Peter King suggests that the Patriots could trade Bill Belichick

Could the Patriots really trade Bill Belichick?

The New England Patriots have a better chance of ending up with one of the top 10 picks in the 2021 NFL Draft as opposed to a playoff spot, proving that life after Tom Brady isn’t so easy. NFL insider Peter King has hatched quite the unusual idea that could theoretically help the Patriots rebuild, and it involves putting Bill Belichick, not Julian Edelman or Stephon Gilmore, on the trade block.

King thinks that the Patriots might actually need to consider trading Belichick to another team, implying that a price of two first-round picks might not be out of the question if he coaches for four more years.

Bill Belichick is struggling for the first time in his New England career

The transition from Brady to Cam Newton hasn’t been the smoothest, and the Patriots now stand at 2-5 after losing four straight games, a feat previously unheard of in the Belichick era. While the offense has taken a step back due to the lack of perimeter talent, the high amount of opt-outs due to the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged their depth chart on the defensive end. Given the team’s direction and Belichick’s advanced age, the retirement rumors started up.

While trading coaches has been done before and done successfully given the Jon Gruden deal that netted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a Super Bowl, such an event is the NFL equivalent of seeing a star explode, and Belichick seems like the least likely coach to be moved despite King’s theory.

Trading Belichick will not happen. If the Patriots were to consider this, he’d just retire if he didn’t end up in a location he liked. Still, this has been one of the most unusual seasons in league history, and things could conceivably get weirder.