For most of this dismal 2023 Patriots season, owner Robert Kraft has been seen but not heard.
Other than a few choice words a half-world away to friendly foreign fans in Frankfurt and a promotional NFL Network appearance for that long-developing international affair, the unquestioned patriarch of Patriot Nation has not said or done much in relation to the team of which he was a fan long before he was the boss.
These tough times have to be tough on Kraft, as visualized by his head hanging in seeming shame at his team’s performance in the ugly loss to the Colts in Germany.
And it’s not going to get easier in the coming weeks. The losses are likely going to continue to pile up. As New England competes for the No. 1 overall pick. The on-field ugliness is going to build. The calls from the mutinous masses for change will grow louder.
At some point Kraft is going to have to not only walk the walk for his team, but he’s going to have to talk the talk.
That’s exactly what new-age billionaire Panthers owner David Tepper did this week when he let go of first-year Carolina coach Frank Reich after the terrible 1-10 start to the season in which his young supposed franchise QB out of Alabama has looked anything but. Sound familiar?
After jettisoning Reich – the third coach Tepper has fired in little more than five seasons in charge in Carolina – the owner met with the media to explain himself and set the table for the future.
Make no mistake, at some point Kraft is going to have to travel the road that Tepper has paved. He’s going to have to make tough calls, none tougher than maybe moving on from six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Belichick as majority of Patriots fans now believe the future Hall of Fame coach’s time in New England needs to come to an end.
Last January, just hours after what was then the worst season in New England since 2000, Kraft gave the world a sampling of what his post-dynasty more hands-on approach to the Patriots could be. He immediately sent a letter to season ticket holders. He put out a press release declaring that the team would go get an actual offensive coordinator and extend the contract of top defensive assistant/possible coach-in-waiting Jerod Mayo. It was a press release that essentially declared that business was no longer being done as usual in New England. That, to turn a Belichickian response on its ear, the status was no longer quo at One Patriot Place.
But after this season, in which Kraft has watched his team bottom out in ways that many thought we could and would never see on Belichick’s watch, the passionate owner is going to have to do and say much more. It is after all, as he reminded us last offseason, HIS football team.
As offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien explained this week, there is a chain of command in New England. That starts with Kraft atop the organization, flows down through Belichick and then spreads out through the assistant coaches and other middle-management types.
But Kraft – along with his team-president son Jonathan – are the kings of this football mountain. At some point they will need to let their actions speak volumes. And then explain those actions to their fans and customers with their words. That time is drawing near. It’s now a mere six games away.
“Owners make decisions,” O’Brien noted in his explanation of the Patriots power structure, including as it might relate to the future of the quarterback position with the team.
Owners do make decisions. When they have to. When the time is right. When the results on the field and in the organization require it.
For more than two decades of unprecedented success in the NFL, Kraft hired the right people, gave them what they needed to succeed and reaped the benefits. Belichick led the way. Tom Brady did the rest.
Now, oh have the times changed. Kraft’s role has had to change.
It’s just about time for Kraft to remind the world and Patriot Nation alike why he and he alone sits atop the chain of command in New England. It’s about time for Kraft to “make decisions” that he and he alone can make.
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