Bill Belichick said he plans to return for a 24th season with the New England Patriots, but the challenge ahead may be among the most arduous of the 70-year-old head coach's career.
After missing the NFL playoffs for the second time in three seasons, Belichick finds himself at a crossroads with a team that exhibited a dramatic decline in offensive production, poor execution in special-teams play and self-destructive mistakes not consistent with Belichick’s two-plus decades in Foxborough.
Many of these shortcomings can at least in part be traced back to Belichick’s dubious personnel decisions for the 2022 season, including the installment of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge as offensive coaches.