MNF Open Thread: Twilight of the gods edition
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If this turns out to be as rough a season for the Patriots as both Week 1 and their underlying process suggests, there’s something worth keeping in mind:
Noll and Gibbs ended 30-34, Parcells 34-30, Shanahan 24-40. If the Pats go 6-11 it doesn't mean he wasn't great, it means that even great coaches who don't retire early generally lose their fastball eventually https://t.co/Pa3aP1PSZb— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) September 12, 2022
And while late-period Shula’s record looks superficially better it was really pretty substantial underachievement given that he had a top-5 all-time QB for almost all of it. (Marino never winning even a single Super Bowl should in itself be enough to refute the it-was-just-Brady argument about the Patriots dynasty.) When even the greatest coaches don’t retire early, they’re more likely to go out with a whimper than a bang. (Ask any fan of the White Sox!)
So we should remember that Pete Carroll was a great coach — he built a championship team in college, and then built one of the 20 best NFL teams of all time, in both cases out of pretty much nothing. But eventually top coaches can become parodies of themselves, and it sure looks like the effect will be particularly powerful in this case of the Wilson/Schnieder team an the Seahawks:
Schneider later apologized to the Saints and other teams who had called, having told them they weren’t trading Wilson. Denver was Wilson’s only option and Schneider’s preferred choice, because Drew Lock was the quarterback Schneider wanted in return. Schneider met with Broncos GM George Paton at the Senior Bowl in early February and again at the scouting combine in Indianapolis a month later. At the combine, Carroll told reporters in carefully chosen wording that the team had “no intention” of trading Wilson.
Oh, so we needed to reduce our leverage when trading our Hall of Fame-caliber QB after completely failing to build an adequate supporting cast for years, because we really need the failed QB prospect so atrocious that the Seahawks (correctly!) see him as a considerably worse option than the 31-year-old journeyman backup who will be starting in front of him.
Maybe Seattle will be vindicated. Maybe Wilson will age poorly, maybe they’ve finally gotten their ability to draft defensive players back. But if I were you I would definitely bet the other way.