Updates On The Meeting Between Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick
After the season, Bill Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft will probably have a meeting to decide Bill Belichick’s future.
The season finale between the New England Patriots and the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium is three days away, and ESPN’s Mike Reiss has revealed new information regarding the time of that game.
Reiss stated on ESPN’s “Get Up” on Thursday, “This is how I think things will go.” “Monday is the current scheduled meeting with Bill Belichick, and the team president Jonathan Kraft and team owner Robert Kraft will be seeking some explanations for why the team’s performance has declined so drastically this season.”
Reiss called Kraft’s dissatisfaction with the 2023 Patriots season “extreme,” but the owner has not decided on Belichick’s future just yet.
According to those close to Robert Kraft, “he has been extremely disappointed with the way this season has gone, naturally, and they have told me that this disappointment has been so extreme that he has strongly considered moving on from Belichick,” Reiss stated. “However, these individuals also inform me that no decision has been made as of yet, which is why this last meeting will be crucial.”
Reiss stated that Belichick will have the opportunity to persuade Kraft that he is still capable of delivering the Patriots the postseason success that has eluded them since Tom Brady’s exit during that meeting. In three of their four post-Brady seasons, the Patriots have finished below.500 and have not won a postseason game in the last five. The Patriots’ current 4-12 squad has suffered more losses than any other since 1992, the year before Kraft acquired the team.
In addition, Belichick holds the position of de facto general manager for New England, taking full responsibility for the team’s innumerable draft missteps, unwise free agency decisions, and poor coaching appointments.
Reiss remarked, “I think you just have to start with the assumption that Belichick wants to be here.” So let us begin there. At that juncture, all he has to do is inform them, saying, “Okay, let me tell you where this went wrong, how I contributed to it, and how I think we can fix it.”
But is it known that Belichick intends to play again in 2024 instead of trying to surpass Don Shula’s winning total with a different team?
Reiss went on, “We don’t, and part of the reason for that is that Bill Belichick does not tell anyone.” He has such a sharp focus. It is possible that some viewers are thinking to themselves, “You have to be kidding me.” To find out where things stand, we need to meet at the end of the season.
In the universe of Bill Belichick, that is how things operate. Since he is so intent on every week and every game, ownership allows him the freedom to say, “Hey, let us talk about the big picture after the season.”
Up until that point, Belichick dispelled any doubts regarding his job security this week by stating that his only goal is defeating the Jets to end the season. The Patriots have defeated their venerable AFC East opponents 15 times in a row; New York’s last series victory occurred in 2015.
Belichick will conclude his 24th season as the Patriots’ head coach with that match. The next day, we may know the answer to the question of whether he will return for a 25th.
