How Bill Belichick views his future with Patriots

Report: How Bill Belichick views his future with Patriots originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

If New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft decides to part ways with Bill Belichick this offseason, he won’t be taking the head coach by surprise.

Belichick has “expressed doubt about his future in New England” to Patriots staff members “at various points over the last few weeks,” The Boston Sports Journal’s Mike Giardi wrote Tuesday.

That Belichick is aware his job is on the line shouldn’t come as a surprise: His Patriots were 2-10 before rallying to win two of their last three games and are still on pace for their worst season since 1992. New England is set to miss the playoffs for the third time in four seasons and is 29-36 since Tom Brady’s departure in 2020.

Those results can’t sit well with Kraft, who admitted back in 2022 that he was “bothered” by his team’s playoff win drought. To that end, the Patriots owner made a decision following New England’s Week 10 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Frankfurt, Germany, that it was time to part ways with Belichick after the season, our Tom E. Curran reported back on Dec. 12.

If Belichick has been “expressing doubt” about his future in the days since, then perhaps he’s also aware of which way Kraft is leaning. But Giardi reports that Belichick has yet to sit down with Kraft and team president Jonathan Kraft, which likely means that formal conclusions still haven’t been made.

Belichick is under contract through the 2024 season, per Curran, so if the Krafts want to get draft pick compensation in return for their head coach, it makes sense to start exploring a trade as soon as possible — which means making a final decision on Belichick. If the Krafts delay that decision into mid-January and February, they would run the risk of missing out on a quality head coach or general manager candidate and not finding an ideal landing spot for Belichick, which could create extra tension.

There’s no easy way to part with one of the greatest…

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