Bill Belichick just made an announcement about his future in the NFL. The New England Patriots head coach announced that he plans to return to coach the team for his 24th season. This comes after the Patriots lost to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday and finished the season 8-9.
“Nobody’s satisfied with that,” Belichick said to reporters, per ESPN. “That’s not our goal. We need to improve on that. So that’s all of us — accountability everywhere, starting with me, the coaching staff, players, each unit. They are all things that we will address, and that process will start probably later today.”
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Belichick said he will meet with owner Robert Kraft, who in March said he isn’t happy the Patriots haven’t won a playoff game since winning the Super Bowl on Feb. 3, 2019. Since then, the Patriots have reached the wild card round of the playoffs in 2019 and 2021 and lost both games.
Belichick was also asked about the Patriots getting back to being a Super Bowl contender after winning six Super Bowls from 2001 to 2018. “Well, we were within winning a game yesterday of being in the postseason,” he said, per the team’s official website. “We didn’t do that, so that’s where it has to start. Can’t do anything in the postseason until you get into the postseason. There were other opportunities along the way during the year, not just yesterday, but yesterday was really the – that was our postseason. We weren’t able to advance. Until you get past that, there isn’t much to compete for.”
The Patriots haven’t been a Super Bowl contender since Tom Brady left the team following the 2019 season. Mac Jones has been the team’s starting quarterback the last two seasons and has posted a 16-15 record and has thrown for 6,798 yards, 36 touchdowns and 24 interceptions with an 89 passer rating.
“I think every year you learn everything. You learn the players, the team, how certain teams handle and react to certain things, what things are easy for some teams and what things are hard for some teams,” Belichick said when asked about Jones’ play in 2022. “Sometimes that includes players, certainly signal callers, operations and so forth. Again, we’ll look at everything and continue to try to find the best ways to operate. I think a lot of things were streamlined and became more efficient during the season but there’s still a lot of room for improvement. So we’ll continue to look at those and address them.”
Belichick, 70, has been with the Patriots since the 2000 season. During his time with the Patriots, Belichick has led the team with nine Super Bowls with six Super Bowl wins. He’s also been named NFL Coach of the Year three times and is a member of the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team and NFL 2010s All-Decade Team.
