It’s pretty clear that the New England Patriots are much better than the Cincinnati Bengals; five Super Bowls since 2000 versus zero Super Bowls total speaks for itself, but why is New England so much more successful? It’s not just because of the expert coaching of head coach Bill Belichick and the godly athleticism of quarterback Tom Brady. So what makes them the best team in football? Their owner, Robert Kraft.
The Patriots have made several moves that have been great: picking late draft picks, cutting players, and signing different ones. The late draft picks are fairly obvious: Tom Brady, Julian Edelman, Shaq Mason, and Marcus Cannon were all picked in the fourth round or later. Other teams will dismiss these late rounders, but under the steady hands of Kraft and Belichick, all players are looked after and effectively evaluated. One aspect that plays with the hearts and minds of Pats fans is how brilliantly ruthless their team management can be: on several occasions a player who was the star for a year will not be signed back, or they’ll be traded. That’s what made this off season’s ordeal with Malcolm Butler and Stephon Gilmore so uncertain for the team. We all remember how Darrelle Revis and Aqib Talib had one great year, each of them, with the team, then left immediately afterwards. People were concerned that since Kraft had made the deal for Gilmore, Butler would be leaving without the door hitting him on the way out. Often times, players come to New England and hit their stride, then leave and are mediocre at best. Vince Wilfork might be a Hall of Famer for his career in Foxboro, but he sort of trailed off at the end with the Houston Texans. Nobody wanted to see the hero of Super Bowl XLIX leave and never be heard from, again, yet with the Pats, it often works out best for them. The one, seemingly impossible, but still daunting possibility for one of those types of deals lies with the Joe Montana and Steve Young situation. Montana spent most of his career with the San Francisco 49ers, but one day was sent to the Kansas City Chiefs to be replaced by fellow Hall of Famer Steve Young. Could that be the case with the two quarterbacks, here? When Tom Brady is nearing the end of his hopefully endless career, will Belichick and Kraft send him away to the Buffalo Bills or Jacksonville Jaguars or any other team to be replaced with the next star New England quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo? It’s possible, but if this were Cincinnati, it might be a different story. You see, it took them years to finally get rid of, the then declining, Carson Palmer and replace him with Andy Dalton. They will hold onto their players far past their prime. Andy Dalton has quite the leg up on A.J. McCarron, so that switch may never happen, which is reasonable, but what about Tyler Boyd versus Brandon LaFell. LaFell is getting older and Boyd is young, hotshot, up-and-coming second year who has a lot of potential. When it is time, will Cincinnati make the transition? With the comparison of New England and Cincinnati comes the comparison of not the type of players they sign, but the type of people: think about Vontaze Burfict versus Dont’a Hightower and how clearly Hightower is much more “down-to-Earth.” In any important game, let alone a playoff game, have you ever seen Hightower and Malcolm Butler get mad at Antonio Jones and shove him around and give the Steelers 30 yards off of penalties and put them in easy field goal range? NO! That thought doesn’t even enter their minds! However, with the brand of men on the Jungle, that happened on January 9, 2016 with Burfict and Adam “Pac-Man” Jones, costing the Bengals their first shot at a playoff win since January 6, 1991 over the Houston Oilers. The team then lost in the next round to the Los Angeles Raiders. That’s how long it’s been: neither team they played in that postseason exists, anymore. Apart from the amount of time elapsed since a Cincinnati playoff win (26 years, 6 months, and 7 days), Cincy does make poor choices in the type of character they choose for their program: specifically, their recent draft pick, running back Joe Mixon. Mixon can say “I am not a crook” all he wants, but punching a woman is still punching a woman. Cincinnati has a bad history with these unstable, dangerous players. Bob Kraft and the Patriots, on the other hand, make better decisions. In 1997, when he drafted defensive tackle Christian Peter, Kraft’s wife, the wonderful, but sadly, late Myra Kraft, advised him to release the man early on because of his violent background. Peter had been accused of assaulting four women during his college career at University of Nebraska and the wise choice to discard of him led to a more disciplined Drew Bledsoe-led team that, commanded by backup Brady after the Bledsoe knee injury, won their first Super Bowl in team history five years later in 2002 with Super Bowl XXXVI. New England wins so much more than Cincinnati because they have a smarter, safer, and less erratic team. Since 2002, the New England Patriots have been the best team in football: Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback ever, Rob Gronkowski is the greatest tight end ever, Bill Belichick is the greatest head coach ever, and Bob Kraft is the greatest owner ever. With five Super Bowl Rings in fifteen years, it could be pretty easy to say that this team is the greatest team ever. They turn late picks into great picks, beloved New Englanders in to see ya laters, and good players who might as well be cons into players who are gone. All of these factors and more have repeatedly added up to a good, successful, and ultimately, great organization. Cincinnati hasn’t won a playoff game 26 years, 6 months, and 7 days because their organization doesn’t dare use these clearly strategically superior tactics. Aside from Cincinnati’s signature Skyline Chili possibly having a leg up on New England’s own Dunkin’ Donuts, Bob Kraft is the man behind why there’s more than one reason why the New England Patriots are constantly hot and the Cincinnati Bengals are not. Jesse A. Cook “Krafting A Team: Why The Bengals Don’t Work And The Patriots Do” June 13, 2017
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