Former Patriots Executive Scott Pioli Weighs In On Team’s Chances Without Tom Brady

Former New England Patriots Vice President of Player Personnel Scott Pioli discussed the potential regression in 2020 following the departure of star quarterback Tom Brady.

Brady left the Patriots after two decades, and his departure will affect the Patriots’ chances to win games.

“I certainly don’t expect a significant or dramatic drop off,” he said on Inside the Huddle. “I’ve heard what some other people are saying, some people are just saying it because they want to be heard and want something bombastic to say.

“I think they’re such a well prepared team, they’re such a well coached team. Really, when I say that I don’t want to diminish the amount of talent they have on that roster and the players they have.

“I was with that franchise when we lost Tom Brady in the first game of the season to an ACL against the Chiefs. We put in Matt Cassel, we went on to win 11 games that year and it was a good team.”

Bill Belichick and his squad will get the best from players. How will he cope with Brady’s departure?

“Is it going to be different? Absolutely it’s going to be different,” Pioli said. “But I don’t believe it’s going to be as significant a drop off as some people are saying. There’s going to be this transition.

“Part of what they have there is a culture and people, I have this belief that more games in the NFL are lost than won and something that the New England Patriots team has done consistently under Bill Belichick is not lose games.

“There’s more teams that lose games because they’re not prepared for situational football than teams going out and winning games.”

Scott Pioli had other focus than Tom Brady

Scarnecchia retired in January.

“Dante Scarnecchia is one of the best football coaches I have ever been around at any level,” added Pioli. “The other thing about Dante is that he knows how to hide weaknesses.

“One of the biggest parts of the Patriots program is the fact that they know how to accentuate the strengths and limit the limitations. That was one of the quotes we used early on. You know what players you have, regardless of where you have them and what position they’re at.

“Because what you need to do is put players in a position to succeed but there are a lot of coaches in this game that have systems and they want to run systems and force people into certain areas.

“Part of the brilliance of Dante Scarnecchia was he would talk with the coordinator and Bill and there would be certain adjustments not only before games in terms of game plans. He would understand protections would have to be changed week to week in a certain way.

“He would also know how to make adjustments and change at half-time which was a key part of the Patriots.”