Whether you want to hear it or not: Bill Belichick's seat is flaming hot entering the 2023 NFL season
Let's just tell it as it is. Bill Belichick is probably on his last straw as head coach and general manager of the New England Patriots. His seat is flaming hot entering the 2023 NFL season. Belichick has had arguably the most success of any coach in NFL history, and the franchise would not be where they are today without BB, who has six Super Bowl titles as the team's head coach.
His career with the team, which spans over two decades, has taken a bit of a hit over the last three years. Tom Brady left after the 2019 NFL season, and since then, in the three seasons following, the Patriots have had losing seasons in two of those three years, and the lone winning season, 2021, resulted in getting trounced by the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card round.
With present uncertainty about how the offense will perform, a poor draft track record catching up to the team, and lack of truly elite players, this could be another painful season for the franchise, which is likely needing to make the playoffs in 2023 or else huge changes might be on the horizon. Well, just because Bill Belichick is a great head coach, perhaps the greatest of all time, that does not mean he doesn't come without some deficiencies.
His record in the NFL Draft has been pretty suspect as of late, especially on offense. He had to invest a ton of money in the free agency market back in 2021 to cover up a ton of draft picks that didn't pan out. His personnel decisions have been a bit all over the place, and that seemed to climax when he put Matt Patricia and Joe Judge in charge of the offense in 2022. His "big" swing at a QB after Tom Brady left in Mac Jones hasn't proven to be a starting-caliber player, and even his decision to sign Cam Newton for the 2020 NFL season was a horrid one.
Listen, I know that many of you in the fanbase have an emotional connection to the team and Belichick; that's totally understandable, but the coach is simply not invincible. His relationship with Robert Kraft has seemed to deteriorate in recent years, and I just do not think Belichick is on stable ground. In fact, I think his seat is flaming hot.
Just be warned that Belichick might not be the head coach of the team in 2024 and beyond if the 2023 NFL season is not up to par.