Bill Belichick joined Ordway, Merloni & Fauria Tuesday for what was likely his last appearance of the season.
The Patriots coach closed with a message looking ahead to next season, which acknowledged the 2020 season was not what anyone wanted.
"Look forward to hopefully returning to a higher level of coaching and playing performance for the Patriots," he said of 2021.
New England, which is currently 6-9, will have its first losing season since 2000 and will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
Belichick knows the team will look a lot different.
“(Our evaluation is) not limited to any one position or one person,” he said. “It’s every player on the practice squad, all the players on the roster, players that are on injured reserve, ultimately the opt-out players if they decide to opt back in, if you will. Internally, that whole evaluation process is one that we’ll do very thoroughly.
“And then there’s obviously an external evaluation that we’ll deal with, as well, whether that’s draft, trades, free agent signings or what have you. But the internal part will start immediately. It’s already started. We do it constantly. But we’ll do it more thoroughly and comprehensively once all the information’s in and go from there.”
The Patriots will be selecting in the first half of the first round and then have the third-most cap space in the league.
