Bill Belichick entered the 2023 season needing 19 victories to surpass Don Shula as the winningest head coach in NFL history. It seemed feasible that if the New England Patriots had back-to-back winning seasons, Belichick could ride off into the sunset after the 2024 campaign with the record in hand.
That scenario now seems like a pipe dream.
🔊 Patriots Talk: Time to sit Mac Jones? | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Boston sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Belichick's Patriots are now 1-4 after an embarrassing 34-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints at home. They've been outscored a whopping 72-3 in their last two games -- the worst two defeats of Belichick's extensive coaching career -- and are now 3-9 in their last 12 games dating to November 2022.
If you ask Patriots Insider Tom E. Curran, that's a large enough sample size to shift the discussion around Belichick from record-chasing to job security.
MORE PATRIOTS COVERAGE
"The conversation about Don Shula and that record now turns completely away," Curran said Sunday on NBC Sports Boston's Patriots Postgame Live. "That is so far on the back burner, it's smoking. To me, the conversation now becomes, if the Patriots continue in this fashion with blowout losses and being noncompetitive, does Bill Belichick make it through the season, or do you just declare this is completely a lost year and just march miserably through to January?"
That the Patriots would move on from the greatest head coach in NFL history midway through the season seems almost unthinkable. But at the very least, it's worth questioning Belichick's future in New England beyond this season.
Despite all of the goodwill Belichick built up with six Super Bowl championships over 20 years, the reality is the Patriots have a losing record with just one playoff appearance (a 30-point loss to the Buffalo Bills in 2021) since Tom Brady left in 2020. Team owner Robert Kraft has said repeatedly he wants to see his team back in the postseason, and if Belichick's club continues its downward spiral this season, perhaps he'd consider making a change.
"If they finish last in that division, don't turn things around and don't make it to the playoffs, there's going to be a mutual parting, I believe, between the Patriots and Bill Belichick when the season is over," Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio speculated earlier in the week.
There's still time for the Patriots to turn things around this season, starting with a Week 6 game against the Las Vegas Raiders. But if we see any more performances like what the Patriots put forth in Weeks 4 and 5, the conversation will revolve around the potential consequences in Foxboro.