New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft will have a franchise-altering decision to make at the end of the season at head coach.
The team could either keep everything intact by allowing Bill Belichick to continue to captain the ship, or they could tear it all down and bring in a fresh face to lead the way forward. Either decision could make or break the Patriots for the foreseeable future.
New England will have plenty of cap space entering the 2024 season, and given the way they’ve played, they’re also likely to have a top-three draft pick. All of the pieces are there to build a contender if the right decisions are made. More importantly, they’re going to need the right coach to put the players in the best possible position to be successful.
Will that be Belichick or somebody else? Let’s explore the possibilities with these potential coaching options for the Patriots:
Jim Harbaugh
Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines drew a tough semifinal playoff matchup against Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide. If the Wolverines fail to get over the hump, again, it could push Harbaugh into seeking opportunities elsewhere.
Another loss, coupled with Michigan’s looming video-taping controversy, won’t go over well with the program. Things also won’t get any easier in 2024 with college football moving to a 12-team playoff format.
Harbaugh was instrumental in quickly turning a bad San Francisco 49ers team into a Super Bowl contender. He might be the most intriguing option out there to potentially replace Bill Belichick as the head coach.
Jerod Mayo
Jerod Mayo has felt like the chosen one to take over the mantle for the Patriots, if Bill Belichick is no longer with the team. He has been working and learning under the greatest coach of all time, since he was drafted by the Patriots in the first-round of the 2008 NFL draft.
His ability to work his way through the ranks as a leader on the football field, before taking up coaching and leading on the sidelines, is a true coming-of-age story that would be great to see play out.
What better way for Belichick to leave his imprint on the team than passing the job off to one of his greatest pupils?
Ben Johnson
Ben Johnson is quickly climbing the ranks of coaching candidates after the amazing job he’s done for a Detroit Lions team that currently has the fifth-ranked scoring offense in the NFL.
Considering how bad the Patriots offense has looked since Tom Brady left, the team might opt to go after a more offensive-minded head coach. The last thing the Patriots want is another Mac Jones situation with whoever they ultimately draft at quarterback.
Johnson is a coach that could finally get the offense on track to being good again.
Bill O'Brien
This one probably wouldn’t sit well with Jerod Mayo, but another in-house coaching option for the Patriots would be Bill O’Brien. He’s an offensive-minded coach with experience as both a head coach and general manager.
Granted, he would probably prefer people forget about his horrifying run as the latter. But as strictly a head coach, O’Brien had the Houston Texans competitive when he worked for that team.
He’s a safe option if the Patriots are looking for an experienced leader that they’re also incredibly familiar with as a coach.
Eric Bieniemy
In many ways, Eric Bieniemy bet on himself by leaving Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs to join the Washington Commanders as an assistant head coach/offensive coordinator.
However, it was a risk he needed to take to prove he could get the job done without being in the shadows of a legendary offensive coach like Reid. There wasn’t a lot to work with in Washington, but he has fans of that franchise believing again with Sam Howell under center at quarterback.
Perhaps he could do the same for the Patriots in 2024.
Dan Quinn
The Patriots have haunted Dan Quinn throughout his NFL coaching career. They first handed his Legion of Boom defense with the Seattle Seahawks a loss in Super XLIX, and then they completed the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history at Super Bowl LI, when he was the head coach for the Atlanta Falcons.
If you can’t beat them, why not join them?
Quinn is an old school-minded, yet effective, defensive coach. He could keep the Patriots defense in elite form, and if coupled with the right offensive coordinator, the pair could do magic in New England.
Brian Flores
There are still many that don’t believe Brian Flores got a fair shot with the Miami Dolphins. It’s why his name has remained in the head coaching candidate conversation, despite the way things went down in South Beach.
Flores is a gifted up-and-coming coach that could do wonders with the right opportunity. Like Jerod Mayo, Flores cut his teeth as an NFL coach under Bill Belichick in New England. So seeing him return to take on the role of head coach for the Patriots would be a great transition.
At only 42 years old, he would bring a freshness to the Patriots organization, while also carrying some of the same themes and core values that made the team successful under Belichick for so many years.
Bill Belichick
It would be foolish to make the assumption that there’s no chance of Bill Belichick returning to New England to coach another season.
Robert Kraft might have a difficult time walking away considering he has 24 years of a working relationship tied up with Belichick. There’s also the fact that the Patriots wouldn’t have been the successful franchise it was for nearly two decades without Belichick coaching on the sidelines.
He created the greatest dynasty in NFL history and led the team to six Super Bowl victories. Yes, he has slipped on the personnel side of things, and that could probably be rectified by a more collaborative effort or flat out hiring a general manager.
Belichick is still a really good football coach.
