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The NFL has officially pruned the Bill Belichick coaching tree.
With Tuesday's firing of Joe Judge, none of the league's 32 staffs currently employ a head coach that previously served as an assistant under Belichick. Holdouts at the college level remain. Kirk Ferentz has been an Iowa staple since 1999. Bret Bielema and Jedd Fisch started at Illinois and Arizona this season, respectively, but, at this time, no Belichick disciples are set to hold head coaching roles.
Therefore, it's safe to say that the apples have fallen rather far from the tree. But SK looks back on the 10 coaches that have followed in Belichick's NFL coaching footsteps and tries to find the best that followed the best.
Which Bill Belichick disciple fared best as an NFL head coach?
10. Joe Judge (NY Giants, 2020-21)
Call it recency bias, but Judge is likely the worst the bunch has to offer. It certainly means a lot that he took the reins for a downtrodden Giants team, one that had lost 36 games in three seasons, and plunged them deeper into a disturbing new normal with a 10-23 record at the helm. If this is Belichick's revenge for the Giants ruining his chance at a perfect NFL season, he might be even more of a cunning genius than we previously thought. Known for his hard-nosed tactics and increasingly tense press conferences, Judge lost his final six games in New York by a 17.8-point margin.
9. Matt Patricia (Detroit, 2018-20)
Being a head coach in the NFL ain't rocket science...RPI alum Matt Patricia found that out the hard way when he took over the Detroit Lions in 2018. Patricia faced a surprising amount of pressure from Detroit as he was taking over for Jim Caldwell, the first full-time head coach to leave the Lions with a winning record since Joe Schmidt in 1972. Patricia's second game at Ford Field saw the Lions top the Patriots in prime time, but it all went downhill from there. After a 6-10 season in 2018, the win total was sliced in half in his sophomore season. Detroit bid Patricia farewell with five games to go in the 2020 season, after which he returned to Belichick's staff as a "senior football advisor."
8. Romeo Crennel (Cleveland, 2005-08/Kansas City, 2011-12/Houston, 2020)
A staple among NFL defensive staffs since the 1990s, Crennel has earned five Super Bowl rings, but, as you know by now, none of them were earned as a head coach. His first opportunity came with the rebooted Cleveland Browns after the first Patriots dynasty. Despite guiding the Browns to their first 10-win season since their return at the turn of the century, he failed to reach the playoffs in four seasons. Todd Haley's firing in 2011 gave way to Crennel, who produced a win over the previously undefeated Green Bay Packers, which earned him the full-time job. Alas, he could only match the total from his three-game interim tenure, going 2-14 in his sole full season at the Chiefs' helm. A dozen more games with the primary headset awaited last year in Houston, where he took over for another man on this list. Crennel now serves as the Texans' senior advisor for football performance.
7. Al Groh (NY Jets, 2000)
Groh was part of Belichick's previous staff in Cleveland and took over the spot previously reserved for his former boss in New York, part of the infamous "I resign as HC of the NYJ" incident. While he's a rare coach on this list because of his winning record, that probably stems from the fact that he coached on a single season, going 9-7 before leaving to pursue the top position at his alma mater of Virigina, where he'd go on to coach nine seasons.
6. Josh McDaniels (Denver, 2009-10)
Renowned as Belichick's offensive guru for the past decade, there's a reason McDaniels' brief time as a head coach is spoken about in hushed tones for all the wrong reasons. Chosen to succeed the two-time champion Mike Shanahan in Denver, McDaniels won each of his six games as a head coach, despite almost immediately losing the trust of his franchise quarterback Jay Cutler, who was later dealt to Chicago. Again, you're reading this list, so you know how the story ends: McDaniels' first team went 2-8 the rest of the way and, in the vein of "Spygate," he had to deal with a videotaping controversy of his own, one involving the Broncos' director of video operations taping a San Francisco practice prior to their matchup in London. After the scorching start, McDaniels went 5-17 the rest of the way, leading to his firing in the midst of his second season. After a year with the Rams, he returned to the Patriots, where he's been stationed ever since.
5. Eric Mangini (NY Jets, 2006-08/Cleveland 2009-10)
Say what you will about Mangini, but none of the other coaches on this list cameoed on The Sopranos. That was Mangini's reward for a 10-win season in his first year at the helm of the Jets, one that included a win over Belichick's Patriots, though he failed to duplicate the feat when the teams met in the ensuing postseason. His second season proved far more eventful, despite a 4-12 record, as it was Mangini and the Jets that exposed the aforementioned Spygate scandal. Thrust into the brief "Brett the Jet" era (which brought Brett Favre to the metropolitan area), the Jets began the ensuing season 8-3 before ending on a 1-4 mark, ending his time in New York on a sour note. He later succeeded Crennel in Cleveland but was let go after consecutive 5-11 seasons.
4. Jim Schwartz (Detroit, 2009-13)
Schwartz was a scout during Belichick's time in Cleveland and later earned a head coaching job with the Lions after several years as a defensive boss in Tennessee. He was chosen to pick up the pieces for Detroit after their infamous 0-16 campaign in 2008 and, to his credit, did rather well. Within three years of the winless disaster, he was able to guide the Lions into the playoffs, though prosperity failed to follow. He was dismissed after two more seasons and only seven wins before going to Buffalo for a year. Schwartz then took the Philadelphia Eagles' defensive coordinator job and, perhaps, secured the ultimate NFL revenge against Belichick: it was his defense that stifled Tom Brady and Co. in Super Bowl LIII, giving the Eagles their first championship.
3. Nick Saban (Miami, 2005-06)
It's easy to put Saban, a legend in Tuscaloosa, on the list of those collegiate coaching heroes that have failed in the NFL. But, looking deeper into his brief time with the Dolphins, it's almost a miracle that he was able to do what he did. With the Dolphins still in the, somewhat, early stages of the post-Dan Marino era, he started off 3-7 in his first ten games before winning each of his last six, including a New Year's Day triumph over the Patriots to wrap things up. In the following season, the Dolphins were the favorites to land free agent quarterback Drew Brees, but they eventually passed on him due to injury concerns. The rest was history, for his eventual suitors in New Orleans, that is. Forced to work with Daunte Culpepper and Joey Harrington at quarterback, Miami got off to a 1-6 start but managed to string together a 5-4 streak at the end of the year. Saban's exit was less than ceremonious...he insisted that he would not join Alabama before doing so nearly two weeks later...but his NFL tenure was not the disaster many made it out to be.
2. Brian Flores (Miami, 2019-21)
If you've made it this far, Dolphins fans, seeking a rare laugh at Belichick and the Patriots' expense, we would totally understand if you looked away. By now, Flores' contoversial firing needs no further explanation or discussion, and he's already become one of the most talked about prospects on the hiring circuit. His resume boasts four Super Bowl rings from his time as a defensive assistant in New England and, like Saban before him, he was able to make the most out of meager Miami settings...though this time, he was bid farewell involuntarily. If and when he gets another NFL coaching opportunity, it's possible he'll be able to work his way up to the top of this list. A spot currently held by...
1-Bill O'Brien (Houston, 2014-20)
Perhaps this says more about assistant coaches' fortunes in the post-Belichick era than it does about O'Brien himself, but he's the cream of the crop of this list to date. O'Brien's lasting legacy is, perhaps, his brief tenure as general manager, which sent DeAndre Hopkins to Arizona in exchange for a pair of draft picks, but, to his credit, he's responsible for the closest thing the Texans have to glory days, and he earned winning records in five of his seven years at the Houston helm. O'Brien has become a bit of a college stud, first leading Penn State in the aftermath of their unspeakable scandals in the post-Joe Paterno and now serving as Alabama's offensive coordinator under Saban.
