We’re running a mailbag on Fridays during the offseason. If you have questions on the Patriots, NFL, or want gripe about past answers, email cmason@masslive.com or tweet @bychrismason. Now let’s get to this week’s questions!
So, what should Bill Belichick do now? — Amy
In case you missed Thursday afternoon’s late breaking news, it looks like Belichick will be frozen out of this coaching cycle. After two interviews with the Falcons, Atlanta opted to hire Raheem Morris instead, and they were Belichick’s only known suitor.
The final two openings are Seattle and Washington, both of whom seem to be trending in a different direction at this point.
So assuming Belichick still wants to chase down Don Shula’s all-time wins record — he’s 15 away from passing him — there are two things the 71-year-old coach should do:
1. Lower his expectations
It’s hard to land a job as an NFL head coach. There are only 32 of those gigs in the world. Only interviewing for one of them doesn’t help your odds of snagging one, even if you’re the winningest postseason coach in NFL history. That’s not to say Belichick should have courted the Panthers — David Tepper seems like a nightmarish boss — but the Chargers, Commanders, and Raiders were all viable openings, too.
Beyond that, based on the Falcons’ decision and gradual cooling after Belichick’s second interview with a wider front office staff, I’d bet he still wants total control over the football operation. It’s what he had in New England for two decades, but that feels like a thing of the past. Belichick needs to let it go. Just focus on coaching; that’s what’s made him a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
2. Bide his time
Tom Petty once sang, “The waiting is the hardest part” — and he was right. This part sucks. But it’s a necessary part of the process if he wants to get back in the game as a head coach.
With Belichick sitting in free agency next fall, he might not even need to wait an entire season to jump back into the mix. Say the Cowboys start 3-5 with Mike McCarthy in the final year of his deal. Does Jerry Jones’ trigger finger get even itchier with Belichick out there? Of course. Same goes for Buffalo and Sean McDermott or Nick Sirianni in Philadelphia. Good jobs should come open, and if he attacks them with an open mind, Belichick will have a chance to hop back into the ring. Heck, maybe Andy Reid wins another Super Bowl this February and decides to ride off into the sunset. Kansas City would be a pretty sweet gig.
Nobody knows what the future holds, but if Belichick is patient and open-minded, something good is bound to come his way.
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Does Kayshon Boutte still have a job? — John L.
For now.
In case you missed it, Boutte is facing a felony and a misdemeanor charge for illegal gambling while a member of LSU’s football team. The wideout allegedly placed more than 8,900 wagers, with at least six bets on Tigers games. We’re into the Jerod Mayo Era, but I’d expect the long-held Patriots practice of letting the legal system play out to remain the same.
Either way, Boutte looked like a fringe roster player for next season, especially if the Patriots add some top end talent at wideout. As a rookie, he finished with just two catches for 19 yards. This certainly won’t help him build any momentum.
Is it too early to ask your thoughts on the top 3 college QB prospects and who you think would be the best fit for the Patriots? Or would you prefer them to sign a veteran FA and devote the draft picks to the many other holes on the roster? – Todd B.
Nope! It certainly isn’t.
And I think Daniel Jeremiah sold me on taking a quarterback at No. 3, whether it’s Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels. Based on his film study, Jeremiah said he believes Caleb Williams is in the top tier, but Maye and Daniels are nipping at his heels.
“(Maye and Williams are) very close to the point where, in scouting, all my buddies I talk to around the league use similar verbiage during this time of year,” Jeremiah said. “You’re kind of putting players in clusters. We use the phrase, a couple times there’s two players that are going to ‘travel together’ for the process. So they’re right there. This guy or that guy. If you had cards on the wall in the old days — now everything is on the computer — but if you had the magnets and you were putting them up there, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye would not be stacked over each other. Their cards would be next to each other. You’d say OK, these guys are going to travel as we go through everything, in terms of whether they’re in an All-Star game, (NFL) Combine, Pro Days, visits, all that stuff, and then we’ll sort that out as we go along.”
Though Daniels shot up Draft boards this season, based on Jeremiah’s analysis, the Patriots wouldn’t be reaching just to take a quarterback at No. 3. If you’re getting a top-tier guy there, I think it’s a no-brainer. It’s worth rolling the dice and trying to build him into a franchise quarterback.
If Josh McDaniels were to return, would there be any thoughts of giving Mac Jones another shot? — Max M.
Not serious ones.
Though he was good under McDaniels as a rookie, Jones played himself out of a starting job over the past two seasons, and I’m confident Mayo will want to go in a different direction, especially with the No. 3 overall pick in next spring’s draft. I don’t think Mayo dislikes Jones personally, but there’s a mountain of evidence stacked against him right now; Mayo sat through the last two years just like the rest of us.
Are there any updates on the Patriots GM search? — Miller
Nope. And I think that’s a sign that they’re probably going to roll with the current front office for a bit here. Belichick likely getting frozen out of this cycle means that they don’t have to worry about any sort of front office exodus, so it’s looking more and more like Matt Groh and Eliot Wolf will be at the helm of another draft this spring.
In the short term, Robert Kraft said he’d be looking for collaborative front office effort, and thus far there’s nothing that’s indicated that will change.
“My bias has always been, in all our family companies, to try to develop a culture from within where we understand one another,” Kraft said. “We like to get continuity in our company, get the most competent people, and then try to build stability, and so before we just rush and hire people, we want to understand what we have internally.”
Are the Belichick brothers staying or leaving? — Stephen F.
It’s far more likely that they’re staying now that their father won’t be a Falcon.
(Imagine reading this line without any sort of context).
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