DENVER -- Bill Belichick has an opportunity to continue his slow and steady climb up the list of the game's all-time greatest coaches on Sunday night.
A Patriots win over the Broncos would give Belichick 270 in his career as a head coach of the Browns and Patriots, placing him in a tie with Tom Landry, who coached the Cowboys for almost three full decades (1960-1988).
Landry found his greatest success when tied to quarterback Roger Staubach, a friend of Belichick's and one of Belichick's idols at the US Naval Academy, as the pair won two Super Bowls together in 11 seasons.
Asked about Belichick's impending milestone, the quarterback to whom Belichick will be forever tied explained what has made Belichick so successful over the years.
"Well, he's just so consistent," Tom Brady said last week. "I think he has such an approach and an urgency to his coaching and how he gets the whole staff prepared and the players. Everything is important – the walkthroughs, the OTAs, minicamp, training camp. I don’t think you’d notice many times between an OTA day and a Super Bowl week in the way that he approaches the preparations.
"He gets us all ready to go. That urgency helps us get ready and keeps us focused and hopefully leads to a good practice that we can put together day after day. You try to make a lot of improvements and those improvements really show up in the game. I think he’s just a great coach."
Another Patriots captain, Devin McCourty, brought up a similar theme when asked about Belichick last week.
New England Patriots
"Preparation," McCourty said. "[Belichick] always says, ‘Players win games. Coaches usually lose games.’ So, I think, for us as players, we know going in -- especially for me, I know going in -- no matter who we play, no matter how good they are, what they’ve done, I know we’ll be prepared to have a chance to win.
"I don’t know if it’s like that everywhere. I’ve only been here. So, I think him just always giving his team a chance to win each week by making sure we’re well-prepared . . . We watch countless plays. You can talk to offensive or defensive guys, we usually know what the other team’s defense is going to do just from sitting in squad meetings and Bill in the morning going through -- whether it’s two minute, four minute, first down, drive starters, third down, red area -- we go through so many different situations that it’s hard to not be prepared for a team. That doesn’t mean you’re always going to win, but it gives you a chance."
That Belichick has the chance to tie Landry is fitting, according to former Cowboys vice president of player personnel Gil Brandt.
Brandt once thought of Landry as standing alone atop the mountain of men to ever coach in the NFL, which makes sense given their time together and the accomplishments they achieved. But now he considers Belichick to be right there.
"I think he is one of the great football minds, period," Brandt told Tom E. Curran on Quick Slants the Podcast. "I've always thought that Landry was above everybdoy else. And I feel he's on par with Landry. And I've told him that personally."