FOXBOROUGH — We interrupt your Tankathon.com refreshing, and cheering for the Cardinals (win) and Panthers (loss) as the Patriots make an improbable run toward the first overall pick in the 2024 draft, to get a little serious for a moment.
The way this season, and really the past two seasons, has seemed to get worse every week, could Bill Belichick be inadvertently pushing the Krafts toward doing a hard reset of The Patriot Way this offseason?
No one ever thought that would happen, least of all Belichick. Then again, no one thought his Patriots would ever be 2-10 seemingly with a worse performance by the week.
For years, as we toyed with the idea that Belichick wouldn't coach forever, we researched endgames and Belichick's views on how he would want to leave the franchise he took to never-before-seen heights. Nothing concrete. Nothing from the man himself. But those around him believe a few things, although the man himself doesn't talk much about tomorrow let alone what might occur years down the road:
- Belichick wanted to leave the franchise better than he found it;
- He wanted to set the team up for success for years after his departure, similar to Bill Walsh and Jimmy Johnson;
- And he didn't want to leave a crater in his wake, like Bill Parcells did pretty much everywhere he went.
Now, especially after falling to 2-10, and a quarterback switch that changed very little and yielded a shutout against one of the worst defenses in the league to make the Patriots the first team in the Super Bowl era to allow 10 or fewer points in three straight games and lose all three, reality has to be hitting Belichick in the face:
His own failures, especially with all things offense and special teams, could lead to the Belichick era in New England ending abruptly when his tenure is complete after the season, which seems like a foregone conclusion at this point.
The Belichick/Patriot Way looks so inept and out of touch with today's game — and it goes back to the end of the Tom Brady regime; the Patriots are 29-40 since Thanksgiving 2019 — that the Krafts have to at least explore a completely new path forward for the franchise once Belichick departs.
At best, the Krafts' initial plans post-Belichick would seem to include Jerod Mayo as head coach, Bill O'Brien as offensive coordinator, both undertaking a complete revamp of the coaching staff, and a revamped personnel department being empowered to restock the team with desperately needed new talent.
Is that going to be enough for Patriots fans to return to a half-full Gillette Stadium, like we had on Sunday?
It might not, and the Krafts have to understand that reality.
The prudent thing, as stewards of New England's football team, is for them to go into the offseason with a completely open mind.
Yes, things have gotten that bad as evidenced by Sunday's putrid offensive performance that saw the Patriots, despite making a long overdue QB change, get blanked by a Chargers defense that had allowed an average of 28 points in the previous three games.
The Patriots have nothing at quarterback. The offensive line was absolutely horrendous again. They're not bereft of talent, but might be with coaching. The receivers are the worst collection in the league, and sometimes you wonder if the Patriots have tight ends on the roster. The offensive coordinator isn't exactly whipping out smoke and mirrors to gobble up some yardage and produce some points.
How do the Krafts, if they bring most coaches and front office back with Mayo in charge instead of Belichick, sell that to the fans, who pay a pretty penny in a variety of ways to pad the owners' wallets? It would be akin to passing on New Coke. Those of us who lived in that glorious time know how that worked out.
As we've discussed previously, the Krafts owe it to their fans to at least explore what else might be out there. The Patriot Way is dead — here and in every other place it's been tried around the league without prime Belichick in charge. The Chiefs, Eagles and 49ers are the new standard in this league. They might not have the same number of Super Bowl titles as Belichick does, but that era is over.
If the Krafts are serious about restoring this franchise to the top tier, how do they not talk to Adam Peters (49ers via Patriots), Ian Cunningham (Bears via Ravens and Eagles), Mike Borgonzi (Chiefs via Brown and Boston College), Mike Bradway (Chiefs, by way of Eagles), Brandt Tilis (Chiefs) and Jojo Wooden (Chargers), among others, to see what their vision of a franchise looks like?
If it lands them back on their original plan, ok, at least they tried — and if Mayo/O'Brien/personnel guy regime doesn't work, they have a leg up on who might be next.
The ironic thing is about the only thing that could help Belichick's New England legacy outlast his tenure is if the man who has refused to take real blame for how badly this has gone downhill the past two seasons stands in front of the media and explains, in detail, how his decisions with personnel and coaching have led this franchise to depths not seen since Dick MacPherson roamed the sidelines of Foxboro Stadium in a dress shirt and tie in 1992; that if it wasn't for Belichick's personal views on the quarterback, offense in general and refusing to look outside a 5-foot circle for assistant coaches, The Patriot Way would have been just fine and should continue with his understudies.
Right now it's in ruins. And with each passing loss, the Patriots might be getting closer to the first-overall pick, but the need for the Krafts to investigate another way of doing things and perhaps starting over from zero increases as well.