The New England Patriots have officially moved on from Bill Belichick after 24 years and have already named Jerod Mayo as the team’s 15th head coach.
Belichick is the greatest coach of all time, but he is seemingly losing touch towards the end of his career, like every other all-time great has across other sports.
It rarely ever ends in a fairytale way, and the Patriots are headed for a true, long-term rebuild this offseason, after a 4-13 finish to the 2023 season. They haven’t won a playoff game since the 2018 season, and they got knocked out in the first round by the Tennessee Titans in the 2019 season.
The NFL has changed since Belichick and Tom Brady dominated it, and owners are opting for former players to run their football teams more so than ever. Players across the league seem to play hard for former players, and those former players know how to connect with their team.
However, moving on from Belichick means the Patriots might not be as good to start. I still think Belichick is a good overall coach, but in the long-term, New England will be in a much better position to compete.
Over the last few days, there have been reports as to what the Patriots might do to replace Belichick, who had his hand across all of the team’s football operations. It is much harder to entrust Mayo, a first time head coach to immediately take all of that on.
Let’s take a look at what a potential New England front office could look like to support the post-dynasty era Patriots. It is likely that Mayo and top coaches will have a hand in evaluation and team building, but it will take a few different pieces to replace what Belichick did for this team over the years.