TRANSCRIPT: Bill Belichick’s Press Conference 1/8/24
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Opening Statement:
“A couple of things from yesterday. As I said, it was obviously a very disappointing season all the way around. The players, coaches, staff, organization, everybody. It’s not anywhere close to what our standard and expectations are. So obviously, there are things that need to be fixed.”
“Proud of the way the players and the team competed but not the results, obviously, from any of us, starting with me and all the way down to everybody else that was involved in it, I know we all feel the same way.”
“I’m under contract. I’m going to do what I always do, which is every day I come in, work as hard as I can to help the team in whatever way I can, so that’s what I’m going to continue to do. Today was kind of the wrap-up day for us with the players. We’ll have a meeting with them and then go from there.”
“As far as any decisions or direction or anything like that for next year, it’s way too early for that. End of the year process is, I don’t think will be fundamentally any different from the standpoint of how it’s done, the decisions, that’s a whole other conversation. But how it’s done, I’ll meet with Robert like I always do, meet with the staff, meet with the personnel department, kind of recap the season with the big picture and look at some of the individual situations that are looming, one way or another, but that’s obviously a long, long way off from where we are right now. So we’ll start, at the end of the day, putting the pieces back together in terms of setting things up to go through a good detailed analysis and kind of start a reconstruction, if you will.”
On how he views the Patriots current culture as established by ownership in terms of setting a coach up to succeed:
“As I just said, I think we’ll evaluate everything and take a course that we feel like collectively helps put us on the best path to success.”
On when his meeting with Robert Kraft is scheduled for:
“Yeah, I’ll leave all that out, Andrew [Callahan]. It might be a series of meetings, I don’t know. We’ll deal with that internally.”
On the fact two years ago this was a playoff team that appeared to be ascending, and his views of how things got to this point and what are the deficiencies that he’s looking at to clean up heading into 2024:
“Right. Well, that’s what I just talked about, Chris [Mason]. We’ll take a look at everything, both the current situation, the current year, and if there’s a trend or whatever we feel like we can do collectively as an organization. Again, it’s the same thing we’ve always done. Just organizationally figure out where we’re going, what’s our best path to get there, and look at the previous results which, obviously this year weren’t very good, and try to chart a course into the future.”
On how much he wants to be here to fix this, and how much he wants to get this right after the year they just had:
“Well, Dan [Roche], I just opened with that. I’m going to do everything I can every day to do the best I can to help our football team. That’s what I’ve always done. It’s never been any different for me in my career. I learned that lesson from my dad growing up. You work for the team you’re working for, and you do the best you can for them until somebody tells you different, so that’s not going to change.”
On if he’s given any serious thoughts of relinquishing the personnel, and maybe the draft responsibilities in coaching the team:
“Look, I’m for whatever collectively we decide as an organization is the best thing to help our football team. I have multiple roles in that, and I rely on a lot of people to help me in those responsibilities. If somebody’s got to have the final say, I have it. I rely on a lot of other people to help, and whatever that process is, I’m only part of it.”
On if he’s received any indication from ownership that his future is up in the air:
“I told you, I’m here to work as hard as I can to help our team every day. That’s what I’m going to do.”
On with the season now over, if he could offer an updated assessment of Mac Jones and whether he believes he can be a starting QB in this league:
“Yeah, as I said, we’ll go through our offseason evaluations and all that. Right now, it’s less than 24 hours after the Jets game and that’s where all my focus was up until 4 o’clock yesterday.”
On if he has any regrets on how he assembled this team, or if he thinks it was due to injuries, bad breaks, and things like that:
“I think we had some things that we can build on. I think there are some things we need to fix and change.”
On what he hopes players say about him as they look back and reflect on this year:
“Well, I mean, look, we’re all disappointed in the season. I already talked about that. As I said, every day I’ve come to work here and every where else I’ve worked, done the best that I could each and every day to help our football team. So that’s what I’ve done.”
On in the event he was no longer the coach of the Patriots, if he’d be interested in coaching another team:
“Yeah, I’m not going to get into a lot of hypothetical situations.”
On if it would surprise him if Robert Kraft decides moving on from him would be best for the football team:
“Yeah, I’m going to focus on what I am going to control and focus on, and that’s my work ethic and my effort to do what I can to help the Patriots’ organization, which I’m heavily invested in.”
On his handling of Mac Jones, who was benched four times and then was the third quarterback on Sunday, and why he got his job back so many times after being benched:
“Yeah, look, we’ve talked about it, Ben [Volin]. I wouldn’t characterize it anywhere close to the way you have. We’ve covered that before. So we’ll deal with everything else going forward.”
On if Robert Kraft came to him and said, ‘I just want you to coach the football team,’ if he’d be OK with that:
“Yeah, I just answered that question, Duke [Castiglione].”
On when he goes back to April, May, June, going into training camp if he felt this team, as it was constructed with the roster and coaching staff, was built to contend for a playoff spot and maybe even a championship:
“Well, the moves that we made, given the options that we had, I felt like we did what was best for the football team each time. Obviously, the results aren’t good. Some of those things were, I think, positive, some of them didn’t work out as well as we hoped they would. Then there were other circumstances in some of the other decisions as well. We’ll go back and look at all of them and again, look forward to working towards solutions and things that will improve our team.”
On the reports that he and Robert Kraft haven’t met during the course of the season, and if it’s just that they haven’t met to talk about his future and how frequently he’s been in communication with him over the course of the year:
“We’ve met during the season.”
On if he’s given him any indications about his future:
“Yeah, I’ve answered that question three times, Phil [Perry].”
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