FOXBOROUGH, Ma. — It was too early, Bill Belichick said Monday morning, for a decision.
The 24-year head coach of the New England Patriots was just beginning his 7:30 a.m. ET news conference.
He had not yet led his 9 a.m. team meeting.
But as he addressed reporters for the second time in 15 hours, Belichick began again with opening remarks that directly confronted his looming reality.
“I’m under contract,” he said. “I’m gonna do what I always do, which is every day I come in and work as hard as I can to help the team in whatever way I can. … As far as any decisions or direction or anything like that for next year, it’s way too early for that. End-of-the-year processes I don’t think will be fundamentally any different from the standpoint of how it’s done.
“The decisions, that’s a whole other conversation.”
A seismic decision indeed nears.
Will the Patriots retain the coach who spearheaded their six Super Bowl titles or will they dissociate from the 71-year-old who has posted just one winning season in his last four tries?
If team owner Robert Kraft wants a change, will he allow Belichick to resign or will Kraft terminate him or will the decades-long business partner announce they’re mutually parting ways?
Belichick’s coaching and game-planning remain widely praised, while his personnel decisions garner more criticism. Could he cede that front office control to stay in New England?
“Yeah, look, I’m for whatever, collectively, we decide as an organization is the best thing to help our football team,” Belichick said when asked. “And I have multiple roles in that, and I rely on a lot of people to help me in those responsibilities. If somebody’s got to have the final say, I rely on a lot of other people to help.
“However that process is, I’m only part of it.”
Part of it, it was clear Monday morning, Belichick still feels.
Not once, not twice, but five times in 13 minutes did Belichick mention either “our team” or “our football team” as he detailed the steps ahead. This was not a man speaking from a distance. Only once, when asked if he would be surprised if Kraft decided a separation was best for the football team, did Belichick veer into third person — and even then, he quickly reintegrated himself into the narrative.
“I’m going to focus on what I can control and focus on,” Belichick said. “That’s my work ethic and my effort to do what I can to help the Patriots organization — which I’m heavily invested in.”
Otherwise, Belichick detailed plans to “improve our team” and “help our team” and “help our football team.”
For now, it is still his football team.
Belichick declined to detail an exact timeline for his meeting with Kraft.
Will they even wrap discussions in one meeting?
“It might be a series of meetings, I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll deal with that internally.”
Belichick did counter reporting that he hadn’t met with the team owner at all, keeping the contents of the conversations vague while confirming “we’ve met during the season.”
And until they meet again, Belichick plans to move forward with business as usual.
He plans to commence a “good, detailed analysis” to determine how much the Patriots’ 4-13 campaign reflects multi-year trends and how much the toxins were 2023-specific. The Patriots suffered injuries to multiple star defenders and struggled to keep healthy or ever establish continuity on their offensive line in 2021. Contextualizing extenuating factors like health will yield a more accurate assessment of decisions within the organization’s control, like the carousel of quarterbacks.
Mac Jones, the Patriots 2021 first-round pick, opened the season as the team's starting quarterback, but ended it as the Patriots emergency third quarterback.
After finishing 4-13, the Patriots earned the No. 3 overall pick in the upcoming NFL draft. If they stay there, it will be their highest draft pick since selecting Drew Bledsoe No. 1 overall in 1993.
The franchise could stabilize the position that's arguably hurt them the most since Tom Brady left. Will Belichick be the one to oversee that turnaround?
"I’m here to work as hard as I can to help our team every day," he said. "You work for the team that you’re working for and do the best you can for it, until somebody tells you different. So, that’s not going to change."