Patriot Way evolves into AFC South way
If you can’t beat them, use their personnel to emulate them
Patriots South. That is really what the Texans’ division should be called.
What do Bill O’Brien, Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels have in common?
New England, Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the dynasty that refuses to die.
As does Romeo Crennel, who reclaimed his old job of defensive coordinator when the Tennessee Titans hired Vrabel away from the Texans.
Three of the AFC South’s four teams are expected to soon be coached by names plucked from the Belichick tree. O’Brien and Vrabel already are on the job. The only holdup with McDaniels is that the Patriots are in the Super Bowl again.
LeBron James and Kevin Durant spearheaded the “if you can’t beat them, join them” movement in the modern NBA. But that topheavy, star-obsessed league has nothing on the NFL, which continues to pounce on Belichick protégés almost two decades into New England’s unbelievable run.
Granted, this annual trend isn’t new and obviously hasn’t always worked as expected. See: McDaniels in Denver (11-17), Crennel with Cleveland and Kansas City (28-55), O’Brien with the Texans (3133) and whatever happened to Charlie Weis.
But is it a coincidence that
three of the AFC South’s expected coaches in 2018 have New England plastered all over their résumés? Of course not.
And as much as Jacksonville needed a top-down shakeup heading into the 2017 campaign, the fact that Tom Coughlin handed Belichick his only two Super Bowl defeats probably wasn’t lost on the Jaguars, who were nine minutes away from taking down the Patriots on Sunday.
You can lead 20-10 in the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship Game with a ferocious defense and Blake Bortles actually holding his own against an injured Brady.
You can be up 28-3 late in the third quarter of the Super Bowl with the NFL MVP. It does not matter. The Patriots will win, somehow. The rest of the league will bow to the kings — then try to hire away a few shining knights to show the rest of the losers how it’s really done.
8th Super Bowl in 17 years
Since the 2001 season — Brady taking over for an injured Drew Bledsoe; the NFL’s Big Bang to kick off a new millennium — the AFC has overwhelmingly been dominated, influenced and shaped by the unflinching football factory just outside of Boston.
Belichick and Brady are appearing in their eighth Super Bowl in 17 seasons together. One of those non-title game years receives an asterisk, too: Belichick went 11-5 with Matt Cassel in 2008, which is a little better than O’Brien did this season with Tom Savage and T.J. Yates after Deshaun Watson went down.
If New England beats down a city of underdogs next week in SB LII, Brady will have his first ring for his non-throwing hand, while Belichick’s Patriots will tie Pittsburgh for the most championships (six) in NFL history. The Steelers’ total was reached during two eras, which tells you once again just how dominant B&B have been since ’01.
The AFC picture is even more one-sided. Peyton Manning (with two teams), Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco and Rich Gannon (when Jon Gruden coached Tampa Bay) made it through the gauntlet since the Patriots took over the league. Other than that, it has been New England ad nauseam for 17 seasons, with Brady and Belichick representing the AFC in the Super Bowl an astonishing 47 percent of the time.
Belichick has reached at least 10 wins in 16 of the last 17 seasons. His only “bad” year with Brady came in 2002 at 9-7, which is the best O’Brien has finished in four seasons leading the Texans.
In a way, expatriated
A pro football team from Houston has never been to the Super Bowl, which is one of the many reasons Bob McNair first turned to a Belichick disciple in 2014. In 2012, the Texans finished a franchise-best 12-4. Then they were hammered by the Patriots in mid-January.
Can’t beat ’em? Try to imitate them.
O’Brien made the most noise at Penn State. But that job was set up by the football lifer working his way up in New England. And when he took over the Texans in ’14, several former Patriots followed him to Houston, with Vrabel and Crennel representing the biggest names.
Now Vrabel has been handed the keys to Marcus Mariota in Tennessee, while McDaniels is expected to soon be asked to revive Andrew Luck’s career in Indianapolis.
Belichick and Brady just keep beating everybody, overcoming the impossible, improving their system, going to Super Bowls and shining their rings. Seventeen years after New England’s dynasty began, the NFL is still playing catchup and the AFC South is putting its faith in exPats.