Daniels: Patriots need a hard reset with a new coach and GM

FOXBOROUGH – The Patriots locker room opened to the media on Sunday evening and the atmosphere was off.

Behind two swinging doors, which led to the team’s training room, a Patriots player could be heard screaming, bellowing out a loud four-letter expletive. Players were visibly upset following the team’s 27-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Multiple veteran players, who routinely do post-game interviews, refused to speak to the media on this day.

One defensive player told MassLive that the feeling was that the Patriots had to play perfectly to even stay close to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. When that didn’t happen, the team crumbled in front of a packed home stadium, which sadly featured more away jerseys than can be remembered over the last two decades.

The Patriots hit rock bottom weeks ago. It was long before Taylor Swift was sitting in a luxury box here in Foxborough. Despite the drama that’s unfolded this fall, Patriots players have continued to play hard for their coach, Bill Belichick.

The sad reality of this situation is that Belichick’s time in New England is ending. The greatest coach in NFL history brought the Patriots franchise to new heights. There will forever be six Super Bowl banners hanging inside Gillette Stadium that serve as a reminder of his greatness.

The sad truth is that the best thing for the Patriots would be a hard reset of this franchise – a new coach, new general manager, and new quarterback. That means the best thing for this team would be to lose their remaining three games to the Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills, and New York Jets to secure the No. 2 overall pick.

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This isn’t the way Robert Kraft saw it happening. It certainly isn’t the way Belichick saw it going, either.

Sources told MassLive this offseason that the Patriots were confident in their coaching changes and player acquisitions this offseason. The feeling inside Gillette Stadium had been that they did enough to get the team back on track and into the playoffs.

The hope was that the Patriots offense would be more efficient with a new offensive coordinator, Bill O’Brien, and a new offensive line coach, Adrian Klemm. The hope was that JuJu Smith-Schuster and Mike Gesicki were upgrades over Jakobi Meyers and Mike Gesicki. The Patriots were so confident in their roster that the team didn’t offer more guaranteed money to Pro Bowl receiver DeAndre Hopkins. At the time, the feeling was that the Patriots didn’t necessarily feel like they needed Hopkins.

Those roster misses fall on Belichick and it’s why the Patriots need to move on. Belichick is still a great coach. Look at his defense. The unit lost arguably their best two players this season in Matthew Judon and Christian Gonzalez and went into Sunday’s game with the eighth-best passing defense and third-best run defense in the NFL.

Even on Sunday, we saw this undermanned unit, which played cornerbacks Jonathan Jones, Alex Austin, and Myles Bryant, go toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes and force two turnovers. Make no mistake, if the Patriots part ways with Belichick, he’ll likely become one of the top head-coaching candidates in the NFL. That’s because he’s still a great head coach.

The fall for Belichick in New England has been in the front office, namely with how he’s built his offense. Bad drafts have added up and left this roster void of young, blue-chip talent other than a few players (Gonzalez and Christian Barmore, etc).

The Patriots decision to swap out Meyers for Smith-Schuster has blown up in their face. Meyers has 59 catches for 648 yards and seven touchdowns in Las Vegas. Patriots receivers have a combined five touchdown catches and the only receivers with more than 400 yards are Demario Douglas and Kendrick Bourne.

The Patriots not only failed to put together competitive offensive weapons, but their offensive line has been a weak link over the past two seasons. Last year, the Patriots started Isaiah Wynn, Marcus Cannon, Yodny Cajuste, and Conor McDermott at right tackle. This offseason, they signed journeyman Riley Reiff, and career backup Calvin Anderson and brought McDermott back. The team started Anderson and Vederian Lowe at right tackle before reluctantly moving Michael Onwenu from right guard to right tackle – a move he wanted dating back to last year.

Add in the failure to develop quarterback Mac Jones and it’s clear the Patriots are a team with so many roster holes that one offseason won’t fix these issues. That’s why keeping a soon-to-be 72-year-old head coach, whose biggest blunders are as the general manager, no longer makes sense.

The Patriots will head into the offseason needing a franchise quarterback, No. 1 receiver, and two tackles (Trent Brown and Onwenu are free agents). It’s incredibly hard to acquire franchise quarterbacks, top-flight receivers, and quality starting tackles in the NFL.

The Patriots are a team in need of a complete rebuild. That’s why moving on from the greatest coach of all time makes sense.

On Sunday, the defending Super Bowl champions came to Gillette Stadium and despite the Chiefs having a tougher-than-expected season, the Patriots never really stood a chance. Kansas City scored easily and was quick to capitalize on mistakes. The Patriots were quick to make mistakes.

Sitting up in his luxury box, Robert Kraft sat next to his son, team president Jonathan Kraft, looking out at a stadium full of red Chiefs jerseys on a day when some of the biggest cheers came when Taylor Swift appeared on the big screen. Times have changed – and not for the better in Foxborough.

The Belichick era has been fun and full of amazing memories, but as the coach would admit, it’s not about what you did in the past. It’s about what’s happening right now. And right now, it isn’t good enough. It hasn’t been good enough over the last four seasons.

That’s why the Patriots need to reset and start a new chapter.