Bill Belichick could end up following in Tom Brady's footsteps
Mike Florio during an appearance on "Pardon My Take" had some very interesting comments regarding Bill Belichick and a potential new team in 2024. If you asked me right now, my best guess is that the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick come to a "mutual parting of ways" this coming offseason.
I also think part of this is Belichick being traded to a team to serve as their general manager and head coach. I think there will be a team desperate enough to do this. Obviously I don't have sources; this is just where I'm leaning at the moment. Someone who is pretty well-connected is Mike Florio, who, during an appearance on "Pardon My Take," had some interesting words to say about Belichick's future:
"“… I think what will happen behind the scenes over the course of the next six-seven weeks, they’ll work out a deal. If there is a deal to be made, it’s going to be worked out quietly between the Patriots, wherever he’s going to end up, and Belichick, and then after the season, the dominos will all be lined up and it’s just a matter of flicking the first domino at the right time and it will all fall together the way that we won’t know until it happens.”
- Mike Florio
“So the teams to watch that I mentioned, the Buccaneers, Panthers, Commanders, Chargers, those are the four I’d watch most closely. And of those, the one that I think is the most fascinating is the Buccaneers,” he said.
“And JoeBucsFan.com and Ira Kaufman, I don’t know if you guys have ever had him on. He’s excellent. He’s been covering the Buccaneers forever, he’s a firm believer that this fits the M.O. of the Glazers [who own the Buccaneers]. Go out and hire a big name, put butts in the seats, they can’t get people to come to the games now that they don’t have Brady. Go after Belichick, put butts in the seats, if he wins, he wins, if he doesn’t, he doesn’t, but we’re going to make money in the interim by filling up our stadium.”"
Well, well, well, what do we have here... according to Mike Florio, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers seem to be the most "fascinating" one to him. When Tom Brady left the New England Patriots, he signed with the Buccaneers, and in his first year with the team, won a Super Bowl. The Bucs began the year 7-5 and rattled off eight straight wins to earn a Super Bowl championship.
This sparked the debate of who was more responsible for the Patriots' success during the team's reign to begin the 20th century. Well, we're now at a point where we can pretty confidently say that Brady seemed to be more responsible for the success of the Patriots. Bill Belichick's flaws in his roster building and puzzling coaching decisions have put a huge stain on this team.
And it's a stain that Belichick might simply walk away from and head to a new team in 2024. I don't think Belichick truly envisioned his team being this bad, but it's what happened. And if I'm Bill Belichick, I just couldn't see myself following Tom Brady's footsteps with a new team. He's already creeping further back into Brady's shadow, and there's no way that Belichick would have the same success in Tampa that Brady did.
Anyway, this would be an interesting destination to say the least.