Patriots: Bill Belichick reportedly considered leaving after 2017 season

It’s pretty scary to think where the New England Patriots would have finished in the standings last season if not for head coach Bill Belichick, who was arguably the sole reason they were in the playoff hunt before they fell off down the stretch.

As it turns out, however, there was a recent point in time where Belichick actually considered leaving the Patriots. It sounds preposterous on the surface and fans might laugh it off as a fake rumor, but this report actually has some validation.

During an appearance on “The Harrison Vapnek Podcast,” ESPN’s Seth Wickersham reported that Belichick spoke with the Miami Dolphins, New York Giants and Washington Football Team about their respective head coaching vacancies during the 2018 offseason.

You know how the Patriots have been linked with a potential Jimmy Garoppolo reunion after the 49ers moved up nine spots to the No. 3 overall pick? Well, the decision to let go of him in the first place reportedly sparked Belichick’s supposed “interest” in leaving Foxborough.

A report claims Bill Belichick almost left the Patriots after the 2017 season.

"“At the time, I think there was a sense that Brady wasn’t going anywhere and Bill left the impression that he might be open to a move,” Wickersham said. “There were some reports that came out at the time that the Giants were looking at him. I think he talked to the Washington Football Team and the Dolphins about their openings.“And it was unclear whether he was interested or not, but he was still talking to them and subsequent reporting has only sort of shown how in that offseason, Brady skipped the offseason program for the first time in his career and he had just kind of had enough.”"

The power struggle within the Patriots’ organization — specifically between owner Robert Kraft, Belichick and former quarterback Tom Brady —  is well-documented and it apparently revolved around the decision to trade Jimmy Garoppolo to the 49ers.

A report Wickersham wrote for ESPN in 2018 claimed Belichick wanted to keep Garoppolo and even refused offers for him leading up to the 2017 season. The Patriots head coach also wanted to have a successor lined up for Brady rather than continuing to invest in an aging quarterback.

At that point in time, Brady, despite the reported growing friction between him and Belichick, had zero intentions of seeking greener pastures. In other words, if Belichick wanted to branch out and start anew, it was him that was going to have to take a job elsewhere.

Just two weeks after a meeting with Kraft, in which Belichick was seemingly ordered to ship Garoppolo out of town, the Patriots agreed to trade their backup quarterback to the 49ers in exchange for a 2018 second-round draft pick.

The rest, as we know, is history. New England went on to avenge its Super Bowl loss to the Eagles with a convincing (albeit uneventful) victory over the Rams to capture their sixth and final championship of the Belichick-Brady regime.

Who knows? Maybe Belichick was never close to leaving the Patriots as this report suggests, but the fact that he reportedly spoke with three teams about their head coaching openings indicates he could’ve been fed up with all the drama.

Luckily for fans, it doesn’t appear they have to worry about that anytime soon, as Belichick is surely a happy man after he spent nearly $300 million in free agency and has his team poised to return to the playoffs after missing out for the first time since 2008.

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