Heath Evans Calls 2015 Season Belichick's 'Best Coaching Job' On Felger & Mazz
BOSTON (CBS) -- One of the prevailing narratives surrounding the premature ending to the Patriots' season is that Bill Belichick's coaching staff made key mistakes down the stretch that led to upset defeats, the loss of home field advantage, and the ultimate demise they met in Denver at the hands of the Broncos.
Don't tell that to former Patriots fullback Heath Evans, who made his rounds on Radio Row in San Jose before Super Bowl 50 before sitting down down with Felger & Mazz to talk about the Patriots. He came away from the season more impressed with the job that Belichick did than many others, including the hosts.
"To look at what [the Patriots] accomplished, with everything they faced ... It was Bill's best coaching job and Brady's best performance since probably '06," Evans said.
The 2006 season remains one of the most impressive runs of Brady and Belichick's career, taking a team with a depleted wide receiver corps and declining defense to the AFC Championship Game. Evans isn't penalizing Belichick for the dubious gameplans and coaching decisions that hurt the Patriots at the end of the season, such as their strange offensive approach in their Week 17 loss at Miami and the lack of adjustments on offense in the AFC Championship Game in Denver. Despite the late-season disappointments, Evans said that Belichick's work with the Pats' depleted offensive line against good defenses made the 2015 season the best work of his career.
Later on, DeflateGate came up. Of course, this being Felger & Mazz, it is unfortunately still very much alive and had to be brought up with Evans, one of the Patriots' biggest supporters throughout the storyline - fairly notable, considering that he works for the NFL Network. As much as pretty much everyone in the world would love for the story to just disappear - sort of like how air pressure does in a football when the temperature drops - sports talk simply couldn't avoid it when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced less than 24 hours ago that the league found no PSI violations in their "spot checks" during the season.
Evans reiterated what he and so many now believe about the entire thing.
"Go read all the reports. The thing was a sham from the jump," he said. "There was never any evidence or substance there. It was a witch hunt. I've said it all before - and I know Roger [Goodell] and the [NFL] network's cringing that I'm even talking about this stuff again - but the truth is the truth."
Felger anticipated that Evans would dismiss the "evidence" of the Wells Report, so he took it upon himself to read the infamous text messages between John Jastremski and Jim McNally. It truly is Groundhog Day in New England.
Listen for Evans' reactions to Felger and more from the interview below:
