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4 early reasons the Patriots will still win the AFC East in 2020

Patriots, Bill Belichick
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Bill Belichick

Probably not, honestly. Chances are, if you’re even a casual NFL fan, you know who Bill Belichick is. And you know there’s about a 35% chance he’s sold his soul to the Football Underworld for a sleeveless hoodie granting him unlimited coaching power. Tom Brady or no Tom Brady, the Patriots still have the best coach in the NFL on their sidelines.

Belichick’s brilliance as a coach is undeniable. The six Super Bowl rings and nine Super Bowl appearances can attest to that, but the best measure of how just how good Belichick has been since becoming an NFL head coach is this stat: In 25 years of coaching, Bill Belichick has more seasons with 13 or more wins than he has seasons at or below .500.

Some of that is talent-based, sure. It never hurts to have the best football player of all time on your side. And the sample size for Belichick without Brady’s talents isn’t huge, but there is reason to believe the coach can win without the Hall-Of-Fame quarterback.

The obvious example is Matt Cassel, who got the chance to start 15 games in 2008 and led the Patriots to a 10-5 record before reverting back to a career backup the year after (with the weird exception of 2010). But the track record stretches beyond Cassel. Belichick has gone undefeated with Jimmy Garoppolo, pulled career-best performances out of Jacoby Brissett, and produced two winning seasons while Brady showed major regression from his 2017 season.

Belichick is a proven winner. He’s won without Brady before, and there’s reason to believe that he can do it again.

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