I don't know how people can watch the series The Dynasty and not blame the downfall on Kraft. He self-confesses (despite not trying to) the outrageous amount of meddling he's done over the years.
I don't know how you can have the knowledge that Kraft undermined his previous coaches, both Carroll and Parcells, and had a falling out with them, and then you can't imagine he was the same was from about 2014 on with Belichick.
He thinks he knows football. Jonathan thinks he knows football. This is the whole reason they hired Mayo.
In the Dynasty, Kraft tried to heap a ton of blame on Belichick, and it began almost chronologically.
#1. The switch from Bledsoe to Brady. Kraft didn't like it. Was ready to fire Belichick.
#2. He blamed Belichick for Spygate. Called him a schmuck for doing it.
#3. Got upset when Belichick started to plan for Brady's retirement by drafting Garoppolo. Apparently, Belichick showed him a study about how QBs deteriorate when they were around Brady's age at the time (37). Steve Young was brought on to replace Montana in SF when Montana was 31. But the idea that Belichick would want to plan to transition from a much older Brady meant Belichick had ulterior motives.
#4. Kraft talked about wanting to fire Belichick after the loss in the '17 Super Bowl.
#5. The '18 Super Bowl saved Belichick's job.
#6. Kraft insisted on reinstalling Guerrero into the locker room despite Belichick's objections. Even Amendola, who didn't get along with Belichick, understood that this would undermine the coaches since Guerrero was giving advice to players that countered what the coaches were proscribing.
#7. Because of the bad drafting of the previous several years, Kraft insisted that Belichick would have to collaborate from then on, so they hired Wolf.
#8. While the drafting was bad, Kraft didn't seem to understand the context of what was happening. The team was winning Super Bowls. They were trading away picks for veterans, #1 for Cooks, #2 for Sanu, #4 for Brown. They lost 4 prime draft picks for Deflategate. The roster was full of veterans so Belichick deliberately tried to swing for the fences. He made bad risky picks like Easley.
#9. The Patriots pushed a lot of veteran contracts to 2020. They got rid of the salary cap overhang that year in order to clear space for 2021.
#10. Callahan wrote in the Herald that Mac Jones was not the pick Belichick wanted. You could kind of tell when Belichick asked, "Are we sure we want to do this? Does anyone want to speak up?"
#11. When, by the end of 2022 when the determination was made to move on from Mac, the owner and front office were not happy with Belichick. Callahan again reported that Belichick was making overtures to sign Baker Mayfield, but this plan was nixed because the owners were still solidly in Mac's corner.
#12. Callahan also reported BEFORE the season that Belichick wanted to hold onto Jakobi Meyers, but he was convinced by "the collaborators" that JuJu S.-S. was much better at YAC and more valuable.
#13. We found out that Mayo was promised the job after Belichick. This created a situation in which there was a mutiny on the staff in the middle of the season. When you have two sets of staff working against each other, with the owners clearly backing one side, you're going to have a destroyed season.
The idea that Belichick didn't care anymore or purposely destroyed the season collapses when you realize the owners had engineered a coaching coup from under his feet and they saddled him with a QB who was incapable of leading the team. In retrospect, someone like Mayfield would have been the much better choice.
Belichick isn't perfect, his decision -- for instance -- to go with Patricia was backwards. His roster of coaches had completely depleted at that point as coaches moved for promotions elsewhere.
Still, it should be obvious that the team was in rebuild mode. In fact, the players who were chosen from those post-Super Bowl years are part of the current core. Look at the draftees and FAs that came in during these years:
Hunter Henry
Matthew Judon
Kendrick Bourne
Davon Godchaux
Jabril Peppers
and the draftees:
Mike Onwenu
Christian Barmore
Rham Stevenson
Christian Gonzlaez
Marcus Jones
Kayshon Boutte
Demario Douglas
Kyle Dugger
Anfernee Jennings
Keion White
Marte Mapu
Bryce Baringer
Not to mention the others who, like Keion White and Dugger currently, don't fit with the scheme; still some of those who left are starters with other teams now.
I'm talking about Hjalte Froholdt, Jake Andrews, and even Chad Ryland who made the Pro Bowl.
Many of the players I listed, Barmore, Boutte, Marcus Jones, Hunter Henry, Christian Gonzalez, form the core of the current team.
