Does Belichick Last Beyond 2023, and What Needs to Happen?

[farn]

Which stacked team is in need of a GM/HC? The only team in need of both is ARI, who has a lot of issues and about to trade Hopkins. Unless you mean Bill will work for another GM after spending 22 years buying the groceries.

SF. Shanny blows it this weekend + BB available…

 

[venecol]

I think BB and Kraft have an agreement about his future and exit strategy and it likely involves putting the team in a position to contend and maybe plan for future coaching. BB wont leave like McVay when the s**t is hitting the fan.

I hope it's a better exit strategy then they had after losing the franchise QB and SB winning OC.

 

[venecol]

So he has until 2025 to fix the ship before the ocean starts to boil under his seat.

Kraft may be dead by then.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

I figure Bill will need 3.5 seasons to reach Shula. Is it really better for the team to wait until Bill is 74 yo to reach a meaningless goal for the Patriots while wallowing in the shadows of the Bills?

That's a big fat NO from me. That shouldn't even be a consideration. Give Bill 2023 to get us to at least: #2 in the division, one game back from the Bills, and one WC win. Then he gets another year since that would be progress. If he fails on any of these, we thank him for his excellent career as the GOAT HC in NEP history and watch him sail into the sunset.

He’s 18 wins behind Shula (347 to 329), if it takes 3.5 years it means we’re winning 5 games per season over that time span. I don’t think Kraft
puts up with that….

 

[40yrpatsfan]

The drop off came in the multitude of mistakes made by the entire team. Which has been a constant pattern the last three seasons. Every year from 2019 to 2022 the team has a losing record during Dec-Jan, consistently. That's the exact opposite of what this team did prior to 2019. If it was 1 year losing, another winning, maybe. But four years in a row? That's a pattern. This is with different OCs, QBs, it didn't matter. Why is that? Why has this team fallen apart at the end of every single season for 4 straight years?

I don't feel they fell apart at the end of this year. They went 3-5 and did get outplayed in the first Bills game, but the losses to the Vikings, Raiders, and Cinci were all tainted by horrible inexplicable calls, and this last game was 2 KO returns plus 11 points of bad calls. Should have won all 4 of those games. Yes, we made mistakes in those games that need to be corrected, but we're competitive. There's some similarities to the 2000 team, and the next season we won a SB.

 

[venecol]

Kraft has observed the greatest coach ever for over 20 years. He knows what he has. Kraft isn’t an idiot. Belichick is here as long as he wants to be.

I guess Kraft was lying when he said what he said in Palm Beach this Spring. Or maybe he has 'dementia.'

 

[venecol]

was reviewing the coaching staff for this years team... It was a lot larger than I expected... on offense, 5 coaches (defacto, if not in title) and 4 assistant coaches... Nine guys on the offensive coaching staff...
OC Matt Patricia
OL Matt Patricia
QB Joe Judge
RB Vinny Sunseri
WR/KR Troy Brown
TE Nick Caley
Assistant OL Billy Yates
Two offensive assistants - Evan Rothstein (2021 research & analysis/coaching - support staff) & Tyler Hughes (2021 Off. assistant)
WR/NFL coaching fellowship - Ross Douglas

I know Fatt Matt is big, but counting him twice? Come on.

 

[Boomer B]

I don't feel they fell apart at the end of this year. They went 3-5 and did get outplayed in the first Bills game, but the losses to the Vikings, Raiders, and Cinci were all tainted by horrible inexplicable calls, and this last game was 2 KO returns plus 11 points of bad calls. Should have won all 4 of those games. Yes, we made mistakes in those games that need to be corrected, but we're competitive. There's some similarities to the 2000 team, and the next season we won a SB.

 

[Ring 6]

I guess Kraft was lying when he said what he said in Palm Beach this Spring. Or maybe he has 'dementia.'

No you just evidently don’t understand what he said very well.

 

[Boomer B]

He did. Here. Win the SB in year 2.

Completely different scenario. He had damn good coaches in place who had been with him at the Giants/ Browns for a while. He had Pioli and Ernie Adams. He had Brady. He had great players who were also great leaders.

If he goes somewhere else at 72 he won't have those. Who's he bringing with him now...Patricia, Judge, and Jr?

 

[venecol]

I believe BB will be here, I feel the staff will be upgraded with people who are qualified to be in those respective positions.. my personal feelings are Nick Caley gets promoted to offensive Coordinator and has the actual title!!

I forgot about Caley. Bill could get around getting rid of his buddy by giving Caley the OC role but having Patricia behind Caley with his arm up his arse moving his lips. I don't think anyone would notice.

Actually, didn't Caley refuse to renew his contract? Nvm.

 

[crawhammer]

I know people would like to discuss this, so given that Bill has already said he's coming back for the 2023 season, and it would be pretty surprising to see Kraft move on from him - barring a refusal to make changes - what do you think needs to happen for him to last beyond this season? And do you think he can make enough moves this offseason to make them competitive enough to be a factor next January?

I'll answer the second question first. No. Belichick doesn't have a good enough quarterback to compete with the better teams in the AFC who have bonafide elite quarterbacks. And Belichick has too many holes in the roster otherwise to fill and compensate for inferior quarterback play. This is Belichick's biggest challenge. For two decades, he had the opposite scenario of an uber-elite quarterback covering for all the holes in the roster.

The days of insider whispering of plugging any top 15 quarterback into the system and rolling out 11 wins are long gone. It's ironic too that they even felt compelled to changed the system (because it was too complicated for either the QB or new OC or both) and things got worse.

I could simplify my above comments too with just two words: Josh Allen. He's going to dominate the AFC East for the next decade and Belichick has no answer for him.

Answer to the first question. What needs to happen for Belichick to last beyond next season? To just stick around, probably not much. Meaning I think the team would probably have to lose 11-12 games for Kraft to muster the initiative to fire Belichick.

Although, here are a few things that would be nice for 2023...

New OC with experience and a high degree of competence. So the opposite of Patricia.

A legit WR1 to go along with Parker, Bourne and Meyers who's a must signing.

Find a shutdown CB1 to content with all of these ridiculously talented quarterbacks and receivers in the conference.

And I can't believe I'm saying this, because I'm not big on the "third phase", but ************ do something about the putrid state of the ST.

 

[borg]

Kraft has observed the greatest coach ever for over 20 years. He knows what he has. Kraft isn’t an idiot. Belichick is here as long as he wants to be.

 

[Bradybranch]

I think he'll stay beyond 2023 because we're closer than some might think. The Pats are a competitive team, except for the Bears debacle, they were never really blown out. The defense should still be one of the best in the league, and so the team just needs to fix a few glaring issues, and we can make a playoff run. Get a real OC, get a stud LT and move Trent Brown to right tackle. Those two things will go a long way in fixing this offense. With lots of cap room and another good draft on top of all that, I think the Pats will be cookin

 

[Ring 6]

Completely different scenario. He had damn good coaches in place who had been with him at the Giants/ Browns for a while. He had Pioli and Ernie Adams. He had Brady. He had great players who were also great leaders.

If he goes somewhere else at 72 he won't have those. Who's he bringing with him now...Patricia, Judge, and Jr?

He did it. Your comment was he couldn’t go somewhere and win quickly.
Your argument now appears to be that nothing that ever happened is relevant because the exact same circumstances don’t exist. If we accept that premise then there is nothing to talk about because no one is ever in the exact same situation.

FYI he didn’t bring coaches with him who had accomplished anywhere near what the ones he has now have.

 

[venecol]

The Krafts know they have one of the best HC's in the league, and that will be the case till the day he dies.

I hope you're not implying that Bill can coach until he dies. That would be quite morbid.

This team is poised to go a long way next season, very bullish on them - they are more like a 10-win team in terms of evaluating them.

Didn't you say this same thing around this time last year?

 

[Ring 6]

2001
2003
2004
2014
2016
2018

You can post as many pictures as you want (including the guy who had a lot to do with 2 of those) and the positives outweigh the negatives more than any one who has ever coached in the league.

 

[VectorPrime]

I now truly believe that at this point the Patriots could go 1-16 and you’d have Belichick boot lickers in the media and among fans still insisting that it was his best coaching job ever and we are privileged that we didn’t have to witness someone else coaching the roster because man we’d have REALLY seen a disaster.

 

[RIpats88]

It depends if you think this year's failure was due to talent or coaching. I believe this team has talent that was squandered by having a DC calling offense.

The talent this year is better than the team that won 10 games last year. If the offense just was at last year's levels we probably are at 11 wins and in the playoffs. As it stands we should've had 10 wins if we didn't blow the raiders and Bengals games.

 

[venecol]

He’s 18 wins behind Shula (347 to 329), if it takes 3.5 years it means we’re winning 5 games per season over that time span. I don’t think Kraft
puts up with that….

I'm talking about the regular season record: 328 to 298. Bill needs 30 more wins. He's also behind Halas in regular season wins.