Patriots Mailbag: This Is Ideal Outcome For Bill Belichick Situation

We're rapidly approaching the end of this nightmarish New England Patriots season. Just three games remain: at Denver on Christmas Eve, at Buffalo on New Year's Eve and home against the New York Jets in Week 18.

We should know within a matter of weeks whether Bill Belichick will return in 2024. Unsurprisingly, this week's NESN.com Patriots mailbag features another question about the legendary head coach's job status, plus more on Mac Jones' future, New England's preferred quarterback prospects and a seldom-seen member of the Patriots' rookie class.

@MrEd315
What’s your thoughts on how the Patriots situations will play out regarding Bill Belichick, the draft and the roster after the season?
Very open-ended question there, Ed. I'll focus on the first part.

The way I see it, Robert Kraft's ideal path forward with Belichick would be keeping him on board as head coach but hiring someone else to take over control of the Patriots' personnel.

Belichick still is a very good coach and game planner -- replacing him probably would mean accepting a downgrade in those areas -- but his roster and coaching staff decisions torpedoed the team in the post-Tom Brady era. The Patriots have not drafted well in years, they've whiffed on too many free agent signings and they haven't adequately backfilled the numerous assistant coaches they've lost since their last Super Bowl season.

Something needs to change there. It's hard to see Kraft being satisfied with the status quo after stressing in each of the last two offseasons how badly he wants the Patriots to be back to winning playoff games.

However, I also cannot envision Belichick accepting what amounts to a demotion. Maybe he recognizes his repeated roster-building missteps and decides it's best for both the team and his own pursuit of Don Shula's wins record for him to just focus on coaching. But that seems highly unlikely.

"You want to take away half my job? After all I've done for you and your franchise? Fine, I'm out of here."

Kraft's other three options with Belichick: fire him, trade him or agree to a "mutual parting of ways." My money would be on Option 3.

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@cp303
Preference on Caleb or Drake? Or Daniels, or Penix, or Nix, or McCarthy if the Patriots are a little lower in the draft?
If I had to predict the Patriots' top pick right now, I'd go with Drake Maye, the highly touted North Carolina quarterback.

USC's Caleb Williams still is widely projected to go No. 1 overall, and it'd be difficult for the Patriots to jump last-place Carolina and land the top pick. They're most likely to finish with the No. 2 overall selection (though that definitely could change over these final three weeks) and if that happens, I'd grab Maye, who's garnered comparisons to Justin Herbert. Most draft analysts view Williams and Maye as the clear top two QBs in this class, with a reasonably large (but shrinking) gap between them and the rest of the field.

That said, there is a lot to like about LSU's Jayden Daniels, who just won the Heisman Trophy to cap a superb senior season. A middling prospect a few months ago, Daniels now is viewed as a possible top-five pick. He boasts the athleticism many teams now covet at the position (1,134 rushing yards, 10 touchdowns this season) and throws a phenomenal deep ball.

But Daniels also possesses many of the traits New England traditionally has valued in its signal-callers. He's experienced, starting 55 collegiate games at Arizona State and LSU (second-most among the projected early-round QBs behind Oregon's Bo Nix). He's accurate, completing 72.2% of his passes this season. And he takes care of the ball, throwing 40 touchdown passes with just four interceptions in 2023.

There are, of course, concerns about Daniels, most notably his thin frame (listed at 6-foot-4, 210 pounds) and penchant for taking unnecessary hits. He's also something of a one-year wonder, with his 2023 production far outpacing his numbers from the previous four seasons.

We'll learn a lot more about these QBs and how they stack up against one another once the pre-draft process gets rolling, but no prospect boosted his more his stock this season than Daniels did. He'd be a very intriguing option for the Patriots if their pick falls outside the top two.

@pats300level
Is there any chance Mac Jones is on the roster in September?
A chance? Yes. A high chance? No.

There's an argument to be made for keeping Jones around as an affordable backup for whatever new starter New England brings in this offseason, and I even think his career still is salvageable if he has the proper infrastructure around him. A new coaching regime might believe it can turn him back into the promising player he was in 2021. That's possible. But it does seem like a fresh start would be best for both sides.

I also can't picture a scenario in which both Jones and Belichick are with the Patriots in 2024.

@artistic2
jake andrews was a 4th rd pick and with all the OL problems he seems to have gotten very little play time. Is he not too good or strickly a dave andrews emergency back up pretty much?
Just a David Andrews backup at this point.

Jake Andrews showed some positional versatility in training camp, but the fact that he hasn't gotten any looks at guard this season tells me the Patriots view him as a center only, like their other Andrews. And since longtime starter David Andrews is the only Patriot who's played 100% of snaps on offense or defense this season, Jake Andrews has yet to see the field outside of field goals and extra points. It's basically been a redshirt year for the Troy product.

The fourth-round rookie will get another chance to compete with David Andrews, who turns 32 in July and has one year left on his contract, when spring workouts start up in April.