The New England Patriots’ 10-6 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday was not only the team’s eighth defeat of the season; it was also the team’s third failure to score a touchdown in their last seven games.
Things in New England haven’t been this bad since Bill Belichick’s first season as head coach in 2000.
Belichick was asked last week if he feels he’s coaching for his job the rest of the season, to which he replied that he was only going to focus on what he could control, but SI.com’s Albert Breer believes the 71-year-old head coach’s job is on the line.
“I think, honestly, if I’m Robert Kraft right now, I may go to Bill and say, ‘How do you want to do this?'” Breer told NBC Sports Boston. “I think they should be able to sit down and be honest with each other and say, ‘Do you want to sever it now and let Jerod Mayo coach the rest of the season?'” Do you want to wait until the end of the season to announce it and have a nice ceremony for you at the last home game, or do you want to do it the hard way? And then we get to the end of the year, and I have to make a decision about you.
With the Patriots on bye this week before facing the New York Giants on Nov. 26, it could be the ideal time for Kraft and Belichick to work out his exit strategy, if that is indeed the direction the organization chooses to go.
If Belichick were to become a free agent, he would almost certainly have a long list of suitors, with as many as ten teams potentially looking for new head coaches next year.
“There are a couple of teams that he’s been connected to enough where you wonder, Washington, Dallas — I think if there’s an opportunity out there for him and he wants to coach next year, it’ll probably be lined up at least to some degree ahead of time,” he said.
If Belichick is coaching for a new team in 2024, his new employer will pay a price. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Kraft will demand compensation from any team that hires Belichick.
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