Wednesday Patriots Notebook 4/17: News and Notes
(PHOTO: RVR Photos - USA TODAY Sports) 🕑 Read Time: 5 minutes
Posted Under: Patriots News
(PHOTO: RVR Photos - USA TODAY Sports) 🕑 Read Time: 5 minutes
New England Patriots > Patriots Blog
(PHOTO: RVR Photos - USA TODAY Sports) Some Patriots news for this morning:
ESPN published an interesting article on Wednesday, with Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wickersham, and Jeremy Fowler putting together a long-form story on Bill Belichick’s offseason coaching search, which saw him ultimately end up without a job in the NFL this offseason.
The piece details the meetings Belichick had with Arthur Blank in Atlanta, along with the fact that Patriots owner Robert Kraft apparently also had some influence over the decision that left his former coach on the outside looking in after the two parted ways back in January.
According to the article, when Blank and Kraft spoke, Kraft warned Blank ‘not to trust Bill,’ with Kraft apparently being fairly candid during the call as Blank was still mulling the decision.
“But in a conversation with Blank, Kraft delivered a stark assessment of Belichick’s character, according to a source who spoke to two people: a close Kraft friend and a longtime Belichick confidant,” read the article. “The source quoted the Belichick source as saying, ‘Robert called Arthur to warn him not to trust Bill.’ That account was backed up, the source said, by the close Kraft friend.”
“Multiple sources said that Kraft spoke with ‘some candor’ to Blank about Belichick, though the sources declined to elaborate. One source close to Belichick said Kraft ‘was a big part’ of why the Falcons passed on hiring him.”
Kraft also apparently said that “you’ll never have a warm conversation” with Belichick, which also influenced Blank, who a source told ESPN, “Blank likes coaches who feel part of a family.”
One other interesting note that came out of this is the fact that many had believed that Jonathan Kraft had influenced the decision for the Patriots to move on from Belichick, but it doesn’t sound like that was the case. According to the article, Kraft had apparently pondered moving on from Belichick after the 2022 season, but Jonathan reportedly talked him out of it.
However, sitting at 3-10 in December this past season, that was when Belichick knew his time in New England was coming to an end, which obviously saw Kraft move on from him this offseason.
Meanwhile, during the interview process, another interesting fact is that while Belichick reportedly came out of his meetings with Blank feeling confident, it doesn’t sound like he ever really had a shot.
Belichick reportedly believed he was the favorite based on his time with Blank, but his second meeting with Blank was apparently only done “out of respect,” and he wasn’t as close as he thought.
In fact, when Blank met with his top brass, Belichick reportedly didn’t even make it into their top three as they started ranking potential candidates.
In the end, the Falcons ended up hiring Raheem Morris, which left Belichick without the job, closing the door on what had appeared to be his best opportunity this past offseason.
As for what the future holds, Belichick believes he’ll get another shot next offseason. Among teams that Belichick is said to be interested in, should the option be there, are Dallas, the Giants, or Philadelphia. Belichick also reportedly would prefer to stay in the northeast given that the assistants he would hire, namely Josh McDaniels or Matt Patricia, each have family there.
In the meantime, he’s expected to be on TV this fall doing analysis for Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, which produces ESPN’s “ManningCast” during Monday Night Football. Previous reports had said he wasn’t interested in doing regular in-studio appearances, so it should be interesting to see what this entails.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter appeared on Get Up on Tuesday and revealed that the Patriots have been getting calls and will likely get more in the coming days ahead of the draft, with teams trying to entice a move down the board by New England to try and jump up to grab their own future QB.
That news might provide some context to the recent visit by Michael Penix Jr. After the club reportedly didn’t express interest at the Scouting Combine, the Washington QB spent time with the club recently as they continue doing some additional due diligence ahead of the draft.
However, it sounds like the Patriots have been getting significant interest with their pick from around the league ahead of next Thursday night. Schefter reports they’ve been getting calls, and that they’ll likely get more heading into this draft.
“New England, whether they stay at three and take a quarterback or trade out, they’ve been getting calls, they’ll get more calls,” said Schefter. “And anybody that wants to come up, will target New England at #3. We’ve heard a lot of talk about Arizona at #4, about the Los Angeles Chargers at #5, getting out and trading out of that spot. But what if New England, for the third quarterback in this draft, decides that its going to move out of that spot and get bounced around. That would be an interesting little situation to follow.”
Schefter added that he believes Minnesota remains a team determined to make a move next week.
“And then, of course, the team that’s most likely to move up at some point in time would be the Minnesota Vikings,” said Schefter. “They have the ammunition in round one to make a dramatic move. They have the 11th overall pick. They have the 23rd overall pick. And they have to go up in round one because they can’t get a quarterback in round two. [They] don’t have a second-round draft pick.”
“The Vikings have been targeting all the different quarterbacks. They lost Kirk Cousins, they know they have to get one. They can call down to three. They can call down to four. They can call down to five. But somehow, some way, the Vikings want to come up and there’s speculation around the league that the quarterback that they’d like to come up and get would be Drake Maye. There’s been a lot of J.J. McCarthy conversation with Minnesota as well. We don’t know which one they want, but clearly, the Vikings want up for a quarterback.”
According to MLFootball on Twitter, TCU defensive back Mark Perry has a third meeting with the Patriots on Thursday, with the club reportedly hosting a virtual meeting with the TCU standout. He’s expected to be a potential late-round prospect next week. … It sounds like the Giants may be a possibility to go after a QB on Draft night. Daniel Jeremiah said in a recent episode of “Move the Sticks” that he believes if the Giants go that route, the Patriots could be that partner. “I think if they could find a willing trade partner at #3 in the New England Patriots, and everybody could kind of get what they wanted out of this deal, where the Giants could go up and get Drake Maye with the 3rd pick,” said Jeremiah. “The Patriots, if they were a J.J. McCarthy team, could slide back, get some extra picks, and still add a quarterback to the mix. I wouldn’t sleep on that possibility once we get to Detroit.” … The Seattle Times had a good piece on former Patriots assistant Vinny Sunseri, who is the safeties coach out at the University of Washington. Sunseri joined former Patriots coaches Jedd Fisch and Steve Belichick after the two invited him to interview. “Steve and I are close and we have a great relationship,” Sunseri said. “Coach (Jedd) Fisch and Steve asked if I would like to come and interview and I was extremely excited for the opportunity. Like I said, I love college football in every capacity, so I’m excited extremely excited to be here.” Sunseri said that helping young players develop and being a part of that process is something he’s enjoyed, and he’s excited for the upcoming season. … A2Z writer Sophie Weller pointed out on Twitter that Christian Harvey and Emma Friese from the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism will announce the New England Patriots’ Round 3 pick, per NFL Communications next Thursday. Who that name will be is obviously the big question, as is whether or not the Patriots will still be there making the pick when they’re finally on the clock.
SITE SEARCH