1) I don’t read a single thing into nothing being announced today. There have been multiple good reporters saying the Kraft’s would not remove Bill today because of the “Black Monday” optics.
I think if anything at all was decided it would have been announced already. Staying, going, whatever. Especially after all the leaks and media speculation over the last couple of days.
Belichick himself this morning said they would be meeting in the coming days for his usual end of year stuff.
Slam-dunk firings are done first thing Monday morning. Belichick is anything but that.
I'm sure Ron Rivera thought he was also meeting with ownership in the next couple days before he got fired. I don't know why it matters? They are not going to wait to meet with BB to fire him, they would have met with him this morning.
Well, if they want to change his job role, I think it would fall under #2, in that likely won’t be able to come to an agreement to continue. If they simply let him go and don’t want him back in any capacity, I agree that they should admit that, although I’m sure if that’s the case it will become clear.
He isn't Arthur Smith. Even if the decision has been made, I think the Kraft's owe Bill the courtesy of a meeting.
Kraft could be busy trying to find some Happy Endings before making a final call.
I don't buy this, they've had months to meet and they would have prioritized it this morning. This is obviously my opinion and I very well may be wrong, but it doesn't seem like they would delay this for a week.
Then why not put all of the rumors to rest and say he's still the coach and he'll be back for 2024?
Eh. It is unlikely the Patriots get trade compensation, but there is still a chance they could agree to a mutual parting of ways that takes them off the hook for the money they still owe BB. They need to meet first to see if that is possible.
Have they ever gone public with coaching discussions? We barely know BBs contract status. I'm sure BB is ok with what's been discussed privately and they don't feel they need to put anything to rest.
agreed, the Krafts - for better or worse - need to own this decision unless BB wants to move on from the Patriots
There have never been rumors that he might be leaving before, or that he might be fired. If he's coming back why not say it? In fact, don't you think they owe it to him to address all of the rumors? Hell the broadcast of yesterday's game was practically a eulogy.
I think they’d probably also give him the courtesy of meeting with him right away. My opinion is that if a straight up firing is happening, it’s either happening today or after weeks or more of a protracted behind the scenes battle to trade him and Kraft realizes he has no leverage and needs to move on. But I don’t see that last scenario as too likely.
Traditionally no but last year they sent out a press release stating they were negotiating to re-sign Mayo and were also opening the interview process for an OC. They did that like Thursday after the final game.
I hear ya, but personally I still wouldn’t call that “mutual”. If they say “We had a plan for the future direction of the franchise, and Bill wasn’t onboard with that plan” then he’s being fired. They can call it whatever they want, but it’d be corporate nonsense.
How do you know they haven't addressed it in private? BB seems very at ease with where things are at.
Ron Rivera's status has been sealed for weeks. Just because a press release did not go out today does not mean BB isn't getting replaced.
I mean I don't know, I am just saying what I think is most likely, which is that they haven't met yet and a final decision hasn't been made yet.
This only would matter if he's retiring. Coach contracts all have offsets.
I actually didn't make a definitive statement, in fact I had a post saying that it was an opinion.
I disagree. All the reporting has said this would take a while, weeks even.
taking weeks would be disastrous for the Pats. In weeks, the pool of good candidates will have shrunken significantly.
After they've worked together for decades, I find it almost unfathomable that BB and the Krafts haven't been having discussions for a while. Maybe they've come to a decision, maybe not, but I can't believe that the discussions will just be starting this week.
These aren’t definitive statements?
Agree, but I think Kraft has always been into optics, and he likely wouldn't want Belichick to lumped into the Black Monday announcements and would instead want him to have the news day to himself ... if, that is, a decision has been made
Well, it's a very weird situation.
If they move on from Bill the coach I think they have their two top candidates: Mayo and Vrabel. I also think they are less concerned about the hot, rising GMs. They'll go back to the old well for that too (Quinn, Ziegler, Dimitroff, or just keep Wolf and Groh). The usual incentives to get this done fast are not present here. They may want change but they also links to the dynasty years.
I'm also not saying that they don't eventually part ways, I just don't think he gets fired at this point.
Well, he hasn't been relieved of his duties yet (I can't bring myself to say "fired"), like those other guys, so he's having those meetings, even with the rumors. Vrabel is probably having the same meetings, and his job has been said to be up in the air as well. In short, I'm not reading too much into that.
Worth noting you can't do interviews with anyone currently employed with an NFL team until after the Divisional round of the playoffs. So unless the best candiates are all unemployed a small delay won't matter.
This is where I am at. I think Kraft will have some tough questions and probably some suggestions for what he'd like to see and based on how he likes the answers/amenable Bill is to the suggestions will give us our answer.
I think this is exactly right, and I think this is always the way it was going to happen. There was never a chance it was going to be a black Monday firing. Whatever one thinks about BB staying, I'm pretty sure no one will argue that an unceremonious thanks for the memories was the way to go.
