Here’s Who Tom Brady Reportedly Wanted To Replace Bill Belichick In 2017

Remember the power struggle the New England Patriots had in 2017, when Bill Belichick reportedly wanted to keep Jimmy Garoppolo rather than an aging Tom Brady?

Well, according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Brady had a plan for whom he wanted to coach the Patriots if Belichick and the organization parted ways: Bill O’Brien.

Breer dropped this nugget earlier this week on NBC Sports Boston’s “Boston Sports Tonight” while discussing whether Brady could push the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to move on from head coach Bruce Arians after ending his retirement.

Breer told Michael Felger and Michael Holley he doesn’t expect the Bucs to make a coaching change but that Brady probably would prefer O’Brien, if Tampa Bay fired Arians, based on how everything played out in New England back in 2017.

“I’ve told you guys this before: That’s who was going to be the head coach (of the Patriots),” Breer said of O’Brien. “That’s who Tom Brady helped to line up as the head coach if he had won the power struggle with Bill Belichick in 2017.

“If Belichick is out of here, after everything that happened in ’17, I’m telling you: Bill O’Brien would be the head coach (in New England).”

O’Brien, a member of the Patriots’ coaching staff from 2007 to 2011, was head coach of the Houston Texans back in 2017. He had been New England’s offensive play-caller from 2009 to 2011 before leaving for Penn State and eventually ending up in Houston, where he spent parts of six seasons.

The Texans fired O’Brien during the 2020 campaign, and there were rumors this offseason in wake of Josh McDaniels leaving his position as New England’s offensive coordinator to become head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders that the Patriots might bring back O’Brien. They didn’t, however, and now it’s fair to wonder whether that decision stems at all from O’Brien’s place in the supposed Brady-Belichick feud.

Brady, who reversed course on his retirement Sunday, is entering his third season with Arians and the Buccaneers after two decades with Belichick and the Patriots.