Bill Belichick has a chance to break a coaching record during the Patriots season

Yesterday afternoon, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick joined select company in becoming only the third head coach in NFL history to coach in 500 games, joining Don Shula (526) and George Halas (506). Of those 500 games, Belichick has won 330 of them, leaving him 18 shy of breaking Don Shula's record of 347 career victories as a head coach. This has certainly gained a lot of attention over the years (and may be the reason why Belichick hasn't retired yet) but there is another coaching record that Belichick might accomplish as soon as the end of the 2023 season and it isn't a great one.

While Belichick is 18 wins shy of the record for victories, he's now only eight losses shy of tying Tom Landry for the most losses in league history. With a 1-5 start to the season, there's a good chance Belichick can either tie or break this record during the 2023 season. Looking at the schedule, you might be hard pressed to find the three wins it would take for Belichick to avoid setting the mark this year.

The Patriots have opened as 9.5-point underdogs at home against Buffalo on Sunday, the largest point spread at home since some guy named Tom Brady was making his first start in 2001. Then it's off to Miami to face a very hot Dolphins team. The schedule lightens up a bit with games against the Commanders, Colts (in Germany) and the 1-5 Giants. Maybe by some Christmas miracle they can beat the Broncos on Christmas Eve in Denver because there doesn't seem to be many winnable games down the stretch: Chargers, at Steelers, Chiefs, at Bills, Jets.

A few years ago, it was crazy to think that Belichick would set the losses records before he set the wins record but the Patriots are now 28-35 in their last 63 games and have lost 31 games since Brady left at the end of the 2019 season. For perspective, the Patriots lost 32 games total between 2003 and 2012.

Now, at the very least Belichick will have the second-most losses all-time by the end of the year but with the way this season is going, my money is on him breaking it.