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What former Patriots, NFLers, and others are predicting about Bill Belichick’s future
"He’s still an unbelievable coach. He knows how to use his talent when they’re out on the field.”
With the Patriots’ miserable 2023 season finally at an end, Robert Kraft and New England’s ownership have a franchise-shifting decision to make.
After years of poor drafting and costly personnel moves, should the 4-13 Patriots usher in a new era and part ways with future Hall of Famer Bill Belichick?
Or is retaining Belichick for a 25th season the best course of action — especially if the coaching legend opts to cede GM responsibilities?
Bill Belichick Updates
As Kraft and the Patriots ponder their next move, Belichick’s future currently stands as the top storyline hovering over the NFL.
Given Belichick’s resume and the impact that his potential dismissal would generate across the league, it comes as little surprise that several former (and current) Patriots, NFL staffers, and media pundits have offered their opinion of what’s next for the legendary head coach.
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Here’s what some noteworthy names are saying about Belichick and his next move in 2024.
Rob Gronkowski
The former Patriots tight end and four-time Super Bowl champion echoed his former head coach’s thoughts on Monday morning — noting on NBC’s “Today” that Belichick’s preferred destination in 2024 is still Foxborough.
“I know Coach Belichick definitely wants to stay with the New England Patriots. He’s a Patriot for life. He’s a six-time Super Bowl champion. He’s like grandfathered in,” Gronkowski said. “I would say it’s all up to Mr. (Robert) Kraft — what direction he wants to go with the New England Patriots. In the end, when it really comes down to it, I think he’s gonna keep coach Bill Belichick as head coach for at least another year… He’s gonna bounce back.
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“He’s just gotta go out there this offseason and bring some offensive players in and then he’ll be just fine. He’s still an unbelievable coach. He knows how to use his talent when they’re out on the field.”
Gronkowski made an interesting point last week about his rationale for keeping Belichick for at least another year.
After Tom Brady left New England in March 2020 and immediately won a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers, Gronkowski believes that the fear of a similar scenario playing out with Belichick may prompt Kraft to avoid letting his longtime coach go — especially if he goes to a team that already boasts plenty of talent.
“It would just be so hard to see Bill Belichick, Coach Belichick, on another team, on another sideline, being a head coach. It’s just not an ideal situation,” Gronkowski explained on the “Up & Adams Show” last week. “Tom Brady already left the New England Patriots and it started going downhill from there.
“And then imagine Coach Belichick, another New England legend, getting let go and then going to another team and having success. I just don’t think that would sit well with Mr. Kraft. I think that’s in the back of his mind, that that’s a possibility. And also letting him go, knowing you’re letting go one of the greatest coaches of all time, it would just be a tough decision to make.”
Rex Ryan
Ryan has had plenty of memorable battles with Belichick over the years, serving as the defensive coordinator on a stingy Ravens roster (2005-08) before taking over as head coach of two AFC East foes in the Jets (2009-14) and Bills (2015-16).
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But on Sunday, the current ESPN analyst tipped his cap to his longtime coaching foe — telling Belichick to keep chasing after the NFL’s all-time wins record, be it in New England or elsewhere. Belichick currently has 333 career wins, with Don Shula holding the record at 347.
“He still outcoaches almost everybody in this league. I mean, he really does. So, he’s brilliant,” Ryan said Sunday on ESPN. “My advice to Bill would be: retirement is overrated, buddy. Go get the (wins) record. He deserves the record. He’s the greatest head coach in the history of the National Football League. I respect him way more than any other coach I ever went against. I mean, it was an absolute honor to coach against him.”
Ultimately, Ryan does believe that Belichick will end up leading another NFL franchise in 2024.
“My gut says that Kraft is ready to move on. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” Ryan said Monday morning on ESPN’s “Get Up.” “I’ll say that because he’s had 10 weeks to say, ‘This is my coach and this is the future. We’re going to keep going forward.’ It’s not gonna happen.”
Devin McCourty
Much like Gronkowski, the longtime Patriots captain acknowledged last week that he doesn’t believe Belichick is done in New England.
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“I think obviously when you don’t win and you’re going to have a top-five pick, there’s gonna be changes,” McCourty noted on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show”. “Like you definitely need to do some things differently than they did this year, but I think it’s going to be really hard.
“I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but if you asked me right now, sitting at this point, I don’t feel like you walk away from this season and say, ‘hey if we just replace our head coach, we’ll be better.’ I think that would be a really hard statement to make.”
But if New England does opt to cut ties with Belichick, McCourty thinks that Belichick should go to a team where he could immediately start piling up wins.
“I’m choosing where I think the best quarterback is, so I would say the Chargers,” McCourty said on NBC’s “Football Night in America” on Sunday. “I think him with a quarterback that’s ready to win… You give Justin Herbert a guy that’s telling him, ‘This is what we saw when we played against you. This is what defenses are going to do to take away what you do well.’ The sky’s the limit.”
David Andrews
Even though the veteran center admitted after Sunday’s 17-3 loss to the Jets that he still feels he has “something in the tank,” the 31-year-old offensive lineman admitted that he plans to rest and reset before determining his next move in the NFL.
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Speaking to MassLive.com’s Karen Guregian on Monday, Andrews acknowledged that Belichick’s future in New England could also determine whether or not he wants to return for another season in Foxborough. He still has one year remaining on his contract in New England.
“That’s probably somewhere on the list,” Andrews told Guregian of Belichick’s decision. “I just have so much appreciation for him. Obviously, I’ve played a lot of football with coach. I’m very appreciative. I know what’s expected. I think we see the game very similar, how we want to try and play the game. So it’s very comfortable for me. He taught me how to play the game. So we’ll see.”
Colin Cowherd
Despite Belichick’s sterling track record as a head coach, Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd believes that New England is in desperate need of a full organizational retool after a disastrous 2023 season.
“You have to identify what the problem is,” Cowherd said. “In New England, where do we start? How about everything? The offensive roster is weak, the skill level is low. The staff? Not very good. They can’t draft the last decade. It is a dated, tone-deaf defensive culture in an offensive league. Congrats — build Grumpy Bill a statue. Giving them a new coordinator is not solving the problems. They’ve got major issues everywhere.
“And the downside in life to those who collect power — eventually you’ll be held responsible. Bill is. He controlled every inch of this franchise, and they didn’t score a touchdown in five of their games.
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“Blow it up, get an offensive-leaning coach, smart young people who aren’t tone-deaf to the right side of the ball. Stop spending all your money on defense. Go get a quarterback, draft one and elevate him and get a staff — nobody related to the coach. Sorry. That’s the way the best operations are run. Get a real scouting department. This is a full demo.”
Bailey Zappe
Despite leading New England to two wins in his six starts to close out the 2023 season, it remains to be seen if Bailey Zappe will remain as New England’s QB1 at the start of the 2024 season.
As noted by Boston.com’s Khari Thompson, Zappe did finish this season with a lower QBR, quarterback rating, completion percentage, and fewer yards per completed pass than Mac Jones.
But even if New England does opt to either draft a quarterback in April, trade for one, or sign a signal-caller in free agency, Zappe still offered his endorsement of Belichick on Monday morning.
“He’s the greatest coach of all time, but that’s above my pay grade,” Zappe said. “I’ll let those guys handle those things if he’s here, if he’s not here. Of course that’s coach Belichick and Mr. Kraft’s decision.”
Ian Rapoport & Tom Pelissero
Longtime NFL insider Ian Rapoport was intrigued by Belichick’s comments on Monday, especially as it pertained to his decision to reveal that he’s still under contract by the Patriots.
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Considering that Belichick has regularly been tight-lipped when it comes to topics such as contracts, Rapoport speculated that Belichick’s decision to share that info does give him some leverage in his ongoing chess match against Kraft and the Patriots.
“The thing that struck me was that he mentioned he’s under contract. Bill Belichick almost never mentions his contract status,” Rapoport said Monday morning on “NFL Total Access.” “What that said to me is it kind of puts the ball in owner Robert Kraft’s court saying, ‘Bill Belichick is under contract and wants to stay, if the Krafts do not want him to stay, then there is a move they can make, essentially firing him.’
“What this did was basically, in kind of an odd way, put them on notice to be like, ‘If you want change, you’re going to have to make it.’ I thought that was a fascinating way to handle it and I think anyone who knows Bill Belichick and has known him for the last two decades, as we all have, that kind of raised the eyebrows a little bit.”
Fellow NFL Media reporter Tom Pelissero offered a similar reaction to Belichick’s decision to discuss his contract, noting that it puts the focus squarely on Kraft as the Patriots owner mulls his decision.
“Belichick struck a very specific tone,” Pelissero said on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” on Monday. “He noted that he remains under contract… One way you certainly can read those comments is after months of speculation about Robert Kraft might want to do, what Bill Belichick might want to do, potentially going and coaching some place else, which he dismissed as a hypothetical that he would not address, while making those comments ‘I’m under contract, I’m continuing to do my job, I’m for whatever is best for this football team.’
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“That now puts the decision back on Robert Kraft’s plate. In other words, ‘If I’m not back as head coach, go ask Robert Kraft why it didn’t work.’”
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