NFL General Comments 2025 Season

[Motown Bombers]

I could see 18 games and teams get two bye weeks. The NFL season is 18 weeks now. With an 18 game schedule and an additional bye, that's 20 weeks. I'm sure the networks would like 20 weeks of football. 

[Jason_R]

18 games is inevitable. I don’t like it but the owners didn’t ask me. 

They would have to add a second bye week, and probably increase roster size. 

[Hongbit]

I don’t know if I like 18 games as well as more internationals.    I do know that both are inevitable and will be happening in the future  May as well rip the band-aid off and start it sooner rather than later.  

Edited January 21 by Hongbit

[Mr.TaterSalad]

**** this, the rich just get richer and the poor just get poorer. Being a Detroit Lions fan feels like signing up for a lifetime of emotional torture. I say that as someone who, like all of us here, still shows up every season hoping the season will go different and we'll finally make a Super Bowl.

What makes it even harder is watching how easy other fanbases seem to have it, especially in New England. While we all relive another Lions failed season, Patriots fans are casually talking about their next Super Bowl appearance like it is a normal part of life. They complain about minor setbacks that would feel like miracles here in Detroit. I would trade decades of misery for even one stretch of sustained success like they have had. For just one ****ing Super Bowl apperance. Forgetc winning, just get us all one shot in the big game.

And now here we are again, watching the Patriots cruise their way to another Super Bowl, seemingly handed the smoothest path imaginable. They had a historically easy regular season schedule and a cupcake playoff path. Everything falls their ****ing way and they get breaks we could only dream of as Lions fans. After a few short years of rebuilding they're right back in the Super Bowl. Just unreal to see how good some fanbases have it and how bad it gets for us sometimes. 

[buddha]

shedeur sanders is going to the pro bowl.

bwaaahaahaahaa!

bwaaahaaaahaaa!

please cancel the pro bowl festivities, theyre drunk.

[Jason_R]

Cold

[RatkoVarda]

Polian denied it. Says he voted for Belichick.

[Jason_R]

9 hours ago, RatkoVarda said:

Polian denied it. Says he voted for Belichick.

I saw that. It is probably true that Polian voted for Belichick, but could also be true that he planted the "wait a year" seed.

[CMRivdogs]

Athletic article about turmoils in JetLand. It seems that Aaron Glen's trajectory may be the opposite of Ben Johnson.   

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7002865/2026/01/27/aaron-glenn-new-york-jets-coaching-staff-changes/?source=athletic_pulsenewsletter&campaign=16601913&userId=213687

He seems way in over his head

[Jason_R]

11 hours ago, RatkoVarda said:

Polian denied it. Says he voted for Belichick.

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/bill-polian-tells-espn-he-cant-recall-with-100-percent-certainty-whether-he-voted-for-belichick

😂

[MichiganCardinal]

6 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

Athletic article about turmoils in JetLand. It seems that Aaron Glen's trajectory may be the opposite of Ben Johnson.   

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7002865/2026/01/27/aaron-glenn-new-york-jets-coaching-staff-changes/?source=athletic_pulsenewsletter&campaign=16601913&userId=213687

He seems way in over his head

The problem is ownership and culture, just like it was in Detroit. Unless they have a Sheila Hamp waiting in the wings, they'll live in futility for at least as long as Woody and Chris Johnson are in charge.

Hopefully Glenn will get another shot like Saleh did.

[MichiganCardinal]

Detroit's contingent voted for Belichick to enter the Hall

 

 

[RedRamage]

1 hour ago, Jason_R said:

I saw that. It is probably true that Polian voted for Belichick, but could also be true that he planted the "wait a year" seed.

I still think that Brady made Belichick. I've always maintained that football is the most inter-connected of team sports. A good secondary makes a DL look better, a good defense makes the offense look better, etc. etc. etc. So it's not perfectly fair to really just pull out the QB and say change differences are purely because the QB is now gone.

Having said that... I'm going to do just that. But I'm acknowledging up front that there will be other factors and we can't say Brady vs. no Brady is the ONLY reason. Still, given the huge difference here I think it's okay to say it was a big reason.

Belichick w/o Brady: 83-104, 1 playoff win
Belichick w Brady: 249-75, multiple super bowls

[Mr.TaterSalad]

If Belichick had the exact same team as he had, but a QB like Goff or Stafford, instead of the greatest to ever play the position, what kind of career would he have had? I would still presume there would be a Super Bowl or two in there.

[RedRamage]

2 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

If Belichick had the exact same team as he had, but a QB like Goff or Stafford, instead of the greatest to ever play the position, what kind of career would he have had? I would still presume there would be a Super Bowl or two in there.

Quite possibly, yeah.

But would he be considered a HOF coach if he had a good run in New England with a couple of SB victories?
Would many people be calling it a snub if that coach wasn't voted in on the first ballot?
Would people be calling that coach the best coach of this generation?

Again, I don't want to say that w/o Brady Belichick would be nothing. I was already a HC before Brady with two different teams, so he obviously has some level of talent. You don't get two shots as a HC without knowing your stuff. You also have to factor in that his first 4 years as a HC was in Cleveland, which would be like being a Lions HC pre-Campbell. So I'm not arguing that Belichick would have been utter trash without Brady.

Rather, I'm arguing that Belichick would probably have been just another NFL HC. Some success, some failure, eventually retires, maybe becomes a talking head on a major network. I think Belichick is more like a Bill Cowher type of coach and less like a George Halas.

[Motown Bombers]

Why does he get no credit for Brady? Brady wasn’t some generational prospect who fell in his lap. Bledsoe wasn’t healthy for the Super Bowl and he still started Brady. He then traded Bledsoe and went with Brady. No one at the time would have faulted him for sticking with Bledsoe. 

[Sports_Freak]

46 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

Detroit's contingent voted for Belichick to enter the Hall

 

 

He belongs in the HOF. Love him or hate him, he was very successful. 

 

[Sports_Freak]

3 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Why does he get no credit for Brady? Brady wasn’t some generational prospect who fell in his lap. Bledsoe wasn’t healthy for the Super Bowl and he still started Brady. He then traded Bledsoe and went with Brady. No one at the time would have faulted him for sticking with Bledsoe. 

The most successful coach and the most successful QB of an entire generation. Put Brady on the Lions with their management at the time and he has zero championships. Could Belichick have won with a different QB? I say yes, maybe not as many but he still would have been successful.

[sagnam]

1 hour ago, RedRamage said:

I still think that Brady made Belichick. I've always maintained that football is the most inter-connected of team sports. A good secondary makes a DL look better, a good defense makes the offense look better, etc. etc. etc. So it's not perfectly fair to really just pull out the QB and say change differences are purely because the QB is now gone.

Having said that... I'm going to do just that. But I'm acknowledging up front that there will be other factors and we can't say Brady vs. no Brady is the ONLY reason. Still, given the huge difference here I think it's okay to say it was a big reason.

Belichick w/o Brady: 83-104, 1 playoff win
Belichick w Brady: 249-75, multiple super bowls

Does it even matter? How can you look at his record and results and not see 1st ballot hall of famer? The whole thing is just embarrassing.

 

I think Belichick is a tool. Doesn’t change the results.

Edited 19 hours ago by sagnam

[MichiganCardinal]

I think Belichick is also actively damaging his own legacy by what he's doing at UNC right now.

Jordan didn't need to play baseball to be the GOAT. Belichick doesn't need to coach college ball.

[RedRamage]

21 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Why does he get no credit for Brady? Brady wasn’t some generational prospect who fell in his lap. Bledsoe wasn’t healthy for the Super Bowl and he still started Brady. He then traded Bledsoe and went with Brady. No one at the time would have faulted him for sticking with Bledsoe. 

He quite possibly should get some credit for Brady. How much will be eternally debatable of course. Did Belichick find the perfect way to use Brady's talent? Did he discover the perfect way to unlock his mental state to so Brady could really understand the NFL game? Would Brady has been nothing more than a Journeyman QB in the NFL without Belichick? It's certainly possible that we could answer all of those with a yes.

But, what we don't see is Belichick doing this with any other QB. We see Brady take over for an injured Bledsoe and go on an amazing run that continued for decades and two years after Brady left NE.

From the other side we see:

• '91 Browns QB Kosar has a "meh" season.
• '92 Browns QB Tomczak has a "meh" season.
• '93-'95 Browns QB Testaverde has three "meh" seasons. (Testaverde would have two pro-Bowl seasons after leaving Cleveland, so had at least some skills.)
• '00 Pats QB Bledsoe has a "meh" season. Bledsoe has three previous pro-Bowl seasons before Belichick was hired in NE and one pro-Bowl season after Bledsoe left NE, so again... at least some level of talent.
• '08 Pats QB Cassel had a good season.
• '20 Pats QB Newton had a bad season (tail end of Newton's career, so not unexpected)
• '21-'23 Pats QB Jones has one good season followed by two bad.

So what does this tell us? Again, it's very hard to say how much of this was Belichick wasn't a good coach and how much was the QBs in question weren't good QBs. What I think we can glean from this is that with the exception of one year of Mac Jones and one year of Cassel, Belichick was unable to get any other QB to perform anywhere near the level of Brady.

So even if we want to credit Belichick with unlocking Brady's greatness it's clear that Belichick could only do this with one QB. Maybe Belichick stumbled on the perfect way to mold Brady, but if he did he's been unable to replicate that trick with any of the other QBs he's worked with.

[RedRamage]

39 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Could Belichick have won with a different QB? I say yes, maybe not as many but he still would have been successful.

Yeah, maybe he could have. But I don't think we're talking about Belichick as the "Greatest Coach of this Generation" if he hadn't lined up with Brady.

[RedRamage]

21 minutes ago, sagnam said:

Does it even matter? How can you look at his record and results and not see 1st ballot hall of famer? The whole thing is just embarrassing.

I think Belichick is a tool. Doesn’t change the results.

I would agree that he belongs in the HOF. While I think there is plenty of evidence that Belichick would not have had the success that he did without Brady, he still did have the success and it's impossible to prove how much of that was or wasn't Brady... or how much of Brady's success was or wasn't Belichick. 

Plus, even if we say that Brady was the major driving force, Belichick was still the coach and GM who was acquiring the talent to put around Brady and making sure it all worked harmoniously. 

As you say: Ultimately the results are what matters and no coach has more SB rings than him. He belongs in the hall even if I might want to argue that he shouldn't be lauded as much as he is.

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, RedRamage said:

Yeah, maybe he could have. But I don't think we're talking about Belichick as the "Greatest Coach of this Generation" if he hadn't lined up with Brady.

If Brady wouldn't have been there, he woulda kept looking for a QB that would have fit his offense. Brady was the one he settled on once he saw his upside. Brady fit his offense perfectly but I'm fairly certain he would have kept looking until he found a good QB that also fit.

Either way, both of those guys deserved to get in on the 1st ballot. A couple of things I heard about Belichick was voters all thought he was in for sure so they voted for somebody else. Or they thought he may come back to the NFL so they decided to wait. Or..  the cheating scandals..

[RedRamage]

1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said:

If Brady wouldn't have been there, he woulda kept looking for a QB that would have fit his offense. Brady was the one he settled on once he saw his upside. Brady fit his offense perfectly but I'm fairly certain he would have kept looking until he found a good QB that also fit.

I don't disagree.

But if the argument is that Belichick is a generational HC, why is his record so poor when he doesn't have Brady as his starting QB?

If the argument is that Belichick made Brady much better than Brady would have been with anyone else why wasn't he able to elevate any of the other QBs he had?

Let's compare Belichick to Reid a moment. I think Reid also benefits from having Mahomes as a QB. Like Belichick, Reid never won a SB before he got Mahomes as his QB. But, unlike Belichick, Reid had substantial success outside of his time as Mahomes' HC. From 2000-2009 in Philly he made the playoffs every year but two, getting to the SB once. This was with McNabb as his QB. From 2013-2017 in KC he only missed the playoffs once with Smith as his QB. Reid has won 11 post season games without Mahomes. 

Again, this isn't a totally fair comparison because no one is going to say that Vinny Testaverde is the equivalent of McNabb. So Reid had better QBs to work with than Belichick.

Now, as much as I do love beating a dead horse, I'll state again that I don't think Belichick should be considered a bad coach nor do I think he shouldn't be in the HOF. I just think his rep as the Greatest HC of this Generation is skewed by him having the greatest QB of... maybe ever?