With the firing of the Las Vegas Raiders head coach Mike McDaniel, the question of how Bill Belichick’s coaching staff has done after leaving the Patriots? We know the results have been mixed at best, but let’s take a look at how head coaches who worked under Belichick have actually fared out there in the big wide world.
Josh McDaniels
We’ll start off with the most-recently fired and the coach who is probably most credited for the Patriots success other than Belichick. McDaniels left the Patriots once to coach the Denver Broncos and then again to coach the Raiders. Both stints as head coach did not go well.
With the Broncos, from 2009-10, McDaniel drafted Tim Tebow in the first round and steered Denver to a 11-17 record. Then, in 2022, McDaniels got the job as the Raiders head coach and ended his tenure there going 9-16. He’s the first head coach to get fired in the middle of his second season two times.
Joe Judge
Judge was the Patriots special teams coordinator when he was hired by the New York Giants to be their head coach in 2020. He only lasted two seasons, going 10-23. Teams trying to catch Belichick’s lightning in a bottle were really reaching with Judge.
Matt Patricia
Patricia was the Patriots defensive coordinator from 2012 to 2017. He was hired away from New England by the Lions in 2018 and ended up going 13-29-1 and being hated by many members of his team.
Romeo Crennel
Crennell was the defensive coordinator with Belichick early on in Cleveland and then in New England from 2001 to 2004. He was then hired to be head coach by the Browns from 2005 to 2008 and then by the Kansas City Chiefs from 2011 to 2012 and then by the Houston Texans for 12 games in 2020.
Crennell had one winning season, but ended his head coaching career with a 32-63 record.
Brian Flores
Flores has had better results than many of the Belichick’s coaching tree, as he had two winning seasons with the Dolphins before being let go. Flores had been with the Patriots in numerous capacities since 2004 when he started as a 23 year old scouting assistant. He slowly worked his way up to linebackers coach and was hired by the Dolphins in 2019.
He finished his Dolphins job with a 24-25 record and is now the Vikings defensive coordinator, where he has been getting high praise.
Bill O’Brien
O’Brien started his coaching career in the collegiate ranks until 2007 when he got a job with the Patriots as offensive assistant. In five years he was elevated to offensive coordinator before being hired away by the Houston Texans in 2014. He has now come home to roost with the Patriots again as their offensive coordinator once again.
O’Brien has the best record as a head coach of any of the Belichick disciples, going 52-48 in seven season, and 2-4 in the playoffs with the Texans.
