The Patriots will embark on a new era, and multiple former and current players reacted to the Bill Belichick news.
Robert Kraft and Belichick are expected to part ways, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter and Mike Reiss. The pair will hold a press conference in New England on Thursday at noon ET as the franchise looks for other options for head coach for the first time in over two decades.
Multiple former Patriots players who won Super Bowls with Belichick sent their appreciation to the head coach on social media.
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"Greatest to ever do it," Rex Burkhead wrote. "Thank you Coach."
"Goodness. Changing of the guard all across football in the last 24," Benjamin Watson said on social media.
"Greatest ever. Thank you for everything," Patrick Chung wrote on X. "Me, my family, my son. Shaping me into a football player and a man. Love you."
"(T)he greatest football mind to ever live," Richard Seymour posted on social media.
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Matt Cassel also posted a video message to Belichick.
Members of the front office found out about the news on social media, according to the Boston Herald's Doug Kyed. The mixed responses from Patriots players hint they also might have been caught off guard by the decision.
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"The Greatest! Thank you," Davon Godchaux posted on X along with goat emojis.
"That’s wilds bruh," Daniel Ekuale wrote with a crying emoji and a facepalm emoji.
Mack Wilson Sr. also used the facepalm emoji, which seemed to imply a denial over Kraft's decision to move on from Belichick.
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More details could come out in the news conference, but Jerod Mayo reportedly is a leading candidate to succeed Belichick, and Mike Vrabel also is viewed as a favorite to be the next Patriots head coach. The Atlanta Falcons reportedly emerged as one of the first suitors for Belichick, and an NFC East side seems to have taken themselves out of consideration.
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And it seems like the players quickly will have to adjust to all the changes expected in New England.
Featured image via Robert Deutsch/USA TODAY Sports Images
