NFL Insider Evaluates Bill Belichick’s Future With Spiraling Patriots

Are we witnessing the final days of Bill Belichick’s career with the New England Patriots?

It sure seems possible, with New England stumbling to a 1-4 record through five weeks of the 2023 season and little reason to believe a turnaround is imminent. The Patriots, who have been largely mediocre since Tom Brady’s departure following the 2019 campaign, just suffered the two most-lopsided losses of Belichick’s head-coaching career in back-to-back weeks.

“I think that is not an overreaction,” ESPN NFL insider Dan Graziano said Tuesday on “Get Up” of whether this could be Belichick’s final season in Foxboro. “Things are very bad there. And they are now wondering if they really have the quarterback for the long term. I think there’s a lot going on there that feels like they’re headed for a major reset. If you’re going to do a major reset, are you going to do it with a coach in his early 70s? Is he going to want to do that? I think there’s a lot of legitimate questions swirling around the short-term and the long-term future of that franchise.”

Firing Belichick obviously is complicated. We’re talking about a head coach who won six Super Bowl titles with New England and brought the organization to unprecedented heights over the course of two decades.

But clearly, the situation feels stale, with a major shakeup perhaps being the Patriots’ only path back to playoff relevancy. It’s no longer outlandish to think team owner Robert Kraft might move on from Belichick after this season.

“I was in Miami covering the Dolphins (for) Don Shula’s last year. I was covering the Yankees (for) Joe Torre’s last year. I was covering the Giants (for) Tom Coughlin’s last year. Like, I’ve seen this,” Graziano added. “The Patriots are not going to fire Bill Belichick. That’s never going to happen. But all three of those situations were situations where the team had decided to move on and then you dress it up as a salute to his career there, which he obviously would deserve. But yeah, I think if this season continues going the way it is, I think that’s probably where it’s headed.”

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So, would Belichick, 71, land a job elsewhere if he left New England?

One could argue he’s better off retiring, with nothing left to prove and the modern NFL becoming much different than his coaching heyday. But Shula’s all-time wins record still looms large. Everything is on the table.

“I do think if he was interested in continuing coaching, he would get a job somewhere,” Graziano said. “I think he has that level of cache and that level of record. But yeah, it’s not what it was.”