Coming off of Thursday night’s win over Pittsburgh, which seemingly instilled some renewed optimism thanks to a nice performance by second-year quarterback Bailey Zappe, the talk of moving on from Bill Belichick had quieted down in recent days.
However, Tom Curran of NBC Sports Boston reported Monday night that it’s sounding more and more like a decision may have already been made regarding Belichick’s future.
Curran said that following the loss in Germany, ownership may have made a decision on his future, taking into account a variety of missteps that obviously had them with 10 losses before the month of December, along with being officially eliminated from the postseason this past weekend.
“When they came out of Germany, conversations I had that week made it very clear a decision was made, and they were going to play out the string, and at the end of the year, there would be a parting of the ways, for a variety of reasons,” said Curran. “I think, and I wasn’t told this specifically, but the main one being, you don’t fire Bill Belichick during the season. It’s just not going to happen. Additionally, though, he’s an asset. He’s under contract for another year which we reported after ESPN or NFL Media reported there was a long-term extension in place that would keep Bill locked up long term. It’s only through next year.”
“So that would not be an impediment to them changing course and it had gone too far. The Germany game, the Commanders game, the Saints game – all huge marquee games – and then there was a Chargers game after that. Just because they won last week in Pittsburgh in prime time, I don’t think it quells anything.”
Phil Perry added that despite a suggestion by co-host Trenni Kusnierek about them potentially winning out, that likely won’t change anything. Perry said the other issues could be a big enough concern that Robert and Jonathan Kraft may feel as though a change is simply necessary as they try and rebuild the team moving forward.
“And even if they win out, [Trenni], to use your example [of potentially winning out], they still end up with seven wins, out of the postseason, trending in the wrong direction,” said Perry. “And it doesn’t erase all of the personnel errors that Tom and I have been talking about for a long time here.”
“So I’m sure the Krafts are looking at that and also looking at this offseason and all the cap space they have, and what looks like it could be a top-three pick in the draft, and it would be fair for them to ask, ‘Is Bill Belichick the right guy to lead us through that offseason into 2024 and beyond?'”
You can view the full segment below:
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
