Belichick and Kraft are scheduled to meet on Monday
by Zack Cox | 7 hours ago | 4 min reading
Bill Belichick's fate will likely be decided in a season-ending meeting with Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Three days before New England's season finale against the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium, ESPN's Mike Reiss shared new details about when that matchup will take place.
“That’s my understanding of what’s going to happen,” Reiss said on ESPN’s “Get Up” on Thursday. “Team owner Robert Kraft and team president Jonathan Kraft have a meeting with Bill Belichick, currently scheduled for Monday, and they will seek answers as to why things have turned so dramatic this season.”
Reiss described Kraft's level of disappointment in the Patriots' 2023 season as “extreme” but said the owner has not yet made a final decision on Belichick's future.
“Robert Kraft was obviously very disappointed with the way this season unfolded, and people close to him tell me that this disappointment was so great that he seriously considered leaving Belichick.” said Reiss. “But these people also tell me that no decision has been made at this point and that is why this final meeting will be so important.”
This meeting, Reiss said, will be Belichick's chance to convince Kraft that he can still bring the Patriots the playoff success that has eluded them since Tom Brady's departure. The Patriots haven't won a postseason game in five years and finished under .500 in three of their four post-Brady seasons. The current 4-12 squad has the most losses of any Patriots team since 1992, two years before Kraft purchased the franchise.
Belichick also serves as New England's de facto general manager, blaming him for the team's repeated draft failures, free agency failures and regrettable coaching hires.
“I think you just have to assume that Belichick wants to be here,” Reiss said. “So, start with this. And at that point he just has to explain to them: “Okay, here's what went wrong, here's my part in it, and here's my vision for how we can fix it.”
However, do we know that Belichick even wants to return for the 2024 season rather than chasing Don Shula's winning record with a new organization?
“We don't,” Reiss continued, “and part of that's because Bill Belichick doesn't tell anyone.” He's so laser-focused. … People might look at this as saying, “You've got to be kidding me.” “We need to have an end-of-season meeting to know where things stand?”
“In Bill Belichick’s world, that’s how it works. He's so focused on every week, every game, that the responsibility gives him the space to say, “Hey, we'll talk about the big picture after the season.”
Until then, Belichick brushed aside questions about his job security this week and said he was just focused on finishing the season with a win over the Jets. The Patriots have won 15 straight times against their longtime AFC East rival, with New York's last win in that series dating back to 2015.
This game ends Belichick's 24th season as head coach of the Patriots. The question of whether he will return for the 25th time could be answered the next day.
About the author
Zack Cox