EN ROUTE TO PHOENIX — A year ago, Robert Kraft met with New England reporters at the league meetings and, unprompted, voiced his displeasure about not winning a playoff game in three years, before getting into some barbs about not drafting well in previous years, terming Bill Belichick's staffing non-linear but expecting results, and voicing his enthusiasm for quarterback Mac Jones.
"I'm a Patriots fan. Big time," Kraft opened. "First, and more than anything, it bothers me that we haven't been able to win a playoff game in the last three years, and I'm happy that I think we had a great draft last year, and it made up for what happened the previous four years or so. And I look forward to hopefully having a great draft this year. That's the only way you can build your team for the long term and consistently that you have the chance of winning is having a good draft."
Kraft went a little deeper on some follow-up questions.
"I expect (contention) to happen as soon as this year," he said. "I think we've made the commitments as an organization and I think we have a lot of talent and some wonderful young men from last year and a couple in the weeds from before. It's a chance for them to grow and come together and hopefully the team comes together. I think on these young quarterbacks, the good ones, in the second year have usually grown a great deal. I'm a big fan of Mac Jones. I see how hard he works and he wants everything to go right, puts the time and energy and his personality as a team guy so we have a chance. Because without a good coach and quarterback, no matter how good the other players are, I don't think you can win consistently. Hopefully, I believe we have both, an outstanding coach and a good young prospect at quarterback.
"I'm not happy that we haven't won a playoff game in three years. So I think about that ... a lot."
That was coming off a promising 10-7 campaign, that included a trip to the playoffs, where it looked like the ship had been righted after one down year post-Tom Brady.
After going backward to 8-9 (many of those wins came over backup quarterbacks) almost entirely due to Belichick's decision to put Matt Patricia and Joe Judge in charge of the offense, despite having almost no previous experience ... what will Kraft say this week?
It's hard to imagine him taking a softer, gentler approach.
For starters, there was the letter to season ticket holders where the Krafts said: "We can assure you that no one in our organization is satisfied with the results from this past season. In the weeks ahead, we will be making critical evaluations of all elements of our football operation as we strive to improve and return to the playoffs next year.”
Ok, so those critical evaluations led to ... Patricia looking for work, Judge sliding in as an assistant to the head coach, Jerod Mayo entering into contract negotiations but not a word about that since, and Bill O'Brien returning (big shock since Belichick interviewed no one else with previous OC experience)?
Jakobi Meyers, Jonnu Smith and Isaiah Wynn were jettisoned (replaced by Juju Smith-Schuster, Mike Gesicki and Riley Reiff) ... and everyone else stays?
If those "moves" speak to what the result was of their "critical evaluations" ... was the Krafts' final ruling ... "Hey Bill, just keep doing whatever you want ... don't pay any attention to what we say to the public, that's just bluster and for show"?
Because that's the way it looks.
If Kraft believes that, and thinks the 71-year-old Belichick is at the top of his game and that he will decide when his coaching tenure ends, then Kraft should just say that. Enough with the nonsense about no playoff wins and being bothered by it big time.
But if Kraft's words from a year ago weren't just empty, then he should go further and finally reveal the plans and timetable for a succession. If this is a make-or-break season, because Belichick believes strongly the team is in a good place, then say it. If he's here at least until he breaks Don Shula's record regardless of how this season goes, then please say that so we can stop wasting our time and putting letters to the season ticket holders straight into the spam folder.
Kraft upped the ante last year and obviously thought Belichick would come through again. That didn't happen and the circumstances looked even worse for Kraft's football team — including a lot of fans being up in arms, and not exactly filled with enthusiasm with a status quo offseason.
If Kraft just plays the same old tune, his fans might start tuning out even more.
NICKEL PACKAGE
1. Yes, I still believe the Patriots are in the market for another offensive weapon and are monitoring the markets for DeAndre Hopkins and Jerry Jeudy, waiting for the price to drop.
I think Jeudy is the stronger candidate at this point, but there's one key question: Should the Patriots really be that keen on a player that Sean Payton so easily wants to discard? Jeudy is only making $2.7 million this season and the Broncos have already decided they do not want to pick up his fifth-year option (cost: $13 million, which is not all that bad). Why wouldn't an offensive guru like Payton want a young, talented receiver? Something's off.
2. Wonder if the Patriots will vote against one of the key proposed rule changes that will be on the table in Phoenix. The competition committee itself (usually gets more backing than just a team proposing it) recommended that a fair catch of a kickoff inside the 25-yard line would be spotted at the 25. This would be another anti-special teams rule and make Belichick's loading up on the unit even more of a waste.
I do like punters being put on the spot by the other kick rule proposal: the ball would be spotted at the 25-yard line (instead of the 20 on a touchback punt.
3. Will be interesting to see how far the Eagles' two-point attempt alternative gets. It would allow a scoring team to maintain possession of the ball instead of kicking it off by giving them a fourth-and-20 play at the team's own 20-yard line. A team would be able to do this only twice in one game and only if they were losing.
I think 20 is too easy. Make it 4th and 25.
4. Nelson Agholor signed with the Jets Ravens for 1 year, $3.25 million base. The Patriots paid him $21.7 million the previous two seasons. Ouch.
Talked to one Bills source this week and they're pretty excited to land Damien Harris in their backfield, and they can't believe the Patriots chose to sign James Robinson instead of just retaining Harris. Of course, a lot of people are saying that about Jakobi Meyers as well.
5. Two of the more interesting Patriots-related quotes this week:
Devin McCourty, via Chris Long's podcast:
“The one thing that I’ve loved about Steve is his honesty. I remember Steve takes over (after) Pat Graham left, (Brian Flores) is moving to linebackers coach, and Steve said Bill tells him two weeks before the offseason program starts that he’s going to be the safeties coach.
“Now he’s walking in the room, it’s me, Pat Chung, Duron Harmon, Nate Ebner. So he’s walking in and we’ve got all these veterans — I’m older than Steve, Pat’s older than Steve, he played with Duron (at Rutgers) and he’s probably the same age as Nate — and he walks in and goes, ‘Yo, I’m going to be honest with y’all. I don’t know what the F I’m doing right now. My dad told me two weeks ago that I was even going to have this job.’ And now I’m just sitting here like, ‘I don’t know, what’s next?’ And that first year, we all just worked together.”
Jake Bailey to Dolphins reporters:
"You know, there’s a lot to unpack. And a lot of it is between them and me, partly. I’ve talked to Coach (Bill) Belichick about this and how, you know, we want to talk about all this stuff.
“A lot (his injury issues) had to do with squatting a ton. I did not grow up squatting, loading my back with back squats. I didn’t do it at all in college. I tried to be more a part of the program, and it just really backfired the whole season I was doing it.
“It really made my accuracy struggle. And it just was kind of a sad, sad thing to have to happen. I haven’t squatted since, really, Week 15 or 16 and feel pretty good.”