New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and head coach Bill Belichick have won six Super Bowl championships together.
However, all of those iconic wins featured Tom Brady playing quarterback. Before and after Brady, the team has failed to achieve those kinds of heights. Since Brady left, the franchise has lost both its playoff games while failing to make the playoffs in the other two seasons.
And while Belichick is recognized as one of the NFL’s greatest coaches, there is trouble in Foxborough according to a new report from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
“Entering the 2023 season, the Patriots are the worst team on paper in the AFC East, and decidedly a middle-of-the-pack member of the conference,” Florio wrote. “While Belichick has a proven knack of making a team better than it appears to be on paper, he’s the one who puts the team together. So even if he’s good at digging a team out of a pre-existing hole, he’s the one responsible for the oversized divot from which he has to dig.”
When asked if Belichick’s job would be in jeopardy if Belichick suffered a third losing season in a row, Kraft gave an answer that would signal he won’t let Belichick linger until he breaks Don Shula’s wins record if there are too many losses along the way.
“Look, I’d like him to break Don Shula’s record,” Kraft said at the league’s winter meetings, “but I’m not looking for any our players to get great stats. We’re about winning, and doing whatever we can to win. And that’s what our focus is now. And I — it’s very important to me that we make the playoffs, and that’s what I hope happens next year.”
Kraft went on to say that winning the franchise’s seventh Super Bowl is the only way he’ll be satisfied with the upcoming season. Given what the Patriots look like on paper, that could be a tall ask even for a coach as talented as Belichick.
The NFL world was quick to react to the news:
The reality is that if Belichick was in charge, he would have fired Belichick last year. He is famous for letting a player go before they fall off. Kraft might be waiting too long.
I love BB, but it might be the end. https://t.co/hmCCSQTCC3
— Mike (@BostonKid508) July 4, 2023
https://twitter.com/djossuppah/status/1676213135198281731
Bill is on the hot seat? https://t.co/GcwTgVLpdr
— Ryan O'Malley (@romalley216) July 4, 2023
https://twitter.com/jeromey/status/1676215972951367682
I doubt something happens but if he leaves this year, if I'm Washington I'm hiring him to rebuild the franchise.
— Jeremy Gerardi (@GerardiJeremy) July 4, 2023
