Patriots: Bill Belichick responds to Nick Caserio’s departure for Texans

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick responded to Nick Caserio’s departure.

New England Patriots fans probably want nothing more than to fast forward to the onset of free agency, when the organization can actually make upgrades to its roster. We also wouldn’t be quick to dismiss the significance of trades and the draft given how many holes need to be filled.

Before that chaos gets underway, however, the Patriots will first have to accept departures to their front office and coaching staff. If the early signs have been any indication, it’s that they might have more positions to replace than they originally anticipated.

Just this week, they lost a key member of their front office when it was reported that now-former director of player personnel Nick Caserio was hired as GM of the Houston Texans. It goes without saying that this is a big loss for the franchise as he was their highest-ranking executive not named Bill Belichick.

Speaking of which, the Patriots head coach released a statement on Friday addressing Caserio’s departure, acknowledging that he did “an excellent job for us and is extremely deserving of the opportunity to be a general manager.”

This is a compliment-littered statement from Belichick and we would expect nothing less given how close of a relationship (both personal and professional) they shared. Caserio was an influential member of the organization for two decades and, putting aside some of his recent draft miscues, is largely responsible for some of its greatest roster transactions during that span.

The fan base probably would’ve preferred the duo to stick together and help the Patriots crawl out of the hole they dug themselves. However, the 45-year-old exec had reached his ceiling with the franchise and there was simply zero sense in running it back for another year with Dave Ziegler waiting in the wings to inject his own wizardry when it comes to evaluating talent.

Caserio leaving for a GM job really became inevitable when the NFL passed a rule last offseason that made it illegal for teams to prevent high-ranking executives from taking interviews for potential promotions with other organizations.

With Belichick officially releasing a statement addressing his departure, the Patriots can finally focus on the task at hand: finding his replacement and getting to work turning this team back into a contender.

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