NFL rumors: Insider says Bill Belichick won’t be involved in Black Monday circus

Despite being 3-10 on the year, we are so far away from knowing what will become of Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. New England has been a shell of itself ever since Tom Brady left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in free agency four years ago. Belichick's reluctance to take the draft process seriously has left him with a flaming bag of crap of a football team. The shoe is on the other foot now...

Belichick is firmly in his 70s and the Patriots are almost certainly going to end up with a top-five pick. The opportunity to hit the reset button on the franchise could be very appealing for owner Robert Kraft. The big question is not if the Patriots will move off Belichick eventually, but how soon. Do not expect there to be a decision on Belichick as soon as Black Monday. Let's have some patience.

NFL insider Ian Rapoport reported, "while the expectation is that a decision on his future will play out over the next month, sources also say it could take longer than that." Rapoport then added, "not only has owner Robert Kraft not come to a firm conclusion on what will happen next with his head-coaching situation, but the way New England finishes could go a long way in determining what's next."

Either way, we are not going to see Kraft evaluate Belichick's job security at every other team's pace.

NFL insider hints Bill Belichick's fate won't be decided on Black Monday

With what Belichick has meant to the Patriots and the NFL in general, Kraft was never going to think about a parting of ways, mutual or not, without great contemplation. The longest tenured head coach in the NFL may not be that after this season. If the Patriots do move on from Belichick, it will be very procedural and not of the impulsive variety. Even if they waited until after the Super Bowl, who cares?!

The Patriots may not ever be what they were during the Brady/Belichick era, but you better believe that if this job were to ever open up, seemingly every head-coaching candidate of note would either want it, or at least want to interview for it. I mean, it is the Patriots. The job security Belichick has had, not that he has really needed it, makes this a better job than what it looks like optically entering 2024.

Ultimately, I really do think that when it ends it will be portrayed as a mutual parting of ways, but it is not going to be the least bit clean. Belichick is going to want to coach until he is dead. It is in his blood. This is what he wants to do. He may have made himself a legend in New England, but the Patriots are a corporation, a business entity set up that it will never die, like any human being will.

If Belichick returns for next season, I cannot wait to see him coaching the AFC in the Senior Bowl!