial MVP contender, a young Brady was mostly seen as a high-level game manager. During that run that brought the franchise its first three Lombardi trophies, Brady ranked 12th in both EPA per play and Adjusted Yards per Attempt. If you’re into more “traditional” stats, he ranked 11th in passer rating and 17th in yards per attempt.
That’s not all that bad for a sixth-round pick who hadn’t yet reached his prime … but that’s also the point: Belichick was able to win three Super Bowls in four years without this GOAT version of Brady that we all remember. He won those Super Bowls with a quarterback that’s closer to the current version of Matt Ryan.
If you want to split the dynasty in half, it’s probably fair to say that Belichick was the brains behind the first dynasty and Brady took the wheel for the second. But this dynasty is considered the greatest ever because it wasn’t confined to just one decade like all the other great dynasties in the past. So even if Belichick’s defense did fall off a bit — which may have been the result of him focusing his efforts on developing Brady — those early years are why we hold the Pats dynasty in such high regard and it was the coach who was doing most of the heavy lifting back then.