Bill Belichick's future as head coach of the New England Patriots has become more and more of a storyline as the team's season has steadily worsened with each passing week.
The Patriots enter Sunday's Week 7 game against the Buffalo Bills with a 1-5 record -- their worst mark at this point in a season since 1995. The post-Tom Brady era has been largely lackluster with the exception of 2021. This year's campaign has been particularly troubling, especially on offense.
It's fair to wonder if Belichick is the coach next season given what's transpired so far in 2023. And that's why it was interesting to hear NFL Network's Ian Rapoport report Sunday morning that Belichick agreed to a lucrative, multi-year contract with the team this past offseason.
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Specific details about Belichick's new contract -- or any of his previous contracts with the Patriots, for that matter -- are pretty hard to come by.
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Our insiders Tom E. Curran and Phil Perry shared what they're hearing about Belichick's reported new deal during NBC Sports Boston's Pregame Live.
"Let's try and interrogate that," Curran said. "My understanding is 'lucrative' -- of course, it's lucrative -- it's Bill Belichick. He makes a lot of dough," Curran said. "Multi-year, that simply could mean 2023 and 2024, for instance. So that extension would satisfy, in some ways, perhaps a timeline for Jerod Mayo.
"Jerod Mayo signed a two-year extension as a linebackers coach at the end of last year. Robert Kraft was very open about talking about Jerod Mayo as perhaps one day a head coach, maybe even here. So I would be stunned. I would be amazed, I would be dumbstruck if Bill Belichick's lucrative extension ran past 2024. What's interesting to me, and we're going to get to it, is the why of this report and what that means going forward into next year."
Only three people know the details of Belichick's contract, according to Perry.
"I would say this just to use a few of the words that Tom just laid on us there. I would be dumbstruck if this is something that people within the organization would believe that the Krafts would want out there," Perry said. "It's my understanding that three people know the details of Bill Belichick's contract. Bill Belichick, obviously, Robert Kraft and Jonathan Kraft.
"I even asked if Neil Cornrich -- I assumed Neil Cornrich was still Bill Belichick's agent, but it turns out he's more of an adviser than truly an agent in that. For a while now, Bill Belichick has been doing his own contract. So it's a very small circle."
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The timing of this report is interesting. Is it possible Belichick wanted this report out there? And if that's the case, why?
"Now, if this was something that Bill Belichick wanted out there, to me, it would be fascinating if, if this was a play for Bill Belichick to garner a little bit more buy-in," Perry said. "Buy-in is something we have talked about on this show and others for years now.
"And if this is a last resort to say to the rest of your team, front office, locker room, 'Hey, I'm gonna be here for a while. So let's all get on board with what we're trying to do even though our record is what it is.' That would be a fascinating play by Bill Belichick, if in fact that's what it was."
One interesting question is whether this extension would prevent Robert and Jonathan Kraft from parting ways with Belichick if the 2023 season continues to spiral out of control.
"I think this would not preclude the Krafts from making the difficult decision to move on from Bill Belichick after the season if his performance was not up to snuff," Curran said. "I truly believe that the Krafts, in the number of statements that Robert has made over the years, would be willing if Bill Belichick's performance does not measure up, they would say, OK, we're going to go in a different direction.
"Would the contractual money left if it's extended into 2024 dissuade them? I don't think it would because at a point you get to, OK, it's costing us money to have the lack of hope for this team."
Belichick's future isn't going away as a major Patriots storyline, and this report of his new contract makes the conversation far more interesting.