Bill Belichick will have to wait another year to win his seventh Super Bowl with the New England Patriots as the team lost to the Buffalo Bills 47-17 in the wild-card round of the AFC playoffs over the weekend. But with the Patriots head coach turning 70 years old in April, is Belichick ready to call it a career? During his press conference on Sunday morning, Belichick was asked if he’s coming back to coach the Patriots in 2022.
“I’d say that would be accurate,” Belichick said, per ESPN. The Patriots finished the regular season with a 10-7 record and reached the postseason after missing it in 2020. In that season, the Patriots didn’t have Tom Brady as he signed a deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After going one season with Cam Newton as the starting QB, the Patriots drafted Mac Jones in April 2021 and helped the team get back on track. However, Belichick said the loss to the Bills was troubling since it wasn’t a close contest.
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“You could argue there were elements of last night’s game in some other games, but last night’s game was the least competitive game we played,” he said. “Is that what we are? Or is that a bad night? We’ll see when we start playing again next year, I guess.”
Belichick also talked about how the team can get better going forward. “Certainly last night’s game was important and I’m not in any way trying to minimize that, but at the same time, there are 17 other meaningful games, so 18 in all, that I think we really need to look at and see how we can do a better job of everything — coaching, playing, schematically, whatever adjustments we need to make there,” Belichick said. “That will be a thorough process, as it always is.”
Belichick is arguably the greatest coach in NFL history. He has won 290 regular-season games, which ranks third all-time, and he has won 31 playoff games, which ranks first. Since becoming the Patriots head coach in 2000, Belichick has led the team to 17 AFC East division titles, 13 appearances in the AFC Championship and nine Super Bowl appearances with six wins. Belichick also won two Super Bowls as a defensive coordinator for the New York Giants.
