What will the New England Patriots look like when Bill Belichick is no longer the head coach? Those discussions apparently have taken place at the highest levels in Foxboro.
Belichick's future was a hot topic Sunday morning after NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported that Belichick and the Patriots "quietly" agreed to a "lucrative multi-year new contract" this past offseason. Appearing on NBC Sports Boston's Patriots Pregame Live prior to Sunday's game against the Buffalo Bills, Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer shared his intel on the dynamic between Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and how Rapoport's report factors in.
"This is something that sort of shifted over the course of the year," Belichick said. "Early in the year, Patriots ownership and people in that organization had discussions about what post-Belichick is going to look like. And that was necessitated by the Jerod Mayo situation."
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Boston sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
The Carolina Panthers requested to interview Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo for their head coach opening in January, but the Patriots "talked him out of" taking that interview, per Breer, and signed him to a long-term contract extension, which potentially could set him up to succeed Belichick as New England's head coach down the road.
MORE PATRIOTS COVERAGE
"I don't know what's exactly in the contract, but what I can tell you definitively is that (ownership) did talk about what this organization would look like post-Belichick," Breer said. "So there have been discussions at the highest levels of the organization about what this is going to look like post-Belichick, which is what you would expect because Robert Kraft has always been a very forward-looking owner."
The question, of course, is how soon Kraft would be willing to begin the post-Belichick era. The Patriots entered Sunday's game at 1-5 following three consecutive losses, so would that lead Kraft to move on from Belichick earlier than expected?
"Another thing that I think is important here is sort of where the conversation shifted and why the conversation shifted," Breer added. "People that I've talked to thought that there are changes coming after this year if things kept going this way, and maybe it's by bringing in a general manager and restructuring the top of the organization and having a general manager, rather than report to Bill, report to the owner.
"We have the GM and the coach both reporting to the owner, which would set you up for post-Belichick life too because that's how organizations without coaches who have all this power work."
Rapoport's report that Belichick has a new multi-year deal could alter that thinking -- but it certainly doesn't mean Belichick's job is secure, noted Breer.
"Now you sort of wonder, where is this going?" Breer said. "Is it possible that they just decide they can't have Bill in the building at all anymore? And one thing I know is that the temperature in that building is different than it's been in a long, long time. People in that building are feeling the heat and feel a great sense of uncertainty over where this is going.
"And I do think the fact that this (report) gets out there ... this was probably, on one side or the other, made to dial back pressure, whether it's overall by the organization trying to show a unified front for the next 11 games or it's from Bill Belichick's camp, who wants people off of his back.
"Either way, I think the pressure that's been felt in the building is certainly apparent in this getting out when it did."