I posted this over on a FB page:
“Yeah, I’ll get mocked for this… and that’s fine. If it makes your life happier to mock a random stranger, go for it. But is it possible that Reid is a better coach than Belichick? I mean, everywhere Reid has been, no matter the QB, they’ve been pretty dang successful. Belichick without Brady is mediocre at best and has been fired a couple times before. Reid has had success with players from the great ones like Pat Mahomes to the solid ones like McNabb to the very mediocre ones like Alex Smith. Even did a pretty solid job with making Vick into a better passer than he ever was even several years after he had been in the league”
So if I wanted to argue against it...
1. How would you define "success" for Andy Reid in the pre-Mahomes era? Like what's the measurement? Is it W/L record, is it playoff wins, is it SB victories, etc. Because depending on what the arbitrary measuring stick is, it completely makes or breaks your argument.
2. Not sure we should pretend like Belichick getting fired is a big deal, while simultaneously ignoring that Reid also has been fired as a HC. Feels like its a knock for both or neither.
3. Not sure we should be totally discounting the work that Belichick did without Brady. An 11-win season with Matt Cassel isn't exactly easy, nor is the fact that he was in the playoffs last year without Brady and close to it this year (with what I would consider to be some of the weaker rosters in the league).
4. They're obviously not "specialists" in the same area of football, i.e. Reid is considered an offensive guru, while Belichick is considered a defensive guru.
So if we're evaluating Reid based on what he's done with less talented QBs, feels like the only fair comparison would be to evaluate the historical effectiveness of Patriots defenses.