Jason Licht Over Bill Belichick
September 29th, 2021
Winning the draft.
In the not-so-distant past, Bill Belichick of the Patriots earned a reputation as the savviest football mind walking the face of the earth.
Winning six Super Bowls and taking down much more talented teams in the playoffs will do that for a coach. But to hear one Patriots beat writer, Belichick is no longer at the top of the football world.
No, the guy who Belichick looks up to now is Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht. That’s the word from Tom Curran of NBC Boston.
Joe knows the big story of the NFL this week is the return to his old stomping grounds of salad-bar-hating, park-violating, home-invading, NFLPA-ignoring, down-forgetting, handshake-stiffing, jet-ski-losing, biscuit-baking, tequila-shooting, smartphone-phobic, waffle-grilling, trophy-throwing, roller-coaster-scared, numbers-rules-peeved, helmet-tossing, football-punting, Bucs-Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady.
(Joe is already bored with the hype.)
The story the past few days out of Boston is whether the Patriots really screwed up in not trying to play nicey-nice with Brady to keep him around a few more years.
The Patriots had egg splashed in their faces in February when Brady, wearing a Bucs jersey beneath his 2020 Super Bowl champion T-shirt, raised the Vince Lombardi Trophy high in the Tampa night sky in victory.
So the chatter out of Boston is why the Patriots let Brady go. Curran said it was clearly Belichick’s call, though Brady wasn’t eager to stick around.
Why is that?
For one, Brady knew the Bucs had a more talented team in Tampa. And Belichick, Curran said, couldn’t do anything to checkmate the drawing power of the Bucs and Florida.
With Curran appearing on “The Rich Eisen Show” this week, the show’s namesake asked Curran what Belichick could have done to keep Brady. Curran said Belichick had played all his cards.
“Bill Belichick and [former New England personnel chief] Nick Caserio couldn’t do as good of a job building the Patriots as Jason Licht did in Tampa,” Curran said.
My, what a difference a year makes. Just 12 months ago, Bucs fans were praying Brady could finally snap an 11-year Bucs playoff drought. Instead, the Bucs won the Super Bowl.
Now Licht is a better shot-caller than Belichick? That’s just so damn cool.
Curran added that Licht is just better than Belichick at roster-building.
“A lot of it has to do with bad roster management,”Curran said of Belichick. “Bad selections. Bad free agent picks. There is a reason [the Patriots] roster was bad in 2020 and it wasn’t Tom Brady.”
That’s just wild to Joe that the Bucs are so loaded, Licht is thought up by a learned NFL beat guy as sharper than Belichick at drafting and signing free agents.
Curran isn’t wrong. Just look how loaded the Bucs’ roster is.
To hear the full conversation between Curran and Eisen, you may watch the Peacock video below.
We heard @tomecurran politely pose the question to Bill Belichick this week about the circumstance in which TB12 departed New England but was there any way to bridge the gap?#NFL#ForeverNE pic.twitter.com/3QitiflKod
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) September 28, 2021
September 29th, 2021 at 6:34 am
For those who say “yeah but it is all Brady, thats why Gronk and Ab and others, like Suh and the there are others that Brady had an effect on. BUT let’s not throw the Baby out with the bath water. J LICHT DID NOT FUMBLE THE BRADY SIGNING.
So All this J Licht Sucks idiocy is just that, a bunch of crap. He built a ROSTER that the GOAT wanted to join, and he hired a Head Coach Brady had enough respect to play for. Again, J LICHT signed BA, and then the next year The GOAT signs. This is part of J Lichts Legacy. Posters here that do not like J Licht because of some picks that missed, well the good that J Licht has done far outways the bad. He sure looks better than a certain HOF Head Coach that is also in charge of who they draft in NE.
GO BUCS!!!!!!!!
September 29th, 2021 at 6:37 am
Idk joe. JL better than bill. Bills got 5 or 6 more rings then JL. Yea we have had a loaded roster the past 2 years n 1 SB. So does that mean JL is better then bill? In my mind I don’t think so. JL needs to win a lot more SB to ketch up to ol billy but maybe this is the piton being passed from 1 great to the next. Mr. JL take it an run lol
September 29th, 2021 at 6:37 am
Yeah, the whole backfield is a dumpster fire of Jason’s pics. ALL his pics
September 29th, 2021 at 6:46 am
Brady always signed on the cheap, so the Pats would be able to keep who they wanted to resign and to add players sometimes. So as well as Billy B has done as a coach in NE, He has not proven to have done very well in roster building, as has J Licht with in recent years.
The Comparison is with J Licht and Bill is as a roster builder, not Head Coach. And in this comparison, Billy B did not have a roster that Brady thought could win Super Bowl anytime soon.
J LICHT Roster Builder > Billy B Roster Builder
GO BUCS!!!!!
September 29th, 2021 at 7:27 am
It wasn’t the roster that drove Brady out–he was offered a pay cut to half his market value, either a calculated insult or a misjudgement.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:30 am
Hard to judge when the Bucs were consistently picking near the top of the draft while the Pats were the opposite. Bill definitely had some misses like Michel and Harry recently but the odds drop of a hit later in the round like that.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:54 am
August 1976 … I think the differences go deeper than that; it gets into priorities IMO, up until 2019 when BA signed on. Belicheck built a defensive powerhouse (his priority?) with an adequate offense … but one led by the greatest QB, Tom Brady. Licht built an offensive powerhouse (his priority?) with a marginal defense … but one needing a much better QB than Jameis to get us to the promised land.
BA changed that when he came onboard (with Todd Bowles in tow) IMO. Look at our 2019 draft: all defense. I’m convinced that was Bowles & Arians driving the train; not Licht. Then look at the FAs we signed, like Shaq & Suh; again, Bowles & Arians driving the train (I’m still convinced that both of them came because of Bowles). Even some of the other FAs since then like McLendon came because of Bowles IMO.
Jason Licht IMO ‘pulled the trigger’ on draft picks & FAs, but they have Arians & Bowles fingerprints all over them. And I’m also convinced that BA was also smart enough to let Bowles ‘have his head’ when it came to defensive signings AND to do the same thing with Tom Brady when he came onboard (thus the Gronk, BA & Fournette signings?).
As for Brady, he saw the offensive ‘priority’ that existed here, saw the ‘potential’ with him at the helm, and couldn’t resist at this later stage of his career. And especially with an improving defense led by Todd Bowles. Smart move obviously; got him and us a Super Bowl (but not without our defense playing at a very high level). It’ll be interesting to see if Brady stays if the Bucs’ defense flounders this year & we end up ‘paying the piper’ next year for kicking the can down the road salary-CAP-wise.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:54 am
When you are getting various years with top10 picks it gets easier.
In the first year after a SB champion Licht didn’t try to improve the weakness of the team and only drafted a player to replace an old player. Wasted pick #2, #3 and #4 and didn’t hit the FA market early as well.
Isn’t fair to compare Licht to BB when he isn’t even a top10 GM. Not even close.
September 29th, 2021 at 9:02 am
Yeah, for all their good moves in the past, it is overlooked at how badly the patriots drafted and managed their roster over the last several years. He also has had a major problem with constantly discarding vets when they still had years left. I get trying to go young sometimes but the patriots did a lot of people very wrong
September 29th, 2021 at 9:32 am
To say JL isn’t a top 10 GM is absurd. He is top 3 in the league right now. Some of you will never be happy. There isn’t a GM in the history of the game who hits on every single pick or signing. Not one. JL also knows how to cut his losses and move on from poor choices, which is also extremely valuable to the team. I’ll be happy to have JL as the GM for the next 15-20 years if he wants to stay. He’s that good. Can’t please everyone.
September 29th, 2021 at 11:39 am
DR my point is J licht is the one responsible for the whole scenario in 2020 and the 2021 team.
I am making the point because of all the garbage thrown at J Licht by many on this blog.
He has had his misses, Hello R Aguayo, but the Good- Draft picks that are starting today and free agents = World Champions, this far outweigh the Bad Mr J Licht has been connected to.
GO BUCS!!!!!
September 29th, 2021 at 11:48 am
J Licht is responsible for the whole scenario in 2020 and 2021
J Licht is the one who hired BA in2019, so whatever BA has done goes back to JL hiring BA.
JL did not fumble the Brady signing.
So the whole scenario goes back to J Licht.
and It = World Champions
And possibly more Championships during the run with Brady.
Time will tell.
Some people need to get real about J Licht the situation with the Bucs.
I will say it again WORLD CHAMPIONS and that scenario all goes back to J Licht
Take a Bow Jason, you have earned it.
But it is time for another Championship in 2021-22
GO BUCS!!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
September 29th, 2021 at 12:40 pm
People look so smart and good looking when they win a SuperBowl! Now Licht is a genious and Bucs roster was way better than the previous results showed. That’s hilarious! The reason why Bucs are where they are is Tom Brady. Period.
September 29th, 2021 at 12:54 pm
I like Licht, but better than Bill?
Sorry not yet. Maybe after another 5-6 SB rings…
September 29th, 2021 at 2:27 pm
Tom Brady – the greatest NFL free agent magnet ever invented….
Patriots got away with signing high quality free agents for below market value for almost 2 decades….
Everyone assumed for the last 10 years that Bill Belicheat was a genius and the greatest coach ever – but it was at least 85% Tom Brady that made that entire 18 year New England Patriots dynasty happen.
Now Belichick is exposed for the not-so-great talent evaluator and non-winning coach that he is without Tom Brady…. A rich man’s Greg Schiano if you will…. Smart and tough defensive coach – but basically an A-hole when it comes to ‘control’ measures and personal relationships….
September 29th, 2021 at 2:36 pm
Lol, pickgrin, “rich man’s Greg Schiano” , that’s awesome !
September 29th, 2021 at 3:40 pm
Sporting news 2021 ranked Licht best gm followed by Chiefs, Ravens, and Bills. End of story.