Bouchette’s Walkthrough: Why is the Bill Belichick coaching tree so poisoned? (2024)

Bill O’Brien brings his Houston Texans to Heinz Field on Sunday, which means it’s time for only one thing:

An update on that Bill Belichick Patriots coaching tree.

The O’Brien branch is the only healthy one of the bunch, and there have been many. Counting only the pros, those from Belichick’s New England staff have compiled a 138-204 record as NFL head coaches, a .404 winning percentage. Four of them remain head coaches in the NFL and all four are off to 0-2 starts — first-year coach Joe Judge of the New York Giants, second-year coach Brian Flores (5-13) of the Miami Dolphins, third-year coach Matt Patricia of the Detroit Lions (9-24) and O’Brien, who is in his seventh season with the Texans after his two as Penn State’s head coach.

O’Brien by far has been the most successful with a 52-46 record and four AFC South division titles in six years. He also owns the distinction as the only one from Belichick’s New England staff ever to win a playoff game with a 2-4 postseason record. Eric Mangini’s first New York Jets team finished second in the AFC East with a 10-6 record but promptly lost to his old boss’ Patriots in the only other playoff game coached by a former Belichick staffer. Mangini coached the Jets and Browns to a combined 33-47.

Other records from Belichick’s tree include Romeo Crennel (28-55 with the Browns and Chiefs) and Josh McDaniels (11-17 with the Broncos). Al Groh (9-7 Jets), Jim Schwartz (29-51 Lions) and Nick Saban (15-17 Dolphins) became head coaches after they were on Belichick’s staff with the Cleveland Browns, long before he turned into a coaching genius and Saban turned into his good friend Belichick’s equal in the college ranks.

O’Brien’s Texans have as good an excuse as any for starting the season with two losses. They opened at reigning Super Bowl champ Kansas City at 34-20 and followed with a 33-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, who were 14-2 last season.

As Mike Tomlin said Tuesday, “They’re 0-2 from a record standpoint, but they’re as battle-tested as any team in the NFL. They’ve probably played the two best teams, if you take 2019 as a frame of reference.”

Five items on my mind

1. The Steelers may not have a true No. 1 receiver, but they have a deep and talented group that includes JuJu Smith-Schuster, Diontae Johnson, James Washington and rookie Chase Claypool. It is reminiscent of their corps in 1995 when they had Yancey Thigpen, Andre Hastings, Ernie Mills and Charles Johnson. It prompted Dan Rooney to tell me he thought it was their best group of receivers “ever.” He did not, of course, mean their best receivers because they had John Stallworth and Lynn Swann, and Frank Lewis was a good one who was with those two in the mid-1970s. But they did not throw the ball nearly as often then, and that ’95 group went one deeper, and it was Rooney who made the claim, not me. Add tight end Mark Bruener, and Neil O’Donnell had all kinds of options back then. Add an emerging Eric Ebron, and that should be the case for Ben Roethlisberger today.

2. Why can’t the Steelers find a halfway good punter? They have not had a Pro Bowl punter since Bobby Walden in 1970. They do have one now because Dustin Colquitt made two Pro Bowls. Unfortunately, they were both with the Chiefs, where he spent his first 15 years in the NFL. He is one 38-year-old on their roster who is showing his age. After two games, Colquitt looks no better than the punter they cut to make room for him, Jordan Berry. Colquitt’s net after two games is 36.3, two from the bottom of eligible punters in the NFL. Right below him is Britton Colquitt, his younger brother who has a 34.7 net with the Vikings. Their dad, Craig, was a good if not Pro Bowl punter with the Steelers, where he earned two Super Bowl rings with them from 1978 through 1984. We’ll acknowledge it’s early yet, but Dustin’s net of 40.4 last season was worse than Berry’s 40.9 and his rate of landing them inside the 20 was not much different than Berry’s.

A punter actually won the Steelers Rookie of the Year in the second season that award was bestowed in a vote by the local Pro Football Writers. Harry Newsome took home the Joe Greene Great Performance Award in 1985 because that may have been their worst draft ever since Chuck Noll arrived in 1969. Go ahead, find a worse one: 1. Darryl Sims, 2. Mark Behning, 3. Liffort Hobley (the last third-round pick cut his rookie training camp), 4. Dan Turk, 5. Cam Jacobs. Newsome was drafted in the eighth round and played nine years in the NFL, his first five in Pittsburgh. Their most talented draft pick that year was linebacker Gregg Carr, mostly because after four seasons with the Steelers, he retired to pursue his medical degree at the University of Alabama and today is an orthopedic surgeon in Birmingham.

3. As for tight ends, it’s hard to explain why Vance McDonald has not developed into a bigger part of the passing game that he appeared on the verge of becoming two years ago. In 2018, he caught 50 passes for 610 yards and four touchdowns, including that memorable stiff-arm on the way to a 75-yard score in Tampa on a Monday night. He played 59 percent of the snaps (38) in this season’s opener and 55 percent (38) in the second game. Ebron played 63 percent (40 snaps) in the opener and 77 percent (50) in the second game. McDonald has one catch in each of the first two games for a total of six yards (targeted four times, with one drop). Ebron has four catches for 61 yards (targeted 7 times) in two games. Roethlisberger hasn’t dialed up his tight end throws much.

“It’s early,” Tomlin cautioned. “Keep watching. That is all I can say to that. At this juncture in the season, you can ask a lot of those types of questions. A two-game body of work is not a big enough sample to assess. We are pleased with the development of Ebron and his role within our system and time will tell that story as we proceed.”

4. Yet another reason we don’t gamble. The Steelers were favored by 6.5 points Sunday, and when they built a 17-3 halftime lead, it looked like a sure thing. Students of the Steelers holding big early leads know better. But the real crushing moment for those who bet the home team came after James Conner ran 59 yards to a first down at the Denver 10 with 1:30 left and the Steelers ahead by 5. Plenty of time to make it a 12-point victory and cash in. Conner’s 4-yard run put the ball at the 6 as the Broncos called their final timeout with 1:24 left. Conner ran again for no gain and the Steelers let the clock run out as Roethlisberger took a knee with 39 seconds left on third down. It was a good thing there were no fans in the stands.

5. Wouldn’t we love to know what Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown are thinking today? Bell sits on the Jets injured reserve with a hamstring injury after rushing for 14 yards on six carries and two receptions in the opener. New rules would allow him to return after three games. Either way, his signing as a free agent with the Jets has not gone well. After consecutive 1,200-yard rushing seasons with the Steelers before his season-long holdout in 2018, he managed just 789 yards in his first season with the Jets and a 3.2-yard average per carry. That’s the lowest of his career, except for his six-game, injury-shortened season of 2015. He’s still collecting his money, though — $13 million in salary and bonus this year, giving him $28 million over his first two years. Of course, he lost $14.4 million for sitting out 2018.

As for Brown, he’s serving an eight-game suspension for his actions off the field. His antics after forcing a trade by the Steelers to Oakland may have cost him all of his upgraded three-year, $50 million contract when they released him before the season, including $29 million that was supposedly guaranteed. He did get to keep his $9 million signing bonus from the Patriots after arbitration. Still, Brown has lost plenty of money, reputation and football opportunity over the past two seasons and, no, he’s not a shoo-in for the Pro Football Hall of Fame because of it. In 11 seasons, he has 11,263 yards receiving, which is 35th on the NFL career list, behind No. 26 Hines Ward with 12,083. His 841 career catches are 28th in the NFL. Ward’s 1,000 receptions rank 14th. The point is, Ward in four previous years of eligibility has not cracked the final 15 nominees for the Hall of Fame, making only the semifinal 25 each time, and he was a Super Bowl MVP. Bell too looked like a Hall of Famer entering 2018, but unless he returns to play well over the next few years, he’s headed for the Hall of Good.

A look back and a look ahead

• T.J. Watt is off to a nice start as an NFL Defensive Player of the Year candidate after finishing second last season. He has 2.5 sacks, six quarterback hits, one interception, three tackles for loss and two pass defenses. Sunday will mark the first reunion on the field of all three Watt brothers. J.J., who already has earned three NFL DPOY awards, comes in with the Texans. Middle brother Derek signed as a free agent with the Steelers from the Chargers this year. They paid him $4.25 million this year on his three-year $9.75 million contract, which is about $2.5 million more than T.J. will receive this season (he’ll take care of that in his next contract). Derek scored his first points with the Steelers on a safety, and while he’s been outstanding on special teams again, the fullback played only 14 snaps on offense in two games. Tomlin made it almost clear that the Steelers paid him all that money mainly to play special teams.

“Those of you that have followed us over the year know that we don’t use the fullback to the same degree week-in and week-out,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “There could be several weeks where there could be a minimal role and there could be a several-week stretch where it could be a significant role. We didn’t keep any secrets in that regard. I think that is the nature of everybody’s global use of the position in today’s game, and that is why his usefulness and abilities in the special teams area was a significant component of us acquiring him as well. And I think that you would agree that he has been very significant in that area, registering stats in both games. A safety and splitting a double team at the 20-yard line last week to mention a few of those.”

• Big Comeback Player of the Year. Ben Roethlisberger wasn’t happy with his performance Sunday, but he too is off to a good start for this honor, particularly under his circ*mstances. He has a 107.1 passer rating, has completed 68.5 percent of his passes and has thrown five touchdowns and one interception. Another quarterback getting attention for the award is New England’s Cam Newton, who like Roethlisberger played only the first two games last season before a Lisfranc injury put him on the shelf for the rest of 2019. It’s not a terribly important award except to the player and his team because winning it means he indeed came back and both the Steelers and the Patriots have their seasons riding on the outcomes.

• All backs fumble, some more than others. Jerome Bettis was great at protecting the ball — right up until he almost ruined his fairytale retirement story by fumbling at the goal line at Indianapolis in the playoff game. Le’Veon Bell also had a good rep for not fumbling, until he started fumbling. But Benny Snell better stop or it will be Benny Snell Lost Football shortly. His fumble against the Giants could have cost the Steelers a victory if JuJu Smith-Schuster (who has had a few epic fumbles of his own in 2018 and 2019) weren’t JuJu on the spot. Snell’s fumble on first down at midfield in the fourth quarter Sunday to start a drive with a 12-point lead turned into a 5-point lead five plays later when the Broncos scored a touchdown off his gaffe.

• Jaylen Samuels is waiting in the wings. He’s played only briefly — no carries to date and two receptions (three targets) for five yards in two games. But he’s the guy who bailed them out in what seemed an important victory against New England as a rookie in 2018 when Conner nursed an ankle injury. He ran 19 times that day for 142 yards. Last season, they did not run him much but he did catch 47 passes.

• Rookie running back Anthony McFarland took a step by dressing for his first NFL game after he was inactive in the opener. The next step might be to get him into the game for a few plays on offense.

Bells and whistles

• Where would the Steelers be if they still had Bell and Brown? The five-year deal Brown signed in 2017 carried through 2021 after Kevin Colbert stated the team wanted him to retire as a Steeler. They gave him a $19 million signing bonus and he made nearly $34 million from that contract before the Steelers traded him in 2019. Had they kept him, they might not have been able to sign, say, a Steven Nelson as a free agent last year, and they may not have drafted either Diontae Johnson or Chase Claypool. That’s all assuming Brown would have remained a normal part of the team, not been suspended, not done many of the things that got him suspended and continued to be productive on the field. Bell is a different case. Had he either signed the franchise tag or the contract the Steelers offered, they might have been stuck with what long-time New York columnist Gary Myers labeled this week a “used-up” back.

• Blitzburgh II. The Steelers have 291 sacks since 2014, the most in the NFL in that period. Their 116 sacks since the start of 2018 also leads the league during that time. They’ve had a sack in 59 straight games, longest in franchise history, fourth longest in NFL history and 10 from tying Tampa Bay’s record in 2003 (when Mike Tomlin coached the Bucs’ secondary)

• Playing down to the competition? It’s a popular theory about the Steelers, and at times true. But not necessarily in their first two games this season. They were favored by 5.5 to beat the Giants; they won by 10. They were favored by 6.5 to beat the Broncos; they won by 5, running the clock out at the Denver 6 to end it. They are favored to beat Houston this Sunday by 4.

• Officials seem to be calling pass interference on more ticky-tack plays in the first two weeks of the season. Joe Haden already has been called for two in which he barely touched the defender, particularly against the Broncos. Tomlin declined to disagree with those calls and said he will have officials at practice this week because he’s unhappy with his team’s 10 penalties for 89 yards against the Broncos.

“We didn’t play clean enough on the back end on possession downs,” Tomlin said. “They were able to extend drives through DPI and things of that nature. When you get people to that point to where you have them in a third down situation and you have the ball snapped and you’re executing the rush, there’s just too much ground covered to start over and give them a new set of downs. We have to get better in those areas.”

• The Steelers re-signed tackle Jerald Hawkins last week after Zach Banner’s knee injury shelved him for the rest of the season. Hawkins now has the kind of chance that Banner grasped for all it was worth after three teams cut him, including the Indianapolis Colts who drafted him in the fourth round in 2017 (137 overall) and cut him as a rookie. Hawkins also was a fourth-round draft pick by the Steelers, in 2016 (123 overall). Two of his three seasons with them were spent on injured reserve. They traded him to Tampa Bay last August for virtually nothing. He played briefly, signed with the Texans this August and was cut before the season. Banner rededicated himself to getting in better shape and won the right tackle job this season. We’ll see if Hawkins can follow a similar path.

• Knock on Wood. While they lost Banner and center/guard Stefen Wisniewski to early injuries and David DeCastro has yet to play, the Steelers have avoided the kind of suffering that swept through the NFL early on. It’s not just the most talented teams that reach the Super Bowl, but those that remain healthy. The Steelers’ chances have been derailed by injuries several times in this century. They’re due for it not to happen. Tomlin said they did not do anything differently this year to avoid the kind of major injuries that occurred last weekend. He was more concerned about his players staying in shape in a year without spring practice or preseason games.

• Kevin Colbert’s scouting department had first-round grades on quarterback Mason Rudolph when they drafted him in the third round in 2018. The team they just beat, Denver, apparently had first round grades on quarterback Paxton Lynch when they drafted him in the first round in 2016. Lynch was out of a job after being cut by Denver in 2018 and Seattle in 2019 before those seasons began. The Steelers signed him last year after the injury to Ben Roethlisberger. He is out of a job today because he could not beat out Duck Hodges, an undrafted and unsigned rookie who made their roster last year following a spring tryout. Chuck Noll often reminded everyone the draft is not a science.

(Top photo of Mike Tomlin and Bill Belichick: Jim Rogash / Getty Images)