Longtime NFL insider sees a scenario where Bill Belichick coaches a team other than the Patriots
It's hard to imagine Bill Belichick as the head coach of any team other than the New England Patriots, even though he spent five seasons as the Cleveland Browns' head coach from 1991 to 1995. Belichick wasn't a big name in Cleveland, leading the Browns to one playoff appearance during his five seasons in Ohio. […]
It's hard to imagine Bill Belichick as the head coach of any team other than the New England Patriots, even though he spent five seasons as the Cleveland Browns' head coach from 1991 to 1995.
Belichick wasn't a big name in Cleveland, leading the Browns to one playoff appearance during his five seasons in Ohio.
The potential was there, but in 1995, no one thought Belichick would be a Hall of Fame head coach. New England is where the legend of Belichick was truly born.
But it might not be where Belichick's legend ends.
The eight-time Super Bowl champion is closing in on Don Shula's all-time wins record. Belichick needs 19 wins to get to 348 and pass Shula for the most wins all time by an NFL head coach.
In this week's "Football Morning in America" column, longtime NFL insider/reporter Peter King posed an interesting question for Patriots fans.
King wondered in his hugely popular weekly column if the Patriots would consider a change if Belichick goes 7-10 over the next two seasons and needs just five wins to pass Shula in 2025.
New England hasn't won a playoff game since Tom Brady left town. The Patriots, in fact, are just 25-26 since Brady left New England for sunny Tampa Bay.
Would Patriots owner Robert Kraft give Belichick one more year? Based on recent comments from Kraft downplaying individual records, King thinks it's possible that Belichick could spend his last years in the NFL with another team in an effort to break Shula's record.
From NBC Sports' Peter King: I’m starting to wonder what happens to Belichick, who turns 71 in two weeks, if the Patriots sink to the bottom of the AFC East. It’s certainly possible, with Aaron Rodgers likely to enter the division and the Patriots clearly inferior to the Bills and Dolphins recently. Say the Patriots go 7-10 each of the next two years, and Belichick is five wins from passing Don Shula. WWKD? What will Kraft do? He may move on. If so, it would not surprise me to see Belichick coach another team for a couple of years.
Belichick can essentially control his own destiny if he guides the Patriots to the playoffs in each of the next two seasons. But that will be easier said than done with Josh Allen and Aaron Rodgers (soon) in the division, plus an improved Miami Dolphins squad.
It could be an unceremonious end to Belichick's time in New England, which would be surprising considering the way the legendary coach at one time dominated the league.
