Bill Belichick remains ranked in front of Andy Reid by Sports Illustrated

Despite the shift in success overall in the last couple seasons, Bill Belichick remains perched atop the NFL’s head coach rankings over Andy Reid at Sports Illustrated as the 2021 regular season comes into view. And despite Reid’s window of opportunity opened before him at this point, it’s hard to argue with those results given Belichick’s tremendous standing and history in the league.

As recently as three years ago, the Patriots were lifting a Lombardi Trophy for the sixth time in Belichick’s coaching history. Even last season, he had the Patriots at 7-9 overall, chasing a .500 record despite losing an incredible eight players to decisions to opt out due to COVID-19. He also dealt with a miserable performance at quarterback from Cam Newton.

Chiefs Kingdom might take exception to this, but let’s not forget that Andy Reid himself was oft-criticized for being unable to win the “big game” until the Chiefs were able to put together back-to-back-to-back comebacks in a mesmerizing postseason performance that not only removed the monkey from Reid’s back but brought championship glory to Kansas City for the first time in 50 seasons.

Sports Illustrated has Bill Belichick over Andy Reid in their head coach rankings.

Heading into ’21, it makes sense to put Reid first—if someone wanted to do that—given his offensive genius and recent run of success. He’s a leader of men and has churned out a plethora of head coaches with more waiting in the wings—cough, Eric Bieniemy, cough—but much of the same can be said of Belichick. As great as the Chiefs look going forward, it’s all conjecture until they prove it on the field. For Belichick, he’s got a load of hardware to show for his efforts.

In the end, no one should be complaining about whether or not Reid is ranked first or second. The Chiefs have one of the single greatest head coaches in NFL history wandering the sidelines with eight years of sustained success to show for it. A franchise that under a decade ago was a two-win team is now looking at a wide-open window of Super Bowl potential. They have Andy Reid to thank for it, no matter where others rank him.