The 2023 season will end Monday for 18 of the NFL’s 32 teams, and the New England Patriots will be among those teams for the third time in four seasons without future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady.
The Patriots are the league’s lowest scoring offense this season (14.6 points per game), and with a 4-12 record, the most losses of Bill Belichick’s head coaching career, there’s a chance New England will “train each other.” “apart” – essentially fire – their six-time Super Bowl champion head coach.
According to The Athletic, the Patriots have a meeting scheduled for next week between owner Robert Kraft, team president Jonathan Kraft and Belichick to determine Belichick’s future with the team. He would like to continue coaching, but Dianna Russini reports that some who work for the team are “expecting changes” and are starting to network elsewhere. She also wrote that the Washington Commanders, who are expected to fire head coach Ron Rivera, and the Las Vegas Raiders hope to meet with Belichick if he is available.
Both the losses (12) and points per game (14.6) are the Patriots’ worst since the 1992 season, when they were 2-14. The following season, New England fired head coach Dick MacPherson and hired Bill Parcells.
Earlier this season, New England became the first team to lose three straight games with 10 or fewer points allowed since the 1938 Chicago Cardinals, nearly 100 years ago. The team has been shut out twice this season. During the Brady era, the Patriots were shut out twice in 20 seasons, including the playoffs.
Given that Belichick has won an NFL-record six Super Bowls for New England, he has had some breathing room in the post-Brady era, but outside of a 10-7 year in 2021, New England had a losing record in three of four. years since Brady left. Between the lack of on-field success and poor roster construction that forced Belichick to engage in multiple spending sprees in free agency to mask poor draft classes, his time may be up in New England.
Just 15 wins away from breaking Hall of Famer Don Shula’s record of 347 coaching wins, including playoff wins, Belichick likely won’t retire. The Patriots could “politely” show him the door, a mammoth deal since Belichick presided over a run in which New England won a Super Bowl on average every four years during his 24 seasons at the helm.
