Zappemania was fun for like 2 weeks but after the Chicago game it's clear he's just another pumpkin and honestly worse than Mac.
What I hate is how we're stuck in neutral where we're not good enough to be serious contenders but not bad enough to get a top-10 pick.
I've always supported Bill, I honestly think 2020 and nearly dragging Cam Newton and a roster with like 8 key Covid opt-outs to a wild card was one of his finest coaching jobs over his career. I don't think the game has passed him by as much as it did Landry and Shula toward the end. But there's something weird around this year. Some posters like to psychologize him and assume that he's got a big ego and intentionally rolling out bad quarterbacks and reaching for draft picks like Strange in a vain attempt to prove he can win with the Trent Dilfers of the league or can coach up anyone to an all-pro level, which I disagree with wholeheartedly. I don't think he has a self-destructive ego. I think he's aloof and arrogant, but he is very smart and doesn't do things to deliberately make his team worse.
He's always been a great coach but the best coaches never do it alone, they always have a well-trained staff behind them. I think there's been a massive brain drain in his coaching ranks the last few years with his better assistants moving on (Flores and McDaniels took some of their position coaches with them, Scar retired, then Popovich who was groomed to take over for Scar refused to get vaccinated. Ivan Fears retired). Caserio and Ziegler both left for front office jobs with other teams. And filling a lot of roles at once made him lean on people he can trust and has working familiarity with rather than risking bringing in unknown quantities or known coaches from other trees who may have different communication styles and/or may challenge his authority and foment discord on the team, which brought us Patricia and Judge back, along with his son getting a prominent role. But he's plugging his coaches into inadequate spots. Matty P might be a rocket surgeon but he made his bread and butter as a defensive coordinator, why is he coaching O-Line and calling plays? But he doesn't want to look outside the organization for an offensive coach.
Then there's f***in' Ernie Adams who I still don't know what he actually did there but was some kind of wizard. He's been retired so who knows if that has removed some of the secret sauce from the Belichick gameplan. No denying that they've been a lot more conservative on 4th downs between the 40s the last two years. Could be something there. But I'd attribute most of the problems to brain drain. Whole team often looks unprepared and takes dumb penalties. The exodus of coordinators, positional coaches, and front office execs takes a massive toll. Even the best coach in the world wouldn't have time to individually work with all 53 men on the roster plus practice squad and game plan in one week. It's always been a well-disciplined machine from top-down that leaned on the assistants to have their units prepared and to contribute their expertise, but that whole hierarchy collapsed and hollowed out which leaves Bill sitting at the top looking like a fool, which is somewhat unfair.
yah I was off yesterday - I’m a creature of habit and basically follow a (fun but productive) format 
