Bill Belichick Made This Mistake and Now It’s Time to Own Up to It

Bill Belichick had the luxury of coaching the greatest quarterback of all-time for two decades but when Tom Brady left for Tampa Bay, Belichick was forced to find a new leader of the offense.

And he chose the wrong one.

He brought in Cam Newton to be his new quarterback presumably because he felt that he could get Cam back to his 2015 form. But, he took on a task that was impossible to complete. Newton hadn’t really played since 2018 (he played two games in 2019), and Belichick was expecting him to step on an NFL field and perform as if that wasn’t the case.

And on top of that, it’s not like the Patriots gave Newton a bunch of weapons like the Bills gave Josh Allen this year headlined by Stefon Diggs. No, Newton had an old Julian Edelman (until he got hurt), N’Keal Harry, and James White (who’s a running back).

Newton unsurprisingly struggled this season and showed that he isn’t a starting-caliber quarterback for a playoff team. He threw five touchdowns all season. Josh Allen is in his own division and he has 34 touchdowns with another game to play–which is almost seven times the amount of touchdowns than Newton.

The point here is other teams (in the AFC East) have made the right decision by drafting a young quarterback in the first round of the draft while Belichick didn’t. Instead, he traded his first-round pick and drafted a linebacker in the second round and then tried to revive the career of a guy who is past his prime and has lost a step.

Belichick is a great coach but he took on an impossible task that failed this season. Now, he has to make a decision about who will be his quarterback in the future.

(Photo: Charles Krupa/AP)