It’s still probably foolish to hypothesize about the Patriots parting ways with Bill Belichick. They made the playoffs last season and are only one game out right now. Plus, Belichick has won six Super Bowls here, in case you haven’t heard.
But it’s apparent Robert Kraft isn’t thrilled with the direction of the team. This offseason, the Patriots’ owner expressed his discontent about not winning a playoff game in three years. With two straight losses to the Vikings and Bills, the 6-6 Patriots don’t appear to be legitimate contenders this season, either.
On Tom Curran’s “Patriots Talk” podcast this week, ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio theorized how Belichick’s tenure with the Patriots could end. Florio says it’s unlikely Kraft would fire Belichick, given his immense stature around the league. The more realistic scenario, according to Florio, involves the Krafts nudging Belichick aside.
“I think the way it would happen is, Bill Belichick would begin to sense they don’t him there anymore, and he would start looking at other opportunities, and they would let him go,” said Florio. “If he still wants to keep coaching, there’s going to be another team out there that would take him in a heartbeat, that would pay him what he’s making, that would give up a first round pick-plus to get him. I don’t think you ever have to fire Bill Belichick. You just have to make it known that Bill Belichick is available to one of these teams.”
It’s widely assumed Belichick, who’s 20 wins shy of Don Shula’s all-time record, wants to keep coaching until he breaks it. But if the Patriots finish the season around .500 — and most importantly, without a playoff win — Florio says the Krafts could start thinking about making a change.
“It’s very easy to have a coach for 20 years when that coach is winning multiple Super Bowls,” he said. “But when you haven’t won a playoff game since Super Bowl 53, when you might not even make it back to the postseason this year, when your last playoff game is a 47-17 embarrassment to the team you used to own. You’re now in fourth place in the division you used to dominate. At some point, that leaves a mark. How can it not get ownership to start thinking about what their options are?”
At the start of the season, Belichick said all responsibility falls on him. Without official coordinators, it’s difficult to discern who’s at fault for the Patriots’ various struggles.
Florio says that’s intentional on Belichick’s part.
“I think this all flows from the fact that Bill Belichick has two of his kids on the coaching staff and he can’t fire them,” he said. “That’s where I think all of this comes from. After 47-17 in the playoffs, Steve Belichick, if his last name isn’t ‘Belichick,’ he’s gone. He’s done. It’s over. But he can’t fire him, and when you can’t fire your kid, you can’t fire anybody else. You can’t hold anybody accountable. So what he did, I think he sees where this is going, and ‘I’m going to consolidate as much of the blame as possible on me, so I don’t have to worry about firing anybody. … And if you’ve got a problem with me, go ahead and fire me.’ I think that’s the core logic to all of this stuff that’s going on.”
Belichick has seemingly issued the challenge. We’ll see if the Krafts accept.
