Belichick has doubts about future: report
Even Bill Belichick seems to think his time with the Patriots might be coming to an end.
While New England picked up a rare win on Christmas Eve, the Patriots’ abysmal 2023 season is nearing its conclusion and with it may come an end to the Belichick era.
Questions have swirled around his future with the organization, and a report Tuesday suggested Belichick has even questioned it.
The Patriots’ head coach has expressed doubts about his future with the team to his staff over the course of the last few weeks, according to Boston Sports Journal.
The 71-year-old Belichick, who has coached New England since 2000, has not met with ownership yet, according to the report.
Owner Robert Kraft has remained silent over Belichick’s job security, and the head coach has brushed aside questions over his job status beyond this season.
It was reported this month that Kraft had decided on Belichick’s fate following the Patriots’ loss to the Colts on Nov. 12 in Germany.
NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran said during a December edition of “Arbella Early Edition” that “conversations I had that week made it very clear that a decision was made” on Belichick’s future.
“They were going to play out the string, and at the end of the year, there would be a parting of the ways for a variety of reasons,” Curran said.
Another Boston Sports Journal report indicated that people inside the organization didn’t expect Belichick to make the impending divorce between himself and the Patriots easy.
“Belichick might agree to nice press release language about parting of the ways, but make no mistake: The odds are strong that this will end up being a firing at the end of the day,” Greg Bedard wrote.
Belichick’s job status and the deafening silence from ownership became even more noticeable this weekend after Jets’ owner Woody Johnson told The Post in an exclusive interview that his general manager and head coach — Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh — would be back next season.
The Patriots coach attempted to sidestep a question about whether he’d like similar support from Kraft during Tuesday’s appearance on “The Greg Hill Show” on WEEI in Boston.
“I don’t really know anything about the Jets’ situation,” Belichick said. “I don’t know anything about that, so [going] to get ready for Buffalo here. Go back over the Denver game, make some corrections on that and talk about things we could have done better, things we need to build on, and then move on to Buffalo. That’s what I’m doing.”
The hosts tried to push him on the question, but Belichick wouldn’t budge.
“Yeah, my job is to get the team ready to play every week, that’s what I do. That’s what I’m going to keep doing. That’s what I’ve always done,” he responded.