The New England Patriots for the better part of the last 20 years have been the staple of excellence in the NFL. They were the most notorious dynasty in the NFL. However, that dynasty is now over.
The Patriots need to rebuild, not today, not tomorrow, like yesterday. Following back to back disappointing performances against the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints, where the team had been outscored 72-3.
It has become abundantly clear that this team needs a COMPLETE overhaul. Said overhaul starts with Bill Belichick being fired, period. Not just as General Manager but as Head Coach as well.
Since Tom Brady left the Pats in 2020, Bill’s record is 26-29. However, the record doesn’t nearly tell the story. Since Brady left, the Patriots have all in all, played passionless and careless football.
Belichick has disregarded the importance of raw talent, striking out or not even trying to bring in high level talent at trade deadlines and in free agency. With the exception of rookie Christian Gonzalez and Mac Jones (I’ll get to him in a second), Bill has also disregarded the most important thing for any team and that’s the NFL draft.
He still thinks it’s still the 1980s where he can just draft whoever he wants and still expects to beat top teams. The truth of the matter is that you can’t win in the NFL like that anymore.
Every offense and or defense have one or more players that strike absolute fear into opposing teams eyes, an X-factor if you will. The Patriots only have defensive end Matthew Judon as their X-factor and he is out for most likely the rest of the season.
The point is, the game has clearly passed Bill by, and he is too much of a coward to realize that reality.
Now for Michael McCorkle Jones, known better as Mac Jones. His rookie year was stellar, he set the rookie completion percentage record and led the Pats back to the playoffs. The future was looking bright for the offense. You had an exceptional Quarterback in Mac, emerging young talent such as Running Back Rhamondre Stevenson and Wide Receivers Jakobi Meyers and Kendrick Bourne.
Then, Bill Belichick thought “how can I ruin the future of this team? Oh! I know! Let me hire Matt Patricia (former DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR) as the Offensive Coordinator! There is NO POSSIBLE WAY this could go wrong”. Oh Bill was wrong, very, very wrong.
The team was in complete dysfunction mainly due to this move. Why make a former defensive coach run the offense with a Quarterback with superstar written all over him. Mac took a severe step back in his second year, he had little protection, his receivers weren’t getting separation with the exception of Meyers, and he was turning the ball over constantly.
How can any Quarterback succeed with all these issues? The answer is you don’t succeed, it was a hot mess. That following offseason, team owner Robert Kraft had to make sure that Bill hired an adequate Offensive Coordinator.
Fast forward to today, Jakobi Meyers is gone, you can thank Bill for that too, and the Patriots are 1-4. Mac Jones has been forcing the ball too much and trying too hard which has resulted in several terrible turnovers.
There is simply no hope in sight. Mac is a mess, which is a part of the problem, but this can also be put on Bill. He has not done anything to help his QB. He could have brought back Jakobi Meyers instead of bringing in Juju Smith-Shuster who has been one of the biggest disappointments this season.
He (Bill) had the golden opportunity this past offseason to help Mac by signing All Pro receiver Deandre Hopkins. But did Bill get Hopkins? No. No he didn’t, even though if you look around the NFL, every young QB begins to find success when they are paired with a definitive number 1 receiver.
While the blame can be pretty spread out in most cases like the Patriots, in this scenario the blame always comes back to Bill Belichick in some way shape or form. It is time to hang up the hoodie Bill, let Jerod Mayo take the reins and we just move on. That’s the take.
