No matter how many people say he’s on the hot seat, Bill Belichick’s chair is as cold as ice, and will be for the foreseeable future.
The New England Patriots and owner Robert Kraft reportedly signed their longtime head coach to a new lucrative contract over the offseason, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Further details like length and salary have not been revealed.
The news of this contract becoming public at this moment is very timely. The Patriots are struggling this season in a way they never have under Belichick. They’re 1-5 and quarterback Mac Jones has been benched in two of his last three starts. On a larger scale, Belichick is 19-21 since Brady left three years ago. Given all of this, reports have been swirling about Belichick’s job security for the last few weeks.
News of this contract will likely put an end to any speculation that Belichick is being pushed out the door, but it also brings up a number of interesting questions. When did Kraft and Belichick agree to this contract? Why wasn’t it announced at the time? And, more importantly, what is this contract for? Rapoport said that it’s “new” and “lucrative,” but does it keep him in the head coach role exclusively? Does it allow for him to move to an advisory role if Kraft decided to make a change? Can Kraft even make a head coaching change independently, or is Belichick the one who says it’s time to hang it up?
Kraft said in March 2023 that he would like for Belichick to break Don Shula’s all-time wins record of 247 total victories (regular season and playoffs), but said he wasn’t “looking for any of our players to get great stats.” At the time, Belichick was in second place with 329 wins and needed 19 more to overtake Shula.
Six months later, it’s Week 7 of the NFL and Belichick now needs 18 wins to pass Shula and become the winningest NFL coach of all time. Unless those wins start coming a little faster for Belichick, one contract might not be enough for him to get it done.