Poll: A foregone conclusion Belichick won’t return to Pats in ’24?

The New England Patriots were officially eliminated from the 2023 NFL playoffs thanks to yesterday's results around the league.

Not that they really needed to be officially eliminated at this point. Those hopes were dashed months ago as the Pats got off to a 2-10 start to the season, their worst mark ever during the ownership of Robert Kraft.

Last March, Kraft said "It's very important to me that we make the playoffs. That's what I hope happens next year." Well, Bobby didn't get his wish and until Thursday night's rare bright spot in Pittsburgh, it appeared the team had completely bottomed out.

Just like winning takes years to build to, the same can be said about New England's path to losing at such a high clip. It's taken years of draft whiffs and bad free agent contracts to get the Pats where they now sit, and the buck stops with one man, the one making all the decisions, Bill Belichick.

So is this the end of the Belichick era in New England playing out in front of us over the next month? If you listen to reports out of Boston and around the NFL, you'd certainly think so.

It was announced on Friday that Belichick and Kraft would appear together on ESPN's College Game Day, live from Gillette Stadium ahead of Army-Navy on Saturday morning.

The pair in fact made separate appearances, and Kraft's ended with Pat McAfee telling the 82-year-old owner, "I don't envy your position, what's about to happen. We all know, we don't have to ask," seemingly alluding to an impending divorce between owner and coach.

"We like to win, so, uh, we'll do everything we can to get our team back so we can be winning again," Kraft said while sitting at the Game Day desk. Does "doing everything we can" include parting ways with the greatest coach in the game's history?