A prominent New England Patriots player didn’t hold back on Bill Belichick and the coaching staff following a disastrous 2023 campaign.
Following a 4-13 season, the eyes in Foxboro have turned to the 2024 NFL Draft…but first, the future of Bill Belichick.
For the first time during his 20+ year tenure with the Patriots, the future first-ballot Hall of Famer has been seemingly open to cede control of the organization in order to remain the club’s head coach. However, Belichick returning to the sidelines in Gillette Stadium is far from a lock as team owner, Robert Kraft is weighing his options as the regular season has wrapped up.
Current Pro Bowler Goes Scorched Earth on Bill Belichick and Coaching Staff
One of the few bright spots over the last couple of seasons in Foxboro has been the defense and the offensive line…until this season. While the defense remained a top-10 unit in the league, the Pats’ offensive line took a major step back, partly due to the injury-riddled campaign of Pro Bowl left tackle, Trent Brown. The former Super Bowl champion was in and out of the lineup in 2023 after nursing ankle injuries as well as a concussion, though the Texas native battled through several nagging injuries for the majority of the season.
When speaking with NESN, Brown didn’t hold back in his summary of what was a disappointing season in Foxboro.
Brown was the subject of many rumors that players were ‘shutting it down’ due to the teams’ on-field struggles, something the former Pro Bowler doesn’t feel he did in the slightest:
“It’s been a rough year,” he said. …“It’s been tough to even go in the building every day knowing that there’s somebody that I probably look at every day, or smiles in my face every day, that is running a smear campaign.”
As previously mentioned, Brown stepped up and battled through several injuries this season, including a concussion prior to the team’s opening game of the season in week one against the Philadelphia Eagles:
“I wasn’t happy with my performance at all,” Brown said. “I was really just out there. … I could feel it swelling in my cleat the whole time. To think that people are saying I was unwilling to fight through injuries due to future possible earnings… that’s crazy. I’ve always put the team first.”
Another rumor out of Foxboro was that Brown was ready to leave the organization and was buying time until the season was over, where he could cash out with another team…another seemingly baseless rumor that Brown quickly shut-down, which was backed by his teammates, who say Brown was and is a tremendously helpful member of the team:
“You can ask Vederian Lowe,” Brown said. “You can ask Conor [McDermott]. I was their biggest fan and trying to help them succeed as well. And I would even tell my coach, Billy (Yates), ‘Man, this rotation, if they’re playing well, there’s no need to rotate. Let them get in this groove and stay in this groove.’
“I 100% agree with that,” Lowe said when asked about Brown being his advocate. “One thing Trent has definitely done, for me personally, he’s always tried to coach me up and give me pointers. He’s been doing that the whole season since I first got here.”
When it comes to Bill Belichick and the rest of the coaching staff, Brown explained what could only be described as a nightmare…read for yourself:
“Because I’ve even heard from coaches how they’ll sit in staff meetings and they’ll be talking about how they can f–k with me. Like, I guess trying to get me out of character or whatever. It’s really crazy to think that we’re spending time talking about that instead of getting better.”
Brown would wrap-up his sentiments by calling out (indirectly) Bill Belichick’s role as general manager as he ran down the team’s free agent spending, roster retention, as well as the lack of recent draft success:
“There just needs to be more attention on signing and drafting good players,” he said. “And also understanding that Foxboro is not a vacation spot. You’ve gotta spend some money to get good players, and you’ve gotta spend money to keep your good players in-house. And once they’re in-house, you’ve gotta treat them with some respect and common decency as a human being.
“I don’t think you can rebuild the quarterback and the O-line at the same time.
“If you pay Ted Karras, who played a hell of a season at left guard before he left to go to Cincinnati, I think that solves an issue,” Brown said. “I think if you don’t trade Shaq Mason, who’s an All-Pro guard, that solves an issue. I don’t think it was necessary for those moves to be made. And then to not really replace them with guys of their caliber.”
New England Patriots’ Recent Reign of Terror Under Bill Belichick
Just hours after famously resigning as the head coach of the New York Jets on a napkin…yes, a napkin. Bill Belichick was hired as the head coach of the New England Patriots in 2000. This comes after a modest 36-44 tenure as the leader of the sidelines with the Cleveland Browns from 1991 through 1995, and stints with the Patriots and Jets as an assistant from 1996 until his hiring in 2000. Following a 5-11 first season in Foxboro, Belichick righted the ship, most famously due to a certain Tom Brady stepping in for Drew Bledsoe following the latter’s injury in week 2 of the 2001 season.
Even after Bledsoe, who had freshly signed what at the time was the biggest contract in NFL history, Belichick stuck with the hot hand in Brady, who was just months removed from being the 199th pick in the draft. The Patriots would go on to beat ‘The Greatest Show on Turf’ in the form of the Kurt Warner-led St. Louis Rams to secure the franchise’s first Super Bowl win. Belichick and Brady would famously go on to win six Super Bowl titles before Brady’s departure to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following the 2019 season.
Brady went on to win another Super Bowl in Tampa Bay, his seventh, while Belichick was tasked with replacing the best player in the history of the sport…something that the Patriots are still struggling with as the club holds a 4-12 record heading into week 18.
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