Week 18 preview: End of an era?

Week 18 preview: End of an era?

The Patriots host the Jets at Gillette Stadium in what, ordinarily, would be an irrelevant, quickly forgotten, final game of the 2023-24 season for both teams. The Patriots come into the game with a 4-10 record and are vying for a top five draft pick. The Jets came into the season with Super Bowl aspirations, but Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon in the opening moments of the first game of the season. The result has been a 6-10 season.

But this game is in no way irrelevant or insignificant. In many ways, it may be a historic game. It could be the last game with Bill Belichick on the sidelines coaching the New England Patriots. There is a whole generation of Patriots' fans that don’t know life without Belichick coaching the Patriots. They've never seen anybody else roaming the sidelines as leader of this team. After 24 years and six Super Bowl championships, the run may be over.

Stories have emerged this week about the dysfunction, not between the players, but within the hierarchy of the coaching staff and front office. For anyone who thinks that Belichick may stay if he agrees to relinquish his GM/personnel responsibilities, read the article written by Andrew Callahan and Doug Kyed in this week’s Boston Herald. 

I’ll save you the trouble. The lengthy article reveals some of the turmoil behind the scenes that derailed the 2023-24 Patriots’ season. It all started with Belichick being forced to replace Matt Patricia with Bill O’Brien as offensive coordinator. Belichick acquiesced but did not allow O’Brien to hire his own staff with the exception of the all-important (sarcasm) tight ends coach. Belichick should have been fired for hiring Matt Patricia as offensive coordinator in the first place. To hear that he wanted to double down and bring back Patricia in the same role is asinine.

So for anybody who thinks that Belichick would be happy with just coaching the team, there ya go. There is no way Belichick will have someone else dictate his team and coaching staff. Therefore, he must go. He cannot be allowed to make any more personnel decisions and he cannot be trusted with a top-five draft pick when this team is desperate for offensive help.

According to ESPN's Mike Reiss, owner Robert Kraft will waste no time in meeting with Belichick. They are set to meet face-to-face Monday to discuss the season and the future of the team. Monday is widely known around the NFL as Black Monday due to certain teams choosing to fire their head coaches immediately after the season ends on Sunday.

It is highly unlikely that Kraft would do the indignity of “firing” Belichick on the same day as those other rejected coaches. Kraft wouldn’t want to clump Belichick in with them. Belichick deserves better. He deserves his own news cycle.

And who knows if Kraft has already made his decision? Tom E. Curran wrote that Kraft made up his mind to fire Belichick after the Colts’ game in Germany several weeks ago. Did the Patriots winning two of their final four games sway Kraft? 

It shouldn’t. Since when is playing even .500 acceptable around these parts? And playing better during the final four or five games of the season should not erase how poorly the team played in the first fourteen games. And it definitely should not erase the team failing to reinvent itself in the four years since Tom Brady has been gone.

In many ways it is fitting that Belichick’s last game should be against the Jets during a snowstorm. Belichick infamously resigned as “HC of the NYJ” on the same day he was hired back in 2000.  He resigned by leaving behind a handwritten note with those words (initials?) on a handwritten note at the exact moment his introductory press conference was set to begin. It is the way you would expect a teenager to quit their job at a fast food restaurant. 

The Patriots would go on to hire Belichick soon thereafter. The Patriots have dominated the Jets ever since. They go into Sunday’s game having beaten the Jets 15 straight times. How fitting would it be if the Jets snap the streak against the man that stood them up at the altar – in his farewell game as head coach of their rival Patriots?

The strong possibility of it snowing would be a perfect ending to Belichick’s career as well. Some of the best memories of the last 25 years involve snow games – the crowd throwing up “snow fireworks,” and players celebrating touchdowns by falling to the ground and making snow angels. No fan will ever forget the Tuck Rule and Vinatieri's miraculous kick during a blizzard? It would be a fitting way for Mother Nature to say goodbye to Belichick.

It will be a very awkward situation at Gillette. Belichick deserves a farewell ovation from the home crowd. Brady never got the farewell ovation, and neither will Belichick. That is because Belichick still thinks he will be coach of this team next year.

How do the Patriots and Robert Kraft handle this game? They can't play any kind of tribute to Belichick on the brandy new in-stadium big screen. That would definitely be showing Kraft's hand. Imagine the game being late in the fourth quarter, the Patriots call a timeout, and, suddenly, a two-minute montage paying tribute to Bill Belichick plays on the jumbotron (do they still call it that?). I would love to see Belichick's reaction.

Belichick will try to tell Robert Kraft that he thinks the season would have been completely different if the players could have pulled off one or two key plays in the final moments of several games. That will be the crux of his case to defend himself. Belichick will feel annoyed that he even needs to defend himself. Things could get real messy if Belichick needles Kraft for, allegedly, not wanting to spend money on players, forcing Belichick to draft Mac Jones against his wishes, and making him hire Bill O’Brien to replace his buddy, Matty P.

There is nothing in Belichick’s past to indicate that things will end amicably with Kraft. Look at the way he resigned from the Jets. Listen to his press conferences. Look at his demeanor.

I have never been a Belichick supporter. I disagree with the way he has disciplined his players. After all these years, it still has never come out why Belichick benched Malcolm Butler in a 41-33 loss to Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII. He has overreached for players in the draft and his overall drafts, lately, have been lackluster. Finally, I will be happy to be done with his condescending, “We’re onto ______” press conferences. I have gotten to a point where you could ask me any question you want to ask Belichick, and I could give you his answer verbatim (complete with smacking my lips and clearing my throat sounds).

Prediction: Jets 7, Patriots 0

It will also be fitting for Belichick to go out coaching his favorite style of game. Belichick has always loved the low scoring, defensive-driven games. Well, he will get one on Sunday.

I’ll be honest. I haven’t researched this game much, if at all. I tend to remember the Jets have a very good defense. Their offense sucks. That sound familiar? But the Jets, and head coach Robert Saleh, have won two more games than the Patriots. Rumors are that Saleh may be one of those fired on Black Monday. Did I mention he has two more wins this year than Belichick?

I also couldn’t tell you without doing a Google search who the Jets will be starting at quarterback on Sunday. I am pretty sure I know who it won't be – Zach Wilson or Aaron Rodgers.

What I do know is that it will be snowy. How much snow is unknown. I do know there are several important Patriots’ players who are “injured” or are already planning ahead to where they will play next year (ahem, Trent Brown).

It is just surreal to come to grips with the idea that, after nearly a quarter of a century, this historic chapter in Patriots, NFL, and sports history will be coming to an end – not with winning a Super Bowl, but instead, following a dreary, meaningless game that will end the Patriots' season with a 4-13 or a 5-12 record. As I am typing this, I look at the clock and see that it could all be over 24 hours from now. Twenty-four years coming down to the last twenty-four hours. Surreal.