Detroit Lions: Would Bill Belichick have made Motown a dynasty?

The cupboard was not bare

So the question is simple; could Belichick have created a dynasty with another quarterback? Brady was viewed as a possible career backup, which is why the sixth-round pick Belichick used to select Brady made sense at the time.

All of the quarterbacks selected ahead of Brady failed miserably, except Marc Bulger. The former West Virginia Mountaineer was selected by the New Orleans Saints with the second pick of the sixth round. After failed attempts in New Orleans and Atlanta, he was signed by the St. Louis Rams.

For eight years Bulger played good football for the Rams and even was selected to the Pro Bowl twice, making him a candidate to possibly succeed with Belichick, but once again, Bulger was a sixth-round pick and considered more of a backup than a starter.

So would Belichick have gone with one of the other ‘Brady 6’ that had been picked ahead of the future Hall of Famer? Giovanni Carmazzi? Chris Redman? Or maybe Tee Martin? And if he did, would he have been able to make them successful?

The reason the quarterback issue has to be so thoroughly examined is because we don’t know if Belichick could create a dynasty with a passer other than Brady. Although we might soon find out.

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If there was something in Charlie Batch that Belichick liked, then the same scenario could play out and Brady could have been the Lions sixth-round pick instead of Auburn defensive end, Quinton Reese.

It would also be easy to see a scenario where Brady would be given an opportunity to start with Detroit as well. If those aligned like they did in New England, then the whole ‘Lions dynasty’ becomes more of a possibility. Having receivers Herman Moore, Johnnie Morton and tight end David Sloan wasn’t the worst-case scenario in the world either.

You have to understand that Drew Bledsoe was the only real advantage that New England had over Detroit from a building perspective. Now granted, a franchise quarterback is the most coveted player you could ask for, but there does need to be more than that to win in the NFL.

Robert Porcher, Luther Elliss, Tracy Scroggins, Stephen Boyd, and Chris Claiborne headlined a front seven on defense that wasn’t that bad. The secondary needed help, but there were enough building blocks up front to be able to see how Bill Belichick could have worked with it.

From that standpoint, it’s possible to see how Belichick’s talents could have worked and created something pretty good here in Motown. But there would be one other obstacle that he would have to overcome as well.