The Quest for 7: McDaniels' coaching job, Belichick's moves & other Patriots links 12.26.19

Morning! Welcome to The Quest for 7, where volunteer writer, Steven Viner, scours the net for seven Patriots related articles from other sites offering different points of view on the six-time champs. Paid subscribers not only get to read all seven, but they also get to check out his always fiery "Steve's Soapbox" at the end.

1. At the risk of getting kicked out onto the warm Florida streets from my trial run as a Boston Sports Journal writer, I disagree with the very first paragraph in Greg Bedard's Breakdown II: Josh McDaniels has finest hour of the season as Patriots offense takes big step article. In the 2013 playoffs, when injuries struck, Josh McDaniels had his offense fighting like a cat forced to swallow a pill. He scrapped hard to draw up a gameplan for Brady who had Red-Ryder-level weapons that couldn’t shoot an eye out. (Hey it's Christmas-themed, and I need to hit my dad-joke quota for the day.) At their disposal, McDaniels and Brady had a banged-up Julian Edelman, Austin “Welker Wannabe” Collie, Aaron “The Bust” Dobson, and Matthew “Let's Give McDaniels a” Mulligan. That’s a big ask of the Patriots offensive coordinator. With these duds, the Patriots still made it to the AFC championship game in Denver, before falling short. But the rest of Greg Bedard’s words in his piece — dead-center accurate and I completely agree. Pair this step in the right direction for the offense with the Patriots elite defense and you should feel pretty good. (By the way, I’m just kidding about Bedard firing me. Sincerely great guy.)

2. In my Salty Tears Take of the day, check out an oldie I found that was written the day after the greatest football franchise of all-time won it’s sixth Super Bowl. Drew Magary of Deadspin throws a temper tantrum that would get a three-year-old arrested with a life sentence in his, The worst people win again article. WARNING: naughty words are used! I always advise that you go into these articles with a giggling mentality, and just bask in the awesomeness of how much the Patriots are in these jealous hater's heads. Everyone dodge that New England pothole and pull to the side of the road so the Wahhhh-bulance can get by!

3. Just before the season started, BSJ’s own Greg Bedard took some heat when he wrote, Bill Belichick let's it ride with his 'Over the hill gang'. I went back and examined his Brady-sized ballsy predictions. When you make educated forecasts in a sport as unpredictable as football, anything above .500 is damn impressive. Final score: Greg Bedard wins 6-3. Bedard questioned what the Patriots had behind Isaiah Wynn and called an injury inevitable. Wynn of course missed time, was slow to get back up to speed upon his return, and it cost the Patriots on more than one occasion, (I still wake up in cold sweats screaming, “No Newhouse!”) Then in mid-article, Bedard rapid-fire questions eight of Belichick's personnel moves, and wins five of them, for a final score of 6-3. Check it out for yourself, so Greg can get in a little, “BLEHHHHHHH!” (Plus, the article’s creativity and “velvety” humor are not to be missed!)

4. It’s a topic for the offseason, but I’m knocking on wood while doing my embarrassing superstitious ritual so I don’t jinx the Patriots. Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report lists The best NFL free agent at every position this offseason. Spoiler alert! There are Patriots on this list, but this also gives you an early look at potential free agents who might have you rubbing your hands like the Simpson’s sinister Mr. Burns for possible Patriots' additions. "Excellent."

5. Most Patriots’ fans hate other team’s players with the power of a million fiery suns, but the ESPN.com staff put together this “It’s a contact lense problem I'm not crying stupid tears!” piece on how NFL players share the holiday spirit. With the exception of Brady, (whose kind gesture inspired Bengals running back Joe Mixon to pay it forward) I hope every one of these do-gooder’s season ends in Patriots’ red and blue confetti raining down on them. But off the field, I wish them and their families a blessed new year for their generosity.

6. Brad Gagnon of The Comeback made his case for The 10 best NFL teams of the decade. It’s an interesting list with some bizarre choices and has a surprising amount of teams that didn’t win the Super Bowl on that year. However, he is missing one team that has to be an oversite, because if he did purposely leave off a particular Patriots team, (I’ll give you a hint, “They should have run the ball! Wahhhhh!” then I probably shaved a few I.Q. points from reading Mr. Gagnon’s work. And trust me, Stupid Steve can not afford to lose many of those!

7. So I’m going to try a little experiment that could be fun, or greeted with silence, drowning me in a sea of crickets. Geoff Schwartz of SBNation gave his NFL confidence rankings for the 12 teams in the playoff picture after week 16. After you read his list, simply write in the comment section below one word: the name of the team you fear the Patriots going up against the most, including the NFC. (Feel free to elaborate on why if you'd like. I certainly welcome it.) After the majority declares a winner, I’ll do my best to find an article on the possible opponent that will hopefully show you that your worries are justified, or you just need to run to the Packie and relax with a cold beeah.

STEVE'S SOAPBOX

I wanted to get a jump on something before everyone starts writing about it. For half a decade, this story has been a perfectly placed itch on my back that I can never reach to scratch. Less than six weeks from now will be the five-year anniversary of the greatest single play in Super Bowl history. Typical disclaimer and I mean every word of it: there is no coach in history I want running my team over Bill Belichick. He is and will always be the absolute greatest. If fact, they should seriously consider changing the Vince Lombardi trophy to the Hoodie’s name. Etc, etc, etc.

But.

I would love for Belichick to go on record somewhere, anywhere, and say:

“When I said we benched Malcolm Butler because it was what we thought was best for the team, I lied. And it’s my biggest regret in my coaching career. Not just because it likely cost us the game, but because it was personal, and looking back, I feel terrible about what I did to him.”

Then I’d like an explanation as to why he did it. Please don’t throw that ridiculous excuse at me that Butler probably was caught doing something or fighting with someone. You know why that's crap? In this day and age where no one can keep their mouth shut, while phones, cameras, and social media shrink the world to the size of a closet, there is no way in hell this mythical story wouldn’t have come out. Zero!

My guess is it had something to do with Belichick’s ego. Numerous reports stated that he offered Butler multiple contract extensions. Butler turned them all down, (wisely might I add, because what he ended up getting from the Titans was way more than what the Patriots offered in said reports.) Belichick then said to himself, I-I-I-I-I am the one who signed you as an undrafted free agent. I-I-I-I-I am the one who put you in that game-winning Super Bowl spot, and this is my thanks? I made you, now I’ll break you. Have a seat.

Let's face it, it was personal. Belichick dressed the kid, and allowed him to sit on the sideline for the duration of a four and a half-hour game, with television showing Butler’s depressed face every ten minutes to billions of people, knowing he never had any intention of playing the cornerback who once saved a championship for Boston.

You know why I know this? Because the Patriots secondary was scorched to ash in Super Bowl LII, for the entire game — the Eagles punted once, and scored on every possession in the second half — and this still wasn’t enough for Belichick to put his ego aside, and send Malcolm into the game. Instead, Patriots fans were treated with Jordan Richards and Johnson Bademosi trailing Eagles' receivers, spinning in all directions like a child chasing a butterfly.

Butler deserves better, and he deserves an apology. Think about that historic play. Not only did it decide the winner and loser of Super Bowl XLIX — Butler doesn’t read it quick enough, touchdown Seahawks, and thank God he did — but consider the degree of difficulty. Butler recognized the formation from practice and film work, runs full speed to a spot, collides with the receiver three-tenths of a second before the football is there, (which is legal because he was making a play on the ball) and had the focus to catch a short laser with billions of people watching and the game on the line.

Holy monkey s***!

Please, Bill … do this sooner, rather than later.

Quickly, I'd like to say I’m thankful for:

All of our readers who make Boston Sports Journal possible and their comments that have made my first three days on the job special for me.

Greg Bedard for giving me a shot.

My beautiful wife and our four amazing kids and three adorable grandkids.

My Army son Noah Lamb who was deployed during this Christmas. We all love you and are so proud of you.

Be on the lookout for more The Quest for 7 features, leading into what is hopefully another epic Patriots' Super Bowl run.