The Chargers are his most likely landing spot. They have their franchise QB, stud wideouts and pieces on defense to appease him.
Vrabel would be welcomed with open arms in New England, but both the Titans and Pats I think are about to learn the hard way they need more than a coaching change and they were singled out because of their record that wasn’t all their fault, if at all.
Rumors I heard were belichick doesn't like the west coast & mayo has the inside track on the NE gig.
Rumors I heard were belichick doesn't like the west coast & mayo has the inside track on the NE gig.
The inside track on Mayo is mainly inner New England beat writers and reporters throwing darts and have been pushing for Mayo for 2 seasons now.
I am not sold on Mayo because without a shadow of a doubt, everything Defense went through Bill, not to mention Bill's son also shared the coordinator status with Mayo. I just don't think he is ready and especially the dumpster fire that is this roster.
Vrabel is the obvious best choice here, and I would hope Kraft makes a hard push on him and at least tries. He is far more experienced running a team, roster building, all things Mayo has very little experience with. Problem is I think multiple teams will be flirting with Vrabel that are in much better spots and as a patriot's fan I have to be honest and say
Rumors I heard were belichick doesn't like the west coast & mayo has the inside track on the NE gig.
looking at all of the vacancies out there, Bill may rethink any dislike of the west coast if he wants to continue coaching and break Shula's record. No other team has a better situation with a QB and roster than LAC and he can't go to a team looking to draft, develop a QB if he wants that record.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigdog
The inside track on Mayo is mainly inner New England beat writers and reporters throwing darts and have been pushing for Mayo for 2 seasons now.
I am not sold on Mayo because without a shadow of a doubt, everything Defense went through Bill, not to mention Bill's son also shared the coordinator status with Mayo. I just don't think he is ready and especially the dumpster fire that is this roster.
Vrabel is the obvious best choice here, and I would hope Kraft makes a hard push on him and at least tries. He is far more experienced running a team, roster building, all things Mayo has very little experience with. Problem is I think multiple teams will be flirting with Vrabel that are in much better spots and as a patriot's fan I have to be honest and say
I think the push for Mayo started with beat writers but national media now latching on too.
this was a good read
Quote:
How did the Belichick-Kraft Patriots partnership end?
Mike Reiss, ESPN Staff Writer
Jan 11, 2024, 01:32 PM ET
AS COACH BILL Belichick was turning the corner into the AFC coaches media breakfast at the NFL's owners meetings, an annual tradition he generally loathes, a New England Patriots staff member handed him a square blue pin.
Belichick pinned it to his pink and gray checkered dress shirt, but in a most unusual spot: more than halfway down the left side by his ribs.
The NFL's longest-tenured head coach then sat at a round table where eight to 10 media members and a television camera were waiting for him, and he begrudgingly answered questions about his team and the outlook for the 2023 season. Deep into the interview, he was asked about the pin.
Bill Belichick, pictured with a blue square pin low on his shirt in support of Robert Kraft's initiative. Mike Reiss
"It's Mr. Kraft's initiative," Belichick responded, speaking of Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Your thoughts on the initiative?
"I support it," Belichick answered.
That late-March morning exchange at the posh Arizona Biltmore might have been a subtle snapshot of a growing strain between Kraft and Belichick in their 24th year together as owner and coach.
Or maybe it was just Belichick being Belichick. He had skipped the coaches breakfast in the past, generally seeing little value in March interviews that fuel hype and isn't one to willingly go along with NFL-driven initiatives involving the media.
Like many things involving Belichick, his intentions are a mystery.
A few hours after the breakfast with Belichick, Kraft stood proudly outside in the Arizona heat, reporters circled around him as the cacti and blazing Southwest sunshine provided a picturesque backdrop. He had the same blue pin affixed to the left side of his light blue dress shirt, easily visible between the second and third buttons, not far from the "RKK" initials embroidered slightly below it.
Robert Kraft sporting his pin for an initiative in which he invested more than $100 million. Mike Reiss
Before Kraft fielded questions, he spoke passionately about the meaning behind the pin, announcing this was the day he was kicking off a campaign to combat antisemitism. Kraft, who invested more than $100 million in the initiative, said "fighting this hate will be the most meaningful and fulfilling action of my life."
He was leading with his heart, which is also what he has said led him to first hire Belichick in 2000 -- a decision that wasn't universally viewed as shrewd until the Lombardi Trophy made its way to Foxborough in Belichick's second season.
Kraft sometimes compared the dynamic among himself, Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady to "a marriage because you put up and go through a number of things that the general public probably can't appreciate."
He took great pride in keeping the trio together for 20 years. Brady's departure as a free agent in 2020 pained him. And now comes another ending, this one with Belichick.
In the championship years, it was seldom considered how Belichick's outside-the-box actions -- such as what he did with the blue square pin -- reflected his relationship with Kraft. But as the losses started to pile up in recent years, every interaction, team decision and news release was scrutinized through that lens.
After helping the Patriots win six Super Bowls, Belichick's team finished this season 4-13. It was the third losing season in four years.
One team source who witnessed interactions between Belichick and Kraft said: "I don't know what happened to that relationship, but it doesn't seem to be in as great of a place as it used to be."
On Thursday, the Patriots announced that Kraft and Belichick agreed to part ways. At the news conference, they shared an embrace, each thanking the other, putting a happy face on their final chapter together.
Robert Kraft (left), Tom Brady and Bill Belichick (right) teamed up to win six Super Bowls before Brady left in 2020. AP Photo/Elise Amendola
PERHAPS THE MOST seismic shift for the Kraft-Belichick pairing came on March 16, 2020 -- the day Brady drove to Kraft's home in Brookline, Massachusetts, to tearfully tell him he was leaving the Patriots.
Two months earlier, Kraft told NBC's Peter King his "hope and prayer" was Brady, whom he viewed like a son, would play for the Patriots or retire. The Hail Mary for Kraft was that Belichick might somehow make it happen.
In fairness to Belichick, there was no historical precedent that a two-year, $50 million free agent investment in a 42-year-old quarterback (which is what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gave Brady) was a sound business decision.
With Belichick showing no signs of retiring, and Brady committed to keep playing, it put Kraft in a pickle. He hoped Belichick and Brady would have come together over the course of the 2019 season and perhaps realize they were at their best together. Instead, Kraft ultimately had to pick one.
Paying respect to Belichick's championship résumé and role in raising the Patriots to prominence, Kraft essentially chose him -- which meant letting Brady enter free agency and ultimately sign with the Buccaneers.
For Belichick, the selection of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in the second round of the 2014 draft was part of the sound, strategic planning for Brady's eventual departure. But Brady outlasted that plan. Garoppolo was traded midway through the 2017 season, and a new plan had to be hatched for when Brady would ultimately depart.
Brady went on to win a Super Bowl in his first season in Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, the Patriots are 29-38 over the past four seasons, with their lone playoff appearance ending in a 47-17 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card round of the 2021 season.
Belichick's handling of the offensive coaching staff when coordinator Josh McDaniels left to become Raiders head coach ahead of the 2022 season -- turning to longtime defensive coach Matt Patricia as the new offensive coordinator -- began a downward spiral for 2021 first-round quarterback Mac Jones and the offense.
As a result, the latitude Kraft afforded Belichick has slowly eroded since Brady's departure, with one notable example coming last offseason when the team announced that top defensive assistant Jerod Mayo was negotiating a contract to remain with the franchise long term.
Multiple sources familiar with Belichick's thinking relayed that he was uneasy with Kraft empowering Mayo that way -- positioning him as the heir apparent and creating a dynamic that potentially undercut Belichick's authority and team culture.
Team sources described the relationship between Belichick and Mayo -- a 2008 first-round pick of the franchise, whom Belichick had recruited to the coaching staff in 2019 -- as more distant this season than it had previously been.
An unusual sight: Kraft (light-blue top) walking the Patriots' practice field with Belichick ahead of Week 1 this season. Mike Reiss
FOUR DAYS BEFORE the Patriots' 2023 regular-season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles, something different was unfolding in the middle of the team's practice field.
Players were loosening up as music blared and Belichick -- dressed in black shorts, a blue shirt and a white hat -- twirled his whistle as he briskly walked down the middle of the field. Keeping pace to his left was Kraft, dressed in black pants, a long-sleeved light-blue dress shirt and black Nike shoes.
Seeing the 82-year-old Kraft at practice was nothing new; he regularly watches from the sideline and describes himself as the fan who fell in love with the team in the 1960s attending games during the franchise's AFL days in Boston and as a season-ticket holder in the 1970s.
But the sight of Kraft and Belichick walking the middle of the field together stood out to longtime observers, and even Kraft himself.
"Your favorite coach asked me to come out. He was trying to show me something. I don't usually go out [on the field]," Kraft explained later that night at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a $250 million stadium renovation project.
Video of the two splashed across social media and on local newscasts, projecting the image of a unified front, which might have been Belichick's intention.
At the same time, Kraft was direct when he told reporters later that day: "In the end, we want to win."
That message had been resonating for months, beginning Jan. 9, 2023, the day after the 2022 season ended in a 35-23 loss to the Bills in Orchard Park, New York. The Patriots, who finished 8-9 with Patricia assigned by Belichick to build an offense and call plays, would have clinched a playoff bid with a win.
Kraft and his son, Jonathan, the team president, quickly delivered a letter to season-ticket members that read in part: "Our expectation was to perform better throughout the season and to advance through the playoffs. We can assure you that no one in our organization is satisfied with the results from this past season. In the weeks ahead, we will be making critical evaluations of all elements of our football operation as we strive to improve and return to the playoffs next year."
Four days later, the club issued a news release that read: "The New England Patriots and Head Coach Bill Belichick have begun contract extension discussions with Jerod Mayo that would keep him with the team long-term. In addition, the team will begin interviewing for offensive coordinator candidates beginning next week."
For a team that is notoriously tight-lipped, the news release came across as wildly out of character.
A few weeks later, the team announced the hiring of offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien, who had served in that role in 2011.
Sources familiar with Belichick's thinking relayed that he believed the Patricia-led offense had been making strides, so while he was willing to go along with a new hire and has since lauded O'Brien as a coach, he wasn't the primary driver of the switch.
Similar to what unfolded with Mayo, sources familiar with Belichick's thinking relayed that he viewed it as another example of increasing involvement from Kraft.
WHENEVER PATRIOTS PLAYERS return to the locker room after a victory, they can almost always count on Kraft as one of the first to greet them.
So it stood out to one player after a thrilling 21-18 road win over the Steelers on Dec. 7 that Kraft was not there in Pittsburgh. Kraft hadn't attended the Thursday night game.
The next night in Boston, at the gala ahead of the Army-Navy game at Gillette Stadium, Kraft told WBZ-TV how he was finally able to "feel good" and sleep -- a reflection of the toll the season had taken on him.
Players also took note that Kraft was not in Denver when the Patriots posted an exciting 26-23 victory over the Denver Broncos on Christmas Eve. Some with longtime ties to the franchise noted that it was unusual for Kraft to miss a road game, but to longtime Patriots media members, two in a row seemed unprecedented, sparking speculation that perhaps he was sending a subtle message to the tunnel-visioned Belichick.
In arguably the most trying season in Kraft's 30 years of ownership, some close to him believed he was most upset after the team's 10-6 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Frankfurt, Germany, on Nov. 12. The franchise had invested millions as part of their international initiative leading into the game, spanning a calendar year, and the team's lackluster performance was disheartening to him.
Leading into the game, he told NFL Network about the season to that point: "It's really disappointing. This isn't what we were expecting to happen this year."
Kraft attended the team's final road game Dec. 31 in Orchard Park, New York -- as well as the home finale against the Jets, wearing a blue hoodie while watching from the owners box -- walking the sideline at Highmark Stadium before kickoff and stopping at the Patriots' bench where he briefly spoke with O'Brien. Jonathan Kraft was also on the sideline and at one point had a quick chat with Mayo before they watched the game from a suite.
What unfolded in the 27-21 loss looked familiar to most of the regular season -- major offensive struggles. The Patriots had four turnovers in the first 18 minutes, the defense fought valiantly to keep the team in the game, but they ultimately came up short.
With the result decided at the two-minute warning, the Krafts rode an elevator to the tunnel, not far from both teams' locker rooms. They turned left and walked up a ramp to the outside, leaving behind a defeated team and one major question to answer:
Would they bring back Belichick for a 25th season in 2024 or take back full control of the franchise?
Their actions two weeks later provided the decisive answer.
looking at all of the vacancies out there, Bill may rethink any dislike of the west coast if he wants to continue coaching and break Shula's record. No other team has a better situation with a QB and roster than LAC and he can't go to a team looking to draft, develop a QB if he wants that record.
rumors i heard were belichick doesn't like the west coast & mayo has the inside track on the ne gig.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Batman1980
Big Mike has his problems but I'll take him all day over Bill. Pretty sure Bill has like a .200 record without Brady, hard pass.
Give fat mike NE & bill DAL & the teams would still be where they are now Dal in ply NE not + i trust bill with talented players way more.
Also with Quinn leaving to take a coach's job you're gonna need somebody to run the defense anyways.
I like the guy but wrong place, wrong time imo, and i hope to hell i'm wrong.
The radio just on the way into work broke this news, and it took them about 2 minutes to transition into when it fails is this ownerships fault for being cheap as Mayo let's face it, is going to be the most economically attractive of any potentials. Kraft will be the next media target, the media now that Bill is officially gone have already started to fixate on their next target! This process will be sped up if Bill goes to a new team and starts having immediate success.
I commend Kraft for being true to his word and giving Mayo his shot, no doubt promises were made last season when he declined that Panthers job, hey how did that work out for the guy who took the job of putting out that dumpster fire?
Problem is it feels like he is stepping into something actually worse here to be honest! What i fear is this being a 2 year wasted process where we are mediocre and Mayo is eventually let go and we reset and do it all over again, getting stuck in that loop that many teams find themselves in.
I feel like Vrabel was just the right guy for this team and you let him come in and pick his own staff and gm to work with, you know what you did with Bill, the guy that lasted 24 years... Who knows maybe Bob already spoke with Vrabel who had declined the position, because let's face it this team is about the least desirable spot for any potential coaches right now.
I remember as young kid watching the Chargers @ Bengals playoff game (early 80's) and the air temp was like -9 degrees outside with the windchill at -59 degrees. They call that game "The Freezer Bowl."
I remember as young kid watching the Chargers @ Bengals playoff game (early 80's) and the air temp was like -9 degrees outside with the windchill at -59 degrees. They call that game "The Freezer Bowl."
I was at that game (Riverfront Stadium). We were cold during the game, but not as bad as you would think. The walk to and from the parking lot, on the other hand, was miserable.
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