Brian Flores, Joe Judge dismissed: Ranking all the NFL head coaches from Bill Belichick’s coaching tree

Bill Belichick has been doing it a long time, entering the 2021 NFL playoffs to cap his 22nd season as Patriots coach. The all-timer has predictably spawned a big coaching tree along the way, with nine former assistants going on to become NFL head coaches elsewhere. But with the Dolphins’ surprise dismissal of Brian Flores after the 2021 season, followed by the Giants’ abrupt change of heart regarding Joe Judge, the playoffs will begin with zero Belichick disciples holding top jobs.

With that in mind, and Flores among products of the Belichick coaching tree likely to land new homes soon, here’s how we’d rank each of the nine NFL head coaches to emerge from under the Patriots great:

9. Joe Judge

NFL head coaching jobs: Giants (2020-2021)
Career record: 10-23

A longtime special teams coordinator under Belichick in New England, Judge brought bravado to his press conferences, and little else. The bar was set low after dismal two-year stints with Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur, but his teams — despite occasionally feisty defenses — never materialized on offense and threw in the towel late. At least he talked a good game.

8. Matt Patricia

NFL head coaching jobs: Lions (2018-2020)
Career record: 13-29-1

The bearded wonder helped Bill win three Super Bowls as the Patriots’ defensive coordinator, but he was largely disagreeable in Detroit, guiding some scrappy upsets — including over Belichick’s Pats in 2018 — but ultimately expediting the future relocation of big names like Matthew Stafford and Darius Slay while failing to sniff the playoffs.

7. Romeo Crennel

NFL head coaching jobs: Browns (2005-2008), Chiefs (2011-2012)*, Texans (2020)*
Career record: 32-63

The longtime defensive coordinator is respected and well-liked, hence his repeat role as an interim for failed regimes. But in roughly six seasons of combined experience running the ship, he managed just one winning season and zero playoff…