Wrapping up Pats' loss to Giants; Potential Belichick suitors
Bill Belichick has and will always remain a bit of an enigma, both as a person and a football coach. Notoriously tight-lipped about his private and professional life, Belichick is often an emotional and strategic Fort Knox about, well, Bill Belichick. Few know him better than his friend and former colleague Mike Lombardi, who worked with Belichick in both of his head coaching stops in the NFL, Cleveland and New England. Thus, when Lombardi offers an opinion about what Belichick may be thinking or planning to do, it merits a listen…especially when it comes to this upcoming offseason.
Making his weekly appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show”, Lombardi addressed what’s been the biggest topic of conversation in New England and Pats Nation the past few weeks: the future of Belichick as head coach of the Patriots. Lombardi said things would first come down to a question from owner Robert Kraft: “Bill, where do you see this team going and how are you going to fix it?”
Lombardi added that it’s a fair question to ask the coach who’s helped bring six Super Bowl titles to the franchise, and based on the answer he gets, Kraft will be faced with his biggest decision since siding with Belichick and allowing Tom Brady to depart the franchise in 2020.
While he said it’s far from a done deal that the two sides will part ways this offseason, Lombardi pointed to, of all teams, the Houston Texans as a model to look toward for a quick fix.
“We always tend to think teams are worse than they are because the quarterback play is so bad,” he said. “Houston was a disaster. How are they gonna win any games? They finally get a quarterback, they do it.”
Lombardi hasn’t been shy of criticizing Patriots QB Mac Jones for his turnover issues in the past.
Compounding matters here, though, is the idea that Belichick is both coach and GM or as close to a general manager as you can get within the team’s executive structure. If one goes, they both likely go. Thus, if Kraft decides it’s best to part ways with Belichick after 24 seasons, Lombardi believes his friend and former boss won’t hang up his hoodie just yet.
“I think he wants to coach,” Lombardi said. “You can see the vibrancy in it. … I think he’s gonna want to keep doing it and there’s too many jobs.”
If that’s it in New England, Lombardi makes the case for where he could see Belichick going next, role-playing with McAfee.
“If you called Andy Reid up on the phone and said ‘Andy, who would be the last coach you would want to have at Los Angeles coaching Justin Herbert?’, who do you think he would say?”
Former New York Daily News writer Gary Myers, who covered Belichick for years when he was with the New York Giants and then the New York Jets, speculated as much recently as well.
Nothing is definite, but when the people that have the ear of the greatest minds talk, you might get some clues as to how the puzzle of a person is coming together. And while the on-field product is not very compelling to watch his season, the off-field drama set to unfold with coach and team should be absolutely fascinating in New England.