FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — On a random day during the offseason about a decade ago, Gil Brandt, the man responsible for the roster construction of the great Dallas Cowboy dynasties, received an unexpected phone call.
Bill Belichick was on the other line, and he had a very specific question.
“You guys won the first game of the season in 18 consecutive years,” Belichick said. “What did you do differently to win those 18 games?”
So Brandt offered up his insight. He remembered how the organization handled things as simple as helping rookies set up bank accounts and find apartments, allowing the players to focus purely on football. He described how the Cowboys were able to operate efficiently in the beginning months of the season, which can be chaotic for any franchise.
As Brandt shared, Belichick simply listened.
“He never stops asking questions,” said Brandt, now 86 and a Pro Football Hall of Famer. “A lot of guys think they know it all but he always is asking questions … There will never be another Belichick. And I say that working for (former coach Tom) Landry, who I thought was great. But everything that Landry had done, Belichick seems to have done a little bit better or improved on.”
Above all, Belichick’s insatiable curiosity and willingness to adapt is the driving force behind the Patriots’ dynasty.
“He’s a guy that may doze off a minute but he never closes his eyes,” Brandt said. “He’s a guy that gets the Sunday paper on Wednesday.”
IT’S NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE
In Belichick’s first decade running the show in New England, the Patriots put together the most successful 10-year run in NFL history. They won 126 games (to that point the most by any NFL team in a single decade), captured three Super Bowls and turned in the only 16-0 regular season in league history.
In the second decade, all the Patriots have done is gotten significantly better.
They’ve won 129 games, including playoffs, besting their own NFL record. They’ll simply be padding the stats this year with a roster well-positioned to chase a seventh Lombardi Trophy.
Last season’s 11-5 season, which culminated in a wild postseason run and a Super Bowl trouncing of the Rams, was the club’s “worst” of the decade. The Pats won at least 12 games every other year. For context, no other team in that span has posted more than four 12-win seasons (Denver from 2012-15).
Even from a win-percentage standpoint, the 2010-19 Pats are on pace to shatter the record for most successful decade, a distinction that belongs to Brandt and Landry’s Cowboys of the 1970s. They went 119-46, winning a remarkable 72.1 percent of their games. The 2010-19 Patriots hold a winning percentage of 77.7. They could go 3-13 this season and still top the Cowboys of the 70s.
“First of all, when we had 20 consecutive winning seasons back in the 70s and early 80s, it was a lot easier to win then than it is now,” Brandt said. “And I think that when you’ve won in this past 10-year period of time, it’s a lot harder and more meaningful than when you’ve won 10 years before that. The competitive balance of this league changes, it seems, like almost hourly. Everybody is getting better at what they do – they get better at (managing) the cap, better at drafting, better at everything, nutrition, weight program, whatever it is.”
On paper, the second half of the Patriots’ 20-year dynasty trumps the first half. More wins, more Super Bowl appearances, the outrageous streak of eight consecutive Final Fours (a run unlikely to be matched in any professional sport).
A WONDROUS CORE GROUP
It’s also the way the Patriots have done it. The unrivaled success of the 2010-19 Patriots has been built almost exclusively on the drafting and development of players.
As the dynasty was first taking off, about half of the foundational players surrounding Tom Brady were acquired in free agency or via trade: Rodney Harrison, Mike Vrabel, Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Corey Dillon (of course, players such as Vince Wilfork, Richard Seymour, Ty Law, Asante Samuel, and Logan Mankins came up through the system).
In December 2015, after seven Patriots were named to the Pro Bowl, Belichick told the media, “I’m proud of the fact that all seven of those players are homegrown. They all came in as Patriots, spent their whole career here as Patriots, developed as Patriots one way or another, but that’s what they all are. I think there’s something to be said for that.”
The selections that year were Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Malcolm Butler, Chandler Jones, Jamie Collins, Stephen Gostkowski and Matthew Slater. It’s a group that doesn’t even include some of the strongest pillars of the 2010-19 Patriots: Julian Edelman, Devin McCourty, Patrick Chung and Dont’a Hightower. They’re all homegrown as well.
Seven Patriots – Brady, Gronkowski, Edelman, McCourty, Chung, Slater, Gostkowski – have been on the roster for all five Super Bowl appearances this decade. That’s the core. A dozen others who were brought into the NFL by the Patriots, such as James White, Brandon Bolden, Nate Ebner, Duron Harmon, Nate Solder, Sebastian Vollmer, Joe Thuney, Shaq Mason, David Andrews and Trey Flowers, were or have been around for most of New England’s past five Super Bowl appearances.
“I’m sure when it’s all said and done, we’re going to be able to appreciate what we’ve accomplished (together),” Slater said this week. “But look, we haven’t even had a Wednesday practice leading up to a game. We have a lot of work to do. We’re all proud of what we’ve accomplished. We’re all proud of being able to call each other friends, and brothers and teammates. But we realize that nothing is guaranteed to us this year.”
It’s a mentality that has carried these Patriots to unprecedented heights.
ALWAYS AHEAD OF THE PACK
In a league where seats at the head table are always available (seven new playoff teams in 2018, eight in 2017), the Patriots called ahead and booked a permanent spot.
“Here’s what’s happened now because of the communication: It’s harder to stay ahead than it was 10 years ago, when we didn’t have the technology that enabled other people to see what you’re doing and look at it, and compare it and try to do it better,” Brandt said. “But I definitely feel confident in saying that they are the trendsetter of most new and innovative and creative things that come into the NFL.”
The Pats can close the book on the decade with a sixth Super Bowl appearance, which would further distance their franchise from some of the great NFL dynasties. The 1970s Steelers reached four Super Bowls. The 1990s Bills did, too. Same for the 1980s 49ers.
The legendary Cowboys teams of the 1970s reached five.
“Our team had 20 consecutive winning seasons, and quite honestly I never thought anybody would get past 10,” Brandt said. “I guess they’re at 18 and show no signs of slowing down.”
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