Pats Pulpit’s New England Patriots Midseason Awards: Assistant Coach of the (Half-)Year

The New England Patriots’ season is nine games old and the reigning world champions, who are currently 8-1, were able to finally enjoy a weekend off over the last few days. This gives us here at Pats Pulpit time to take a look back and analyze the half-season that was — and hand out same awards along the way. Today, the trophy for Assistant Coach of the (Half-)Year will be awarded to...

Bernd Buchmasser: Steve Belichick

The only defensive assistant to not leave during the Great Exodus of 2019, Steve Belichick has played as big a role as any coach — with the exception of his father — in building one of the best units in all of football. With the younger Belichick serving as play-caller at least for stretches, New England’s defense is leading the NFL in numerous categories through 10 weeks.

Oliver Thomas: Steve Belichick

The longest-tenured assistant on New England’s defensive side is just 32. But Belichick has taken on the roles of secondary coach, safeties coach and, per Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald, play-caller. The defense has allowed a league-low 10.9 points per game, a league-high 19 picks and ranks second-best passing yards allowed per game.

Alec Shane: Jerod Mayo

Has a bright future ahead of him- until the Jets hire him and he goes 6-26 over two seasons.

Slot Machine Player: Jerod Mayo

I’m going Jerod Mayo over Steve Belichick. It just seemed like the defense was better when he was making the calls.

Matthew Rewinski: Jerod Mayo

It’s tempting to put Steve Belichick in here now that we know he’s calling at least some of the defense, but I gotta roll Mayo here because, and I have no basis for this other than the eyeball test, you gotta figure his mike-linebacker encyclopedia of knowledge on Bill’s 3-4 defense is a big part of how the team’s adapted to the new scheme so flawlessly. Er, mostly flawlessly, anyway.

Pat Lane: Steve Belichick

At the start of the season, the reports were that Jerod Mayo would be the one calling the defensive plays, but it appears the younger Belichick has been doing it all along. Combine that with his uncanny BB impression, and he’s an easy choice.

Who gets your vote for Assistant Coach of the (Half-)Year? Let us know in the comments!