New England Patriots: The end might be near for Bill Belichick
The New England Patriots are 1-5 and could end up with the #1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Much of the failure falls on the shoulders of Bill Belichick. The Pats might be the worst team in the NFL, as outside of Christian Gonzalez, their stud rookie CB who is hurt, there's not much else on this team to like.
And sure, you can cite the Patriots' six Super Bowl titles with Belichick as the head coach, but that should not impact the present, right? Some have said that because of Belichick's past success, he should have immunity over potentially being removed from his position as HC and GM of the team.
And frankly, I think that is silly. Belichick has a pretty poor tenure in both roles in recent years, and I think it's becoming clearer by the day that QB Tom Brady was able to cover up a ton of roster issues, and those issues fall on the shoulders of Belichick. His numerous draft and free agency failures have added up and have reached a boiling point this year.
The offense is missing explosiveness and competent QB play, and the defense is a bit shaky in the secondary. I think for both sides, the move that makes the most sense is for Patriots' owner Robert Kraft to simply move on from Belichick. It likely won't look like and outright firing because of his tenure as head coach, but you may hear the "mutual parting of ways" line that we hear from time to time in sports.
The New England Patriots need to get better on offense especially, and you could argue that they need two new tackles, a true WR1, a franchise tight end, and most importantly, a franchise QB. The Pats should install two separate people to be the GM and HC of the Pats. They should go with a more traditional front office approach and should look to heavily invest in the offense for the future.
The Patriots are likely going to be equipped with a ton of cap space in 2024, so a potential new GM and HC combination may have a good bit of money to spend if they want to. Cincinnati Bengals WR Tee Higgins is currently slated to be a free agent in 2024, and he could be a great fit to be the true game-changing WR1 that the Pats have been searching for.