April 10, 2020
4:20am, Lewiston, Maine
The departure of Tom Brady means the end of an era for the New England Patriots - or does it?
Of course, it means the end of the Brady sub-era, but with head coach Bill Belichick still in control of the team, the Belichickian Era is still in play, and it is promising the most interesting offseason for the Patriots in the past two decades.
Interesting for no other reason than now with Brady out of the way, Belichick can finally build his team from the ground up, surrounding the bare-bones roster with meat of his choosing, with a chance to put to rest, once and for all, the argument of whether Belichick made Brady or if Brady made Belichick and, at the same time, run his offense according to how he's built it over the past three years.
With Brady under center, the Patriots' offense was at his whim. Sure, Belichick was in charge and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels called the plays, but the concept-based system in place that Brady was the master of, McDaniels may have had the control of the personnel groupings and the requisite corner of the playbook at his disposal, but each concept sent in had half-a-dozen route combinations and twice as many audibles available that only Brady had control of.
And those numbers are probably conservative, but it still illustrates that when Belichick's product was on the field, it was Brady and not him who controlled what resource Brady used - and for the aforementioned past three seasons, the resources were became increasingly incompatible to the offense that he had run for the previous decade-and-a-half.
It was purposeful on Belichick's part. He had to prepare the franchise for life after Brady, and he thought that was going to be three years ago, when the situation dictated that he trade the heir-in-waiting in Jimmy Garoppolo to San Francisco - for what amounted to a substantial loss in his investment...
...all because team owner Bob Kraft and his meddling ways stepped in and forbade Belichick to deal away the quarterback whom Kraft considered one of his kids. To further exacerbate the situation, the San Francisco 49ers had already rejected Belichick's offer to deal Brady, but expressed a tremendous amount of interest in Garoppolo.
But no matter what actually occurred, Belichick stayed his course and started building his roster to make as seamless as possible the transition from Brady to whomever would eventually take over at quarterback - and since he knew that it would be close to impossible to find another pro-ready replacement with a similar skill set, his focus was on building a power-based scheme that would mitigate so much responsibility on said replacement.
So when Brady bitched and bristled last season about his supporting cast, he had reached his last straw with Belichick. Brady wanted weapons to win another title with before he inevitably left, while Belichick was sticking to his plan.
And now that Brady is officially gone, what Belichick now has control over is an offensive depth chart built for power football - which, if he goes forward under the same philosophy, his roster will be much bigger or offense, and that will obviously translate to the product on the field.
Not that he - not I, for that matter - isn't appreciative of all the Brady has helped this franchise accomplish. For example, ever since Garoppolo was traded, my wife has been bitching at me to take down the Brady Fathead that I have on the wall of our living room - but it is still there, along with all of the other Patriots and Bruins memorabilia.
Brady will be remembered fondly, and will always wear the moniker of the Greatest of all Time in my heart - but he will not be missed. The time is now for Belichick to pick up the pieces of the roster and truly build the franchise in his own image - and since football teams are built from the inside out, that begins with the offensive line.
Since selecting right guard Shaq Mason five years ago, Belichick has been stocking his offensive line with powerful run blocking specialists, and now that he doesn't have to appease Brady, he can finally use them for what he intended the entire time.
In this scenario, the line is set in every position except for right tackle, where incumbent Marcus Cannon is on his last legs and ripe for demotion to swing tackle duties. The depth behind him is ill-equipped to step in and wrestle the starting job away - and with salary cap space eaten up by dead money from Brady's last contract, bringing in a replacement via free agency is a dead dream, so Belichick will have to focus on the upcoming draft to upgrade and solidify the position.
So important is the right tackle position in the power blocking scheme that it wouldn't be surprising to see Belichick use his lone first-day selection to draft an upgrade, though he would probably have to trade up to the top-15 in the first round to snag the best right tackle in the draft.
The problem is that with no second-round pick to offer as incentive to other teams that select ahead of him, Belichick would be hard-pressed to find enough ammo to exchange with them to secure Louisville's 6' 7", 360 pound Mekhi Becton without mortgaging their future.
Becton would be worth the price to be paid, as despite being so large, he is still as nimble in pass protection as he is powerful in the running game. In pass protection, his wingspan makes it difficult for edge rushers to get around and bull rushers will find it nearly impossible to move him off his base - But his forte is run blocking, where he simply wipes out defenders and plows the row for runners.
He does need some instruction in regard to working in space on the second level, but the man is a difference-maker as a right tackle and could very well change the entire culture of the offensive line.
As good as Becton projects to be, Belichick just doesn't have the draft capital to make a trade-up without dealing away future draft picks, so he would be wise to trade his own first-round draft pick to move down into the second round, then use one of his three third-round selections to go after TCU's 6' 6", 330 pound Lucas Niang.
Powerful hands and violent intent are the hallmarks of Niang, who comes from the same program that produced Cannon a decade ago. Like Cannon, his specialty is run blocking, but he comes to the NFL with a more defined pass blocking package than Cannon possesses. His handwork is elite in both phases, but speed-to-power pass rushers will occasionally gain the edge of him in pass protection, as he relies more on strength and length to swallow up one-dimensional rushers.
That would have been an occasional problem with the stationary target Brady still under center, but becomes less so with a more mobile quarterback, second-year signal caller Jarrett Stidham being the odds-on starter at press time - though that could change drastically, especially if Belichick did indeed trade down and use his second rounder on one of the many quality quarterbacks coming out of college.
Either way, a mobile quarterback would precipitate the selection of Niang. In the running game, he is a pancake maker with the ability to climb the ladder and erase linebackers - A tremendous value if he's still available in the third round, as predicted.
Whichever route Belichick takes to select a right tackle, upgrading the position is a priority, and either Becton or Niang would join left tackle Isaiah Wynn, left guard Dan Thuney, center David Andrews and the aforementioned Mason to form a powerful run-blocking line that is also capable of protecting a more mobile quarterback.
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