Bill Belichick Press Conference 7:30am (1/8/24)

[vicspats]

Kraft will handle this poorly, I mean no actions so far I shouldn't use future tense

Next season starts today

I’m thinking a great way to fix this for the Kraft family and their shield is for Robert to finally walk away. Pass the reins to Johnathon. Let him start up with a new coach, qb ect ect… End of an era but the begging of a complete new one. Plus it would give the organization more than 2-3 years to become viable again. Buys them some time ?

 

[upstater1]

We know how it looks when Bill has final say.

Let's see what happens when someone else picks Nacua when we're in desperate need of offensive help instead.

Nacua went in the 6th round.

So let me get this straight: you believe we might land a GM who is smarter than all the other 31 GMs and can properly assess Nacua's talent, but who -- like the Rams GM -- will let him slide as 176 players are taken before him?

"Why didn't we take that Pro Bowler in the 6th round?!?!"

Does this make any sense?

Anyone could've taken Nacua earlier. Including the Rams. Every single GM (including the ones we probably want to bring on) passed on Nacua 5 or 6 times.

 

[PatsfanTN]

We ain't gonna find out today anyway. The NFL isn't gonna step on the college football championship with major news like this and Kraft isn't gonna send Bill out black Monday with the rest of the bums.

Ohhh yes they would, in a heartbeat. can You imagine all the Harbaugh talk?

 

[festy1986]

Nacua went in the 6th round.

So let me get this straight: you believe we might land a GM who is smarter than all the other 31 GMs and can properly assess Nacua's talent, but who -- like the Rams GM -- will let him slide as 176 players are taken before him?

People, why are we looking at the draft and saying, "Why didn't we take that Pro Bowler in the 6th round?!?!"

Does this make any sense.

Anyone could've taken Nacua earlier. Including the Rams. Every single GM (including the ones we probably wanted to bring over) passed on Nacua 5 or 6 times.

Bill is done as a GM in the NFL. Here or anywhere.

He doesn't want to move.

It's gonna be fine.

It's time.

 

[1960Pats]

A lot

His methods still work. Defense still wins championships

Players win championships. Coaching methods can only lose them.

That's typical Belispeak, only this time it wasn't said in mumblish. He agrees to do anything that they "collectively" agree with. So when Kraft asks him to step down from GM and he says no it wasn't something that they "collectively" agreed to. I can't wait for that media battle.

 

[BUSTAMOVE]

I know some of you on this site want BB gone at all costs.
Putting all that aside and redirecting our attention on what this man did for this franchise for 20 plus years.
That presser was Humiliating for him. He also in a vague way suggested he may relinquish GM duties. He suggested that he was only a cog in that end of management. We know differently. But this may of been his way of maintaining some dignity if he stays but loses GM duties.

All that said. If he truthfully wants to stay as HC and give up GM duties. Kraft would be a AHole to fire him after rolling him out there to get humiliated. This is not a regular scrub coach. He is the GOAT. There has to be some integrity in how BB’s potential departure is handled for the Franchise and the coach. I would think if Kraft was hellbent on firing him he would have called him and said do not do the presser and come to my office.

He could still get canned. What BB did and did not say tells me Kraft is between a rock and a hard place.

 

[PatsfanTN]

430 on the east coast and no news. Im Starting to have a feeling he will be here next year….

 

[upstater1]

You can also be specifically wrong in your blind support for Belichick.

Please cite a single instance where I mention a "radio guy" in support of a single one of my conclusions and you can't because I haven't.

Specificity doesn't mean right, it just means a more narrow scope of discussion.

Let's discuss a few specific points.

This year the Patriots offense scored a historic low 13.9 points per season. For historic comparison purposes you have to go all the way back to 1938 to find the NFL on average scoring less than that at 13.4 points per team. Meanwhile in 1940 the league averaged 15.2 points per team. This puts the Patriots offensive comparable squarely in the DINOSAUR age of football.

The Patriots AWFUL drafting decisions under Belichick over a decade of poor drafts, gave us general deficiencies on offense that resulted in the disaster of the recently completed 2023/24 season. To explain it simply - many specific mistakes, accumulated over a long period of time eventually add up to a talent drain which makes your team unable to compete on offense.

For discussion of the draft, there are countless FAILS by BB but let's limit ourselves to 3 specific examples for the sake of brevity: N'Keal Harry, Cole Strange, Tyquan Thornton. All taken early and representing significant draft capital.

Harry - a dinosaur of a pick who couldn't create any separation and had no speed - but to BB's eyes seemed like a good pick because he was tall, strong, could potentially end up a good blocker with his strength, and more importantly to BB nailed the interview. Harry ended up an awful pick for obvious production, ability, and attitude reasons.

Cole Strange - picking a GUARD in the 1st round is beyond awful in terms of modern draft value. But of course BB chose to go old school and FAILED. If you pick a guard in Round 1 at the very least they need to turn out all-pro caliber like Logan Mankins but he's not. He looks decidedly mediocre. A waste of early draft capital and another missed opportunity.

Tyquan Thornton - the second invisible man BB drafted to play WR. This was an Al Davis era pick - just take a really fast guy who can't run routes or get himself open. Again another huge swing and a miss using dinosaur age type evaluation methods.

BB's accumulation of errors and blunders in drafting discussed above, picking the coaching staffing - do we need to remind you specifically of Patricia/Judge fiasco, the mismanagement of Mac Jones development, and free agency - not adding a starting caliber OT, taking JuJu Schuster-Smith and letting Jakobi Meyers walk well it all adds up to the stinking poop pile that was the Patriots 2023-24 season.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to convince you or trying to get a dinosaur to change its stripes.

But there needs to be some pushback when people blindly advocate for holding onto the past for outdated or for purely sentimental reasons.

To state that Belichick's roster construction methods are still good in the modern NFL flies in the face of logic. It ignores recent evidence, goes against current day football metrics and analytics, and is simply FALSE.

BB needs to be kept FAR AWAY from any future Patriots drafting or roster decisions for the GOOD of the franchise.

We can't afford to mess up this upcoming draft where we hold top 3 picks in each round and we can't afford to mess up the impending free agent period where we might have up to 100 million available to spend. That could set back the franchise for YEARS!

Obviously no decision has been made or announced yet concerning BB's future, but I can clearly see reasons ownership might want to move beyond the age of dinosaurs and look for a coach who can win in the modern NFL.

I specifically mentioned Jim Harbaugh as a top candidate and I don't think many in this forum would disagree that he might be a worthy successor if the Patriots can convince him to join and finally decides to move on from dinosaur Bill.

You have severe trouble reading.

In my post, I specifically went into the WR busts.

You are 100% wrong about guards. That's dinosaur thinking. Look at the last several rounds and you'll see a lot of guards taken as opposed to the distant past. If anything, the Patriots are ahead on this as they've spent a lot of capital on interior linemen. Which is smart. Because with mobile QBs, we're now seeing defenses counter by applying pressure up the middle. The interior of the line is now more important than ever before. Go look at the drafts and you'll see Verah-Tucker, Ruiz, Kenyon Green, Zion Johnson, Tyler Smith, Linderbaum, Avila, all going 1st round. In fact, in the Cole Strange draft, 3 IOL were taken before him.

You have a very old mindset, wake up and think about how the modern NFL works with modern quarterbacks. People aren't statues back there anymore.

You severely overrate Mac's abilities. Mac sucking had everything to do with his gutlessness and his inability to throw an out. He's the easiest guy to scout. Clog the middle. He can't beat you on the boundaries, he can't beat you over the top. He's skittish, he's afraid, he can't move around the pocket. Zappe is proof that Mac never had any of these abilities.

Do you even watch QBs at all when you make these comments? Zappe had the same coaches and does everything better than Mac. Zappe may not be accurate or have an arm, but he throws with the right mechanics. He moves around the pocket. He doesn't look afraid. He can't read a defense worth a lick and he isn't a starting QB in the NFL but at the very least, he has several things going for him that Mac can only dream about.

 

[upstater1]

Bill is done as a GM in the NFL. Here or anywhere.

He doesn't want to move.

It's gonna be fine.

It's time.

POST IS PINNED

 

[upstater1]

I know some of you on this site want BB gone at all costs.
Putting all that aside and redirecting our attention on what this man did for this franchise for 20 plus years.
That presser was Humiliating for him. He also in a vague way suggested he may relinquish GM duties. He suggested that he was only a cog in that end of management. We know differently. But this may of been his way of maintaining some dignity if he stays but loses GM duties.

All that said. If he truthfully wants to stay as HC and give up GM duties. Kraft would be a AHole to fire him after rolling him out there to get humiliated. This is not a regular scrub coach. He is the GOAT. There has to be some integrity in how BB’s potential departure is handled for the Franchise and the coach. I would think if Kraft was hellbent on firing him he would have called him and said do not do the presser and come to my office.

He could still get canned. What BB did and did not say tells me Kraft is between a rock and a hard place.

Kraft needs to have some class and decisiveness here.

He gains almost nothing by conducting this the way he has.

All this over money?

This is outrageous and pathetic. He's reinforcing everything anyone ever said about him.

 

[PatsfanTN]

Bill Belichick rumors tracker: Latest updates on his next head coach job

Check back to this article for the latest rumors and news surrounding Bill Belichick's future as an NFL head coach.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Rob0729]

I just cannot understand how you come to your conclusions when the timeline totally contradicts them.

They called on Brady in that spring and were told no.

So there's no way Belichick even considered a trade since he wouldn't even hear an offer. It definitely wasn't because Kraft put his foot down, as Wickersham claimed happened in October.

So there's no way Belichick responded with a no to Lynch based on Kraft's insistence.

Garoppolo was moving on no matter what since he was out of contract. People here were discussing the franchise tag for him.

A huge number of the members of this board thought that any trade value we'd get for him was less valuable than having him as insurance in case of a Brady injury.

But it's clear that Belichick at no time wanted to trade Brady, either before Kraft weighed in, nor after.

Wickersham said that Kraft told Belichick to trade Garoppolo in the fall of 2017. Lynch said Belichick refused to entertain a trade in spring of 2017 and then he traded him in October of 2017. That backs up Wickersham's information.

I don't think Wickersham said that Belichick wanted to move on from Brady before the 2017 season or even during the 2017 season.

What you don't remember or refuse to accept is that Belichick had to make the decision who he was going to keep after 2017 season. Not before. After 2017 season, Garoppolo's rookie contract was up. They couldn't keep both QBs. Garoppolo would have commanded the franchise tag or a starter salary. So he either would have cut or traded Brady or let Jimmy walk or franchise and trade him.

But keeping Garoppolo in the 2017 offseason only to trade him before the trade deadline made no sense. Either you traded him during the 2017 offseason or franchise him and trade him in the 2018 offseason. Trading him before the trade deadline gets you the least amount of value. Hence why it looks like Kraft forced the issue. The Pats probably could have gotten a first or more if they traded him in the 2017 offseason.

I still think the plan was to trade Brady and give Garoppolo a decent starting QB salary after 2017 season. Belichick seemed to think Garoppolo was the successor and the Pats had to make the decision on whether to move on from Brady and go with Jimmy after the 2017 season.

 

[1960Pats]

I wish more would understand. When his staff was good the team was good. **** staff, **** performances.. what can we really expect when staffers are getting paid minimum wage in the NFL!! Your only as good as the people around you.

When the players are good the team and the staff are good.

 

[Ring 6]

Read the article. Lynch said he called during the offseason of 2017 when all the other teams were trying to get Garoppolo and the Pats said they wouldn't trade Garoppolo for "four first round picks". Here is what it said:

That phone call actually took place early in the 2017 offseason, before the NFL Draft, when the Patriots were still unwilling to hear any trade offers for Garoppolo. However Lynch and 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan kept the young QB on their radar.

Wickersham shares more intriguing Brady-Belichick details from new book

ESPN’s Seth Wickersham joined NBC Sports Boston on Wednesday to discuss notable topics from his new book, which includes details about the conflict between Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft at One Patriot Place.

www.nbcsportsboston.com

And I think Wickersham said Belichick wanted to move on from Brady after the 2017 season. I don't think Belichick had any intention to move on from either QB until after the season until Kraft told Belichick to trade Garoppolo. But the fact is, Lynch doesn't contradict Wickersham. The Pats were just coming off a Super Bowl in the spring of 2017. They weren't going to let Brady go at that point. Didn't mean that Belichick wasn't going to move on after the 2017 season if the Pats didn't win back to back.

Garopollo was a free agent, he was gone after 2016, if belichick wanted to replace Brady with jimmy g (lol, it’s hard to even type that like someone seriously believes it) he couldn’t have waited until after 2017.

 

[Ring 6]

We know how it looks when Bill has final say.

Let's see what happens when someone else picks Nacua when we're in desperate need of offensive help instead.

We do, the greatest dynasty ever.

 

[1960Pats]

Your absolutely right. It's still mind boggling he didn't remain here. How does this happen! Stiddy IMO wasn't even a back up QB more like a PS QB. However I'd take him after what we had to endure the last 2 seasons at the Position. I will always say Brady was just the ultimate equalizer whenever Bill played mad scientist with the offense over the years.

Bill didn't recognize how influential Brady was in so many ways even though he saw it up close for 20 years.

 

[Real fan 02]

We do, the greatest dynasty ever.

No. A teary eyed goodbye on March 12th 2020. End of an era.

 

[1960Pats]

Living in Atlanta I’ll say this:

Atlanta fired Arthur Smith, and Bill is the name being MENTIONED EVERYWHERE down here that Blank wants.

I hope he calls Kraft on a burner and says “I’d give you a 2nd rd pick” and it gets worked out.

Bill needs to move on, Pats need new voice, AND Bill could make the Falcons better.

A win win.

 

[Real fan 02]

Bill didn't recognize how influential Brady was in so many ways even though he saw it up close for 20 years.

Brady withstood the test of time. He was just the most humbled superstar ever.

 

[Triumph]

Players win championships. Coaching methods can only lose them.


That's typical Belispeak, only this time it wasn't said in mumblish. He agrees to do anything that they "collectively" agree with. So when Kraft asks him to step down from GM and he says no it wasn't something that they "collectively" agreed to. I can't wait for that media battle.

It was 100% coaching when BB had Butler and the D practice the Seahawks goaline pass that was intercepted and won that Super Bowl. It was coaching when BB did not call timeout there and Petey Carrol panicked. BB took Carrols money at the poker table cool as ever.

The Pat's lose that Super Bowl otherwise.

You folks go on ahead and diminish BBs influence on these Patriot teams. As the old saying appropriately goes "You don't know what you have until it's gone."