If the Patriots don’t want him back, Belichick likely has options, assuming he wants to keep coaching. He has 332 wins in the regular season and postseason combined, 15 wins shy of Don Shula’s record. Belichick, 71, has shown no signs of wanting to quit, even if he has to start over somewhere else. On Sunday, he faced questions about why he forced the Patriots to punt on fourth-and-3 early in the fourth quarter and why he didn’t play when J.C. Jackson was active. The players in the very quiet locker room wondered why the offense didn’t pick up the tempo more late in the fourth quarter. One of the things that Craft and other owners looking for a coach will have to balance is whether Belichick’s philosophy of managing the game and players still works.
The Patriots are projected to almost certainly land a top-five pick in the 2024 draft and be near the top of the league in terms of draft picks. salary cap space. There are several players on the roster, including safety Kyle Dugger and tight end Hunter Henry, whose contracts expire at the end of this season, but who may want to stay. Whoever makes the decision will have the means to make dramatic changes to the roster this offseason.
So the bottom line is who does Kraft trust more than Belichick with the franchise?
Across the field, the Chiefs were cruising to victory on Sunday, with a diminished playmaker slowing their offense and their championship hopes looking as fragile as at any point in the Mahomes era. They remind us how difficult it is to build and maintain a dynasty, and how extraordinary those two decades were in New England.
That won’t make future decisions any easier for the Patriots. In fact, it makes them more difficult. They know better than anyone in the current NFL what it feels like to be a Colossus, and they know that when Gillette Stadium was packed and cheering, not pockmarked with throngs of visiting fans, but empty seats. And I know what it’s like when the locals are feeling bored. . They face the same difficult choices that others face when legendary coaches find themselves in difficult situations. In Dallas, a painful move from Tom Landry set the stage for the Super Bowl. In Miami, they are still waiting for their first post-Shula Super Bowl.
Belichick is in the strange position of continuing to coach and receiving compliments as if his fate was predetermined, even though it clearly isn’t. It looked like the Chiefs were going out of their way to show respect. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid had his team take a knee on the goal line rather than score to give the ball back to the Patriots with 35 seconds left. Reid, who is close to Belichick, called Belichick “the best ever” and said he was right not to score. Patrick Mahomes said he’s always focused when playing against Belichick.
Of course, Belichick said little after the game — not even his usual summation that they didn’t coach or play well enough before asking questions — but the result was a satisfying one for the situation. A lost season that was guaranteed to never end. The Patriots haven’t given up on Belichick. They still play hard. They simply aren’t enough. If an epitaph were to be written honoring Belichick’s time in New England, it might be worse than Travis Kelce’s epitaph, which says playing against Belichick is the toughest job in the NFL. He was asked how he felt about this potentially being the last time he would play against him in New England. He paused for a few seconds.
“Well, the fact that you just said that is crazy to think about,” Kelce said. “I felt like that player still had some soccer talent left in him.”
