New England Patriots: How To Avoid Becoming Irrelevant…Again.

January 23, 2011   ·   Dennis Parslow   ·   Jump to comments

While the Patriots made the occasional run at the Super Bowl every 10 years or so, they had mostly been irrelevant until Bill Belichick and Tom Brady came along. 
There were great players and some great runs, but for the most part, they could never put it all together before 2001.  Belichick inherited some talent on defense and then went grocery shopping to fill in the missing pieces until he had a Top Five unit.  Then, Brady made clutch plays under pressure to win the big games, making them more than relevant. They were hated—the mark of a dynastic team. 
Bill Belichick whiffed in the draft for a few years but apparently regained some of his mojo the last couple of years, hitting on McCourty, Mayo, Vollmer, Gronkowski, Hernandez and possibly several others.   He may be building a Top Five defense again if several others; Chung, Brace, Tate, Cunningham and Spikes can reach their potential, and he can make good use of the bevy of picks he ha...

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