Bill Belichick’s genius in one area has largely been overlooked
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Chris Simms spent a year working as a coaching assistant with the Patriots in 2012. Next to his desk there was a sign that read: “We’re not collecting players. We’re building a team.”
“I think that’s where it all starts really,” Simms said of the Patriots’ approach to building a roster. “New England follows the model a little of brains over brawn. They’re not in the ‘we’re going to take the best player available’ and that crap. That makes no sense. When teams say that, I want to say, ‘OK.’ Maybe on occasion once every 20 years, but you have to do what’s best for your team going forward, positional fit.”
The Patriots are in the Super Bowl for the third time in four years and the eighth time since 2001. Much of the credit given to Bill Belichick is about his coaching genius, but the Patriots machine also is fueled by Belichick’s other role as de facto general manager.
Belichick oversees a scouting system he first developed as head coach of the Browns and streamlined with the Patriots that ensures everyone working for New England knows exactly what kind of players the team is looking for.
When general manager Ernie Accorsi left the Browns after the 1992 season, Belichick tapped Mike Lombardi as his director of player personnel. They began to rethink how the team scouted. According to the book “War Room,” Belichick did not like how his college scouts spoke one language and his pro scouts spoke another. Belichick took parts of what he liked about how the Giants (where he spent 12 years as an assistant coach) scouted and then added his own twist on it, working with Lombardi, defensive coordinator Nick Saban, offensive assistant Ernie Adams and special teams coordinator Scott O’Brien to create a new scouting system.
“At the Giants, we had a system that was set up that there was some relevance to. But what we did in Cleveland was different than that,” Belichick said this week. “I learned a lot from being at the Giants for 12 years and how they approached the evaluation of players. In Cleveland we took things from being different angles — Mike’s personnel angle, Nick had a lot of input defensively. I had a lot of input in the whole process. Scott on special teams. Ernie on offense.
“We took a lot of those grading principles and tried to put them all together and rewrote the scouting book, the grading book in Cleveland and redid it again in 2000 when we came to New England.”
Belichick’s greatest success when it comes to drafting is taking Tom Brady in the sixth round of the 2000 draft, of course. But look at the way Belichick has reinvented the roster over and over during Brady’s time, from the Rodney Harrison/Tedy Bruschi defensive teams of the early 2000s to the Randy Moss-fueled offense of the late 2000s to the current version, with Rob Gronkowski leading Brady’s supporting cast.
The team that plays Sunday has 18 undrafted free agents, a defense with seven key players who joined the team this year and an offense that has just one starter who was a Patriots first-round pick.
“The scouting that goes on in New England is unlike any other,” Simms said. “It’s so scrutinized, whether it’s how many tapes you make about the players, the in-depth report on personality, the research they do behind the scenes to know if there are any personal issues, all of that goes into the system, is what you’d call it in New England. There is no stone unturned.
“They find guys that fit their system. They’re not worried about if they are the best guy out there. They want the guy that fits what they want to do.”
Most teams have a constant battle between the front office and the coaching staff. General managers want their draft picks to play. Coaches want to play who they like. Ironically enough it was a Patriots coach who summed this up best when Bill Parcells said he should be able to buy the groceries if he had to cook the meal. Patriots owner Robert Kraft got the message, and Belichick is now in charge of everything.
“Nick Caserio is basically the GM, but he’s an extension of Bill,” Simms said. “Bill’s taught him how to evaluate players. Nick, Josh [McDaniels], Matt Patricia, they like grew up in the New England system so they know exactly what he’s looking for. At the end of the day, Bill’s going to make the call. I know there are times when the personnel guys up there are like, ‘Damn, I think this guy was better.’ But you’re going to go with it. You’re not going to argue with Bill.”