The New England Patriots, 1-5, sit at the basement of the AFC East and are an unlikely NFL competitor this season. There aren't enough fingers on two hands to cast blame around the organization, but if you need to choose one single person to get at, head coach and general manager Bill Belichick has to shoulder most of it.
For the first time in Belihcick's career, calls for his job are loud, and they aren't all that baseless. The Patriots retooled their coaching staff by bringing Bill O'Brien back into the fold as offensive coordinator. Mac Jones, who showed promise his rookie year, has clearly had his development stunted by missteps organizationally.
Jones has a 45th-best adjusted EPA per play in 2022 and 2023 among quarterbacks, he ranked 12th-best in 2021.
It's becoming harder and harder to justify Belichick holding both of his titles for the Patriots. It's hard to imagine him being outright fired by the Patriots, but even credible and respected NFL insiders have been clearly curious about how long this can go on in New England, and whether his job is safe.
Bill Belichick secured a contract extension before this season
Belichick isn't going anywhere. Ian Rapoport reported on Sunday morning a previously unknown and unreported detail that the head coach/GM secured a lengthy contract extension with the Patriots this offseason.
That, quite simply, makes it unlikely that Belichick is fired. The team would need to pay out his remaining contract, and with ostensibly many years and plenty of millions of dollars left at this point, it's an unfeasible financial decision, even as bad as the team has been in 2023.
This, of course, is without knowing what the details of the contract are in terms of length, compensation, and possible exit ramps.
The more likely recourse here, if any, is Belichick moving into a purely general manager role or purely head coach role, hiring someone else instead to take on the remaining half of his current duties. Jerod Mayo, currently with the organization as a linebackers coach, has been identified as a possible step-in after Belichick. Perhaps there's a world in the future where Belichick relinquishes head coaching duties to him and takes a more big-picture role as a GM and personnel decision-maker.
Let's be honest, though... Would he do that voluntarily?
Belichick is known to be stubborn. It's hard to see him voluntarily giving up either of his roles and may require Kraft to step in and make the decision for him. Even that, though, seems unlikely, considering the decades of goodwill and trust Belichick has with team owner Robert Kraft.
