The bolded is interesting to me. Some players will "control" their way out of town solely for money. But I think there are many who, cognizant of their likely short careers or who are late-career, will try to force their way out of losing situations (whether by tanking or incompetence). There's a growing number of players who seem less interested in sacrificing their health for a directionless (or worse) franchise. So I think it's also a good question whether more players exercising control means more good players for BB just because he and the team have their shit so together. I'm not suggesting there aren't other franchises that are attractive for this reason. But I think it goes to how much (or little) BB has to adapt. Chris Long dealt with it. Bennett less so.
Yeah, I can see two sides. You make a good point. It's really hard to know without being in that world, since it's such a unique world.
My instinct is that power dynamics are changing in the NFL and that the next great coach might find a way to make it work in a less hierarchical way. I know that this kind of goes against conventional wisdom and the way things have been done for many many years, and so it's very clear that I could be wrong. The Pete Carroll approach has some downsides and you definitely cannot run any organization of 100 people by committee -- especially where many of the employees have more job security and make more money than the boss. And you need someone to manage a very very competitive group of players. But there's always more than one way to run a railroad. Perhaps the NFL will, after the Patriots dynasty, just revert to one-off parity peaks and valleys, but I tend to think someone will be an innovator the way Belichick has been, and when I wonder what kind of innovation makes sense in the mid-21st Century, you could imagine some coach who finds way to be more progressive. And, whatever it is, you can almost guarantee that it will turn our stomachs -- just the way that all innovation tends to turn the stomachs of the old guard who have gotten used to something. (I should note that when it comes to innovation in a changing game -- Belichick is actually the master. I'm more talking about innovations in how staff and players relate.)
It just feels to me as though there may be a bit of a paradigm shift underfoot, that I'm not sure Belichick could or would want to incorporate. I think it's more than a few years away, though, so it probably doesn't make any difference for him. But for present purposes, where you have to commit substantial resources limited by the cap to individual players, my way or the highway is always going to be a bit risky.