The long-term future of the Patriots organization has faced a great deal of scrutiny since Tom Brady’s tenure with the franchise ended following the 2019 NFL season.
Brady and Patriots coach Bill Belichick established a championship-winning dynasty in New England, capturing six Super Bowls from 2001—Brady’s first full season as a starter—to the ’19 campaign. With the 15-time Pro Bowler leading the offense, Belichick notched an impressive .774 winning percentage.
However, since Brady’s departure, Belichick’s old-school approach and personality in a new era of New England football has become a crucial issue in the franchise’s trajectory. Belichick has tallied a .465 winning percentage that includes the disastrous 1-4 start in the ’23 campaign with quarterback Mac Jones.
As Belichick seeks a solution for New England’s struggles, multiple NFL executives weighed in anonymously with The Athletic's Mike Sando on key factors that would help the franchise’s iconic coach make things right. While it is hard to imagine Belichick not leading the franchise, one executive believes his days as the team’s leader should come to an end.
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“Their [Patriots] best move is to bring in a young offensive coach with a new GM and start fresh,” the executive said, per The Athletic. “You let the new offensive coach determine whether Mac [Jones] can be saved. They need real change. … The transition from [Tom] Brady to where they are at now is such an indictment.”
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Another NFL leader stated the biggest obstacle for New England will be Belichick’s willingness to receive help with “player acquisition,” despite being a “brilliant” coach.
“The question is, will he accept it or fight it? He’s going to have to make sacrifices to get that all-time record for wins,” a second executive said.
"They don't have anything around him"@MoveTheSticks says Mac Jones is not the problem in New England 👀#ForeverNE | @ChrisRose pic.twitter.com/rXTb8KQAmZ
— NFL GameDay (@NFLGameDay) October 9, 2023
Investing in the best players for a franchise starts with having good assistants, scouts, and evaluators. Over the years, Belichick built a tree of quality assistants—like Nick Caserio, Dave Ziegler, Josh McDaniels, and Brian Flores—who in turn invested major dividends in the franchise. With evaluators and coaches on new teams these days, Belichick needs to find his next elite group of leaders.
“Bill always had a development system for coaches and personnel people,” a third executive said. “My question is, where is the next Caserio? Are we going to declare in 2023 that this is it, Bill needs help, and he can’t go to his farm and get the people he needs?”
