The 2022 regular season has not gone to plan for the New England Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick.
New England is on the outside looking in of the playoff hunt with a 7-7 record and still have matchups with the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills on the horizon.
While it always seemed that Belichick would spend the rest of his career with the Patriots, the future isn’t as certain as it once was with New England’s struggles as of late. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio even believes that Belichick could be traded when discussing the Carolina Panthers head coaching job.
“Another person to keep in mind, not necessarily for the Panthers, is Bill Belichick,” Florio said. “There are storm clouds brewing, they wouldn’t fire him or let him walk away with no compensation.
Florio also wrote about the possibility on Pro Football Talk.
“Belichick surely wouldn’t be fired,” he wrote. “Instead, word more likely would be circulated that Belichick is available to be hired away from the Patriots for fair compensation. And, surely, another team would be willing to give it a whirl with Belichick. If, that is, he’s willing to coach elsewhere. No one knows the answer to that question, because that question has never been relevant. It may not be relevant yet, but it seems to be moving that way.
“After yesterday’s embarrassment against the Raiders, it could be moving that way even faster,” he concluded.
Are Coaching Trades Common in the NFL?
If Belichick was to be traded, it would buck the trend when it comes to coaching trades in the NFL. Florio believes that more teams need to utilize this type of transaction to secure a quality head coach.
“I don’t think teams do that enough,” Florio mentioned. “It happened a couple of times in the past decade. We know it’s going to happen with Sean Payton at some point. I’m talking about trading for a guy like Jon Gruden with the Raiders… Buccaneers come in with a couple of first-round picks, boom they do the deal. There was compensation for Herm Edwards, compensation for Bruce Arians who was already retired by the Arizona Cardinals. It wouldn’t surprise me if (David) Tepper does it.”
How Did Belichick React to the Patriots’ Week 15 loss?
With the Patriots falling apart at the end of the game in their loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, Belichick reiterated that New England needs to limit its mistakes in his postgame press conference.
”Unfortunately here today we collectively made too many mistakes and gave up some big plays that were obviously the difference in the game,” he said. “So, we just can’t do that in this league, and it cost us. We will work to eliminate those and continue to play the good football that we play, but we just had too many mistakes and too many bad plays to win. So, that was obvious.”
Belichick reiterated this point when discussing his message to the team after the loss.
“We have to eliminate those mistakes and we just gave up some big critical plays,” he said when asked about what he told players. “We need to eliminate those and keep making the good ones and stop making the critical bad ones.”
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NFL Analyst Links Bill Belichick to Trade: ‘There Are Storm Clouds Brewing’