Patriots Rumors: Latest On Bill Belichick’s Job Security Amid Slide
If Robert Kraft does make the difficult decision to part ways with Bill Belichick after what looks like a lost Patriots season, it won’t be your garden-variety head coach firing.
Speaking Monday on “The Pat McAfee Show,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter said a potential Belichick dismissal would be handled “entirely differently” due to his and Kraft’s wildly successful, decades-long relationship together.
“First of all, I think he’s treated differently, as he should be, than any other coach,” Schefter said. “On a Monday or Sunday night after the season ends, we’ll get three, four, five, six firings of head coaches, and I just don’t think you’re going to get one of these statements (after) the last regular-season game where the Patriots are firing Bill Belichick.
“I just don’t think it works like that when there’s the history and the accomplishments and the resumes and the relationship that there has been between he and Robert Kraft. And so this situation is treated entirely differently.”
Past accomplishments understandably bought Belichick more goodwill than nearly any other coach would have in his situation. But Kraft, who said in March that he expected his team to be back in the playoffs this season, could be reaching his breaking point.
The Patriots have a losing record in the post-Tom Brady era, haven’t won a playoff game since 2019 and currently sit at 1-5 for the first time since 1995 after suffering their third consecutive loss, 21-17 to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.
“They’re having the type of season that’s going to warrant those types of questions, and everybody’s going to wonder exactly how the situation is going to play out,” Schefter said. “Because nobody thinks that they can continue just like this with the team reeling in a way that we’re not used to seeing, with the offense struggling in a way we’re not used to seeing, with a team performing in a way we’re not used to seeing. This is so abnormal for a team that has been the best team arguably in all of sports over the last couple of decades.”
Belichick is the only NFL head coach who also serves as his team’s de facto general manager, owning final say on all roster decisions. The Patriots’ rash of recent roster-building missteps — which are burning them on the offensive line and at receiver this season — triggered speculation that Kraft could strip Belichick of his GM duties, but it’s unclear whether (and, honestly, unlikely that) he would agree to such an arrangement.
“Bill is 71 years old, and everybody wants to see change, and he has been the guy at the top,” Schefter said. “Look, I just think there are going to be some hard conversations that naturally occur between he and Robert Kraft, and where those go, I don’t know.
“Is Bill going to want out? Are they going to want him out? Are they going to decide mutually to end it together? There are a whole bunch of questions about how it will go on.”
Those questions could grow louder in the coming weeks. The Patriots’ next two games are against formidable AFC East opponents in the Buffalo Bills (home) and Miami Dolphins (road).