A new dawn has commenced in Foxborough as 2024 gets underway. Robert Kraft and the New England Patriots are parting ways with longtime head coach and general manager Bill Belichick, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
With the Patriots finishing the 2023 season with their worst record in not only just the Belichick era but since 1992, a reset was inevitable. New England finished 4-13 with a despicably atrocious roster that contains little to no franchise cornerstones and is a far cry from even their last Super Bowl-winning team to cap off the 2018 season.
There had been rumors all season that this would be it for Belichick, and now that has come to fruition after an incredible career with the franchise.
Bill Belichick's Patriots accomplishments
- 24 seasons as the longest active NFL head coach
- NFL-record 6 Super Bowl victories (8 if you count the pair he won as defensive coordinator with the New York Giants in the '86 and '90 seasons)
- NFL-record 17 AFC East Division titles
- 2000s and 2010s NFL All-Decade Team member
- NFL-record 31 playoff wins
- Third in all-time regular-season victories with 302 wins
- The largest NFL coaching tree in history with 17 former assistants becoming either college or NFL head coaches and 12 active NFL head coaches currently
- Three-time AP NFL Coach of the Year
In the NFL coaching world, there isn't an accomplishment Belichick hasn't garnered. With a resume as loaded as Belichick's, one might wonder why there was any dialogue in the first place about parting ways.
Why things went downhill for Belichick with Patriots
Since the untimely departure Tom Brady, the Patriots have been stuck in a purgatorial rebuilding process the last four seasons. Without Brady, Belichick went gone 29-37 (.439 win percentage), with the only playoff appearance being a 47-17 Wild Card loss to the rival Buffalo Bills in the 2021 season.
Much of the blame has been heaped on 2021 first-round pick Mac Jones not living up to the gargantuan pressure as the successor to Brady following his spectacular rookie season in their last playoff appearance. However, given the tumultuous season experience due to his immensely inadequate play, the heavy criticism holds considerable weight.
Yet between the overall inferior roster composition, questionable free agent acquisitions, blatant draft misses , skeptical coaching coordinator hires, and Belichick's inability to make schematic adjustments in the modern NFL, it's an extensive assortment of factors that contributed to a pathetic product of Patriots football.
This couldn't have been more evident in Sunday's finale versus the painfully mediocre New York Jets in front of their home crowd. They sputtered to 119 yards total, a 1-of-14 third-down conversion rate, and an abysmal 20.1 passer rating and two-interception performance from backup quarterback Bailey Zappe in a 17-3 loss ending the Jets' 15 game losing streak versus the Patriots.
This pitiful loss cemented the worst type of historical achievement for arguably the greatest head coach of all time, tying him with Jeff Fisher and Dan Reeves for most losses of all time in NFL history.
Few things in this world were more synonymous with 20th century NFL football than Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. Yet as the phrase goes, “all good things must come to an end”. With a top-three pick in this year's loaded 2024 NFL Draft, the Patriots are hoping to find a franchise-altering game-changer to carry them into the new era of Patriots football as they simultaneously search for their next head coach to man the sidelines.
For the future first-ballot Hall of Famer, despite being 71, it's unlikely this is the last we've seen of Belichick doing his best Emperor Palpatine impression. It's the Patriot Way.
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