Patriots coach Bill Belichick explained the “Patriots Way” of doing business in his first press conference at the Super Bowl on Sunday. It’s a simple philosophy, really, but one that Belichick follows more religiously than others.
“One thing we tell all the players at the beginning of the year, and if you look at our track record and history it’s true, I tell the team I don’t care how you got here, it’s what you do when you get here,” Belichick said.
“It doesn’t matter if you were drafted in the second round, fifth round, or not drafted at all. Ten years in the league, one year in the league, we are going to play the best players. Whoever that it is, is decided by you.”
Lions coach Jim Schwartz got a first-hand look at how Belichick does business during his days in the personnel department with the Browns in the early 90's when Belichick was the teams' head coach.
Lions vice chairman William Clay Ford Jr. said in an interview with detroitlions.com last week that the model the Patriots have established is one Lions president Tom Lewand, general manager Martin Mayhew and Schwartz believe in.
“You look at the best teams in the league and they don't get sentimental,” he said. “The one thing about the New England Patriots is they reload on the run. If they feel like somebody they considered untouchable even a year ago no longer untouchable, they'll make that decision and go.”
It’s a philosophy that has earned the Patriots their fifth Super Bowl appearance in the last 11 years.
“Players ask me before the season, if we sign them as a free agent or draft them, ‘What do you want my role to be?'" Belichick said.
"'Whatever you make it, I don’t know. If you play good, you will have a big role, if you don’t play very well, then someone else will have a bigger role than you,’” Belichick said of his answer to that question.
Belichick used running backs BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Danny Woodhead as examples; players who went undrafted, who now play big roles in the Patriots’ offense.
In the salary cap era, the teams that stay good for a long time are stable at the quarterback position, make tough decisions regarding the salary cap and free agents and play their young players.
The Lions have some tough decisions to make of their own this offseason when it comes to signing free agents and building their roster around the salary cap.
We’ll see how closely their philosophy is aligned to the Patriots’ over the next couple months.
