Bill Belichick says Howie Roseman was the difference in the Super Bowl

Bill Belichick knows a thing or two — or eight — about winning a Super Bowl. The former New England Patriots coach won six Super Bowl rings as a head coach and two as an assistant. Since then, the 72-year-old has continued to make headlines — whether it’s about joining North Carolina’s coaching staff, his 24-year-old girlfriend, or his insight on SiriusXM’s Let’s Go podcast.

After the Eagles' dominant 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, Belichick had nothing but great things to say about the Birds. And he believes the main difference was general manager Howie Roseman.

“You look at Philadelphia, they were one of the oldest defenses in the league behind New Orleans and they didn’t play well last year in 2023,” Belichick said. “And so, Howie [Roseman] changed defensive coordinators, brought [Vic] Fangio back. Their young defensive linemen like [Jalen] Carter and the guys that they had drafted in previous years started to mature, get into their second, third, fourth year. Nolan Smith, guys like that. And then they drafted [Cooper] DeJean and [Quinyon] Mitchell, who were two young players who came through for them as rookies and had great years.”

Roseman’s biggest move was adding running back Saquon Barkley in free agency, but it was his defensive additions that really starred on Sunday. Drafting DeJean, Mitchell, and Jalyx Hunt, and signing Zack Baun and C.J. Gardner-Johnson helped transform the Eagles defense.

» READ MORE: Eagles film review: Cooper DeJean’s birthday pick six at the Super Bowl

“Now, all of a sudden Philadelphia’s one of the youngest defenses in the league,” Belichick said. “They’re one of the best defenses in the league. And they were able to flip that around. And that was, I would say, kind of really the difference I thought in this game … what Howie did in addition to getting Barkley was improving the defense and putting young players on the field and how well they played. It was really just a great job by the entire Eagles organization.”

Belichick believes the Eagles have what he calls a “good problem”: a few inevitable contract discussions.

» READ MORE: Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie built a Super Bowl culture on connection, compassion, and empathy

“The Eagles on the other hand are maxed out on the spending and there’ll be a lot of people on the team who will come looking for a little bigger payday than they’ve had in the past,” Belichick said. “And that’ll be a challenge, a good challenge. That’s a good problem that the Eagles have to deal with.

“They pushed everything out to max out this year. It worked for them. They had a great year. And now Howie and [owner] Jeffrey [Lurie] will have to go back and start to figure out who they can spend on, who they’re going to need to maybe cut some financial considerations with in order to pay for some of the young players who are going to need to be compensated. And that just comes with winning. It’s a great problem to have, but it’s definitely something that needs to be managed.”