NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: MIKE FLORIO CLAIMS BILL BELICHICK COULD BE 'DONE' IN 2023 FOR ONE KEY REASON
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft might see this year as a ‘make or break’ year for head coach Bill Belichick, and it could all be based on the performances of quarterback Mac Jones, Mike Florio believes.
Depending on how old you are, there are people who only knew the New England Patriots as the dominant force of the NFL and the team that everyone needed to get past if they were going to win a Super Bowl, only for the Patriots to end up winning it anyway, with 6 titles and 9 appearances since the turn of the millennium.
Before that though, they were a pretty average franchise, and following the departure of Tom Brady in 2020, they are back to that spot now, missing the playoffs in two of the last three seasons, and without a win in the playoffs since the 2018 season.
Bill Belichick has been in charge since the 2000 season, taking charge of both the historic highs and this current low, but one thing he still hasn’t managed to get right is how to handle the situation with Mac Jones, who after an impressive first season regressed on the field and reportedly had some major issues off it as well.
And in the eyes of Mike Florio, if Belichick can’t turn both Jones and the franchise around in 2023, then it might well signal the end of an era in New England.
Bill Belichick on the brink of a New England Patriots exit?
Speaking on Pro Football Talk (starting at 1:42), Florio claimed that based on comments made by owner Robert Kraft this offseason, that he thinks this is essentially the final year for Belichick to prove he can still be a winner and make progress with the team, especially when it comes to Jones, and if he doesn’t, then he could be shown the door:
I still firmly believe that Robert Kraft put him on notice in late March, the way he said what he said, the way he answered questions he was asked about Bill Belichick's ability to be there long enough to catch Don Shula. Robert Kraft just wants to turn this thing around. It's been too long since they won a playoff game, the one playoff game they've been in the past few years, they got blown off the field.
They want to turn this thing around and the offense needs to turn around. And last year, that disaster is on Bill Belichick, Kraft has made that clear. He needs Mac Jones to play and play well to save his butt. I don't know what the magic number is that gets him run out the door this year. I think there's a way that the season falls that he is done.
Where is that sweet spot? Where do they need to be? They're in a tough division and a tough conference and he needs Mac Jones to be even better than he was as a rookie, to have enough wins and to have the kind of season that at the end of the day Robert Kraft decides to continue ‘Let's do another year, let's keep going, let's see if we can rediscover our past greatness with Bill Belichick’ because the moment Robert Kraft decides that they can't, that's the moment that they're going to move on. And I think they're far closer to making that decision than anyone realises.
Belichick has certainly built up a lot of credibility (which has probably played a part in why he’s still around at this point after three years of regression), but at some point that was always going to run out. It does seem as though this year is going to be a major indicator of whether the team is going in the right direction, and so long as things begin to point upwards again, then he’ll probably stick around.
If they don’t though, then it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Florio’s prediction come true.
2023-06-04T16:09:16Z dg43tfdfdgfd