Because I don't think he'd gel with every personality at that spot and the things he values at the position aren't really what I'd prioritize when looking for my next guy. I would be concerned with the relationship he'd have with a Caleb Williams, for instance. And not just off the field. Would he try to rein in the attributes that could make him special? Also, isn't Bill's track record of developing QBs kind of just Tom Brady? Are Brissett and Garoppolo his success stories? Those guys barely played in NE and had their best years in completely different systems, is Bill really the one who should be credited for their solid careers?
Personally, I don't think Bill's credit is for "developing QB's" in the traditional sense.
I think what Bill brings to the table for QB's is the best defensive mind in football history. He has the ability to sit a QB down and tell them what the defense is going to do. He's basically a human cheat sheet for a QB when it comes to executing on the field. I believe that's why it's impossible for people to separate credit between Bill and Tom. Neither are as successful without the other.
But, to me, developing a QB is more than that, and that's the job of the QB's coach and the OC. Bill isn't sitting with Tom or anyone else and talking about footwork, arm angles, strength/flexibility or even pocket mobility. He's there to explain to them "when you see this look, this is what's going to develop and this is what your x does, this is where your Y is, and this is where you're going to find an opening." That's his bread and butter. That's how you take a Matt Cassel and plug him and come out 11-5. It's the same way he coaches his defensive players, he dumbs it down and gives them a few things to focus on at a time or even for an entire game.
I mean, nobody has take my word for it, this is Brady himself:
Cowherd was clearly trying to stir the pot on a question where he asked Brady if, under Belichick, the club might have been ever been too tight at times ahead of a big game, asking the former quarterback if he ever felt like he needed to step in as a leader and “lighten this room up.”
Brady actually admitted it was in fact, just the opposite. He said the preparation was generally so good that it gave players confidence heading into the game.
“I think the answer would be no, and I think that’s where Bill was actually so great,” said Brady. “And no one saw him in those moments like we did. And Saturday night, we were so prepared and so focused, we were the opposite of tight.
We were always relaxed because we had the answers to the test. I knew that … I went through the call sheet. Let’s say we had 150 calls on the call sheet. There was a squad meeting at 8:00. I would meet with the quarterbacks starting at 6:30 and the offensive coordinator. We’d go through every single play on the call sheet, and we’d do exactly what we do. We do exactly what we did. ‘Okay, this is the play, this is the run.
What’s the one thing that could mess this run up? Oh, a safety blitz off the right side. Okay, great. What do you want to do if that happens?’”
“So, I’d walk to the line of scrimmage. That call was made. I’d break the huddle. I’d look to the line of scrimmage. I’d say, ‘Okay, the only problem I have on this play is if the safety is blitzing off the right side.’ Then I would just look for it and he only did it, let’s say, 5% of the time. So, most coaches would just say, ‘Ah, just run the play, whatever. If they get lucky and call at the same time, one for them.’ That’s not how I played because that one play could mean everything. I would say, ‘No, if it’s a 5% chance, it could happen. What should I do if it happens?’ So, we’re all on the same page.”
“I would tell the line, ‘Okay, if this guy’s blitzing, this is what I’m doing, I’m going to check to this play. We’ll call Wolf, or call Beatle, or call Python,’ whatever we wanted to call it. This is what I’m going to do. Or I’m going to check to a screen, Liz, Rip. I’m going to change to protection and go to Greta or Grape. So, there was all these different code words that we had that we can get to them so quickly because it’s hard to do when there’s 70,000 fans. It’s hard to do it to communicate to everybody in 10 seconds to go from one play to another play. But that’s what the continuity allowed us to do over a long period of time. That’s what the same coordinator, the similar core group of players could do, the same offensive line coach.
“‘Oh, yeah, we did that two years ago. Yeah, I like that solution. That worked great.’ That allowed us win the game. Great. We gained confidence in it. That continuity that we had with all of us allowed us to succeed in those little small percentage chances that they did something or made a call that could beat what we were doing. And I think so much of that is what the beautiful part about the sport is. That’s the chess game in football. It’s not checkers. It’s not soccer where everything’s reaction. It’s not hockey. It’s not basketball. They’re all set pieces. There’s a play.”
“When I looked at the real field generals when I played growing up, that was John Elway, Dan Marino. Then you got to the Peyton Mannings and Drew Brees and Philip Rivers. That’s all we tried to do. We tried to say, ‘What’s the defense doing and how can we beat the defense on every single play?’ Then we’d come out of the game. That’s how we would judge ourselves. Did I make the right call there? Not always did I make the right throw. Did I snap the ball into a defense that that play would actually work?”
