Patriots Rumors: New Details On Bill Belichick-Robert Kraft Meeting
Bill Belichick’s fate is likely to be decided in an end-of-season meeting with Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Three days out from New England’s season finale against the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium, ESPN’s Mike Reiss shared new details on when that meeting will take place.
“Here’s my understanding of what’s going to unfold,” Reiss said Thursday on ESPN’s “Get Up.” “Team owner Robert Kraft and team president Jonathan Kraft have a meeting with Bill Belichick that is currently scheduled for Monday, and they’re going to be looking for some answers as to why things have fallen off so dramatically this season.”
Reiss described Kraft’s level of disappointment in the 2023 Patriots season as “extreme” but said the owner has yet to make a final decision on Belichick’s future.
“Robert Kraft has been very disappointed with the way this season has unfolded, naturally, and people that are close to him relay to me that that disappointment has been so extreme to the point that he has strongly considered moving on from Belichick,” Reiss said. “But these people also tell me that no decision has been made at this point, and that’s why this final meeting will be so important.”
That meeting, Reiss said, will be Belichick’s chance to convince Kraft that he still can bring the Patriots the playoff success that’s eluded them since Tom Brady’s departure. The Patriots have not won a postseason game in five years and finished under .500 in three of their four post-Brady seasons. The current 4-12 squad has the most losses of any Patriots team since 1992, two years before Kraft bought the franchise.
Belichick also serves as New England’s de facto general manager, laying the blame for the team’s repeated draft whiffs, misses in free agency and regrettable coaching hires at his feet.
“I think to me, you’ve just got to start with the assumption that Belichick wants to be here,” Reiss said. “So, start with that. And then at that point, he just needs to explain to them, OK, here’s where things went wrong, here’s my part in that and here’s my vision for how we’re going to turn this thing around.”
Do we know, though, that Belichick even wants to return for the 2024 season rather than chase Don Shula’s wins record with a new organization?
“We don’t,” Reiss continued, “and part of that is because Bill Belichick doesn’t tell anyone. He is so laser-focused. … People might be watching this being like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. We’ve got to have a season-ending meeting to know where things stand?’
“In Bill Belichick’s world, that’s the way it works. He is so laser-focused on each week, each game, that ownership gives him the space to say, hey, we’ll talk about the big picture after the season.”
To that point, Belichick swatted away all questions about his job security this week, saying he’s only focused on closing out the season with a win over the Jets. The Patriots have won 15 straight over their longtime AFC East rivals, with New York’s last win in the series coming back in 2015.
That game will close out Belichick’s 24th season as Patriots head coach. The question of whether he’ll return for a 25th could be answered the following day.