Zolak: Patriots should keep Belichick and give him help
On Tuesday’s Zolak & Bertrand program, the guys debate whether or not the New England Patriots should keep Bill Belichick around for next season.
Parts of conversation abbreviated for clarity.
Bertrand: You’re either going to be happy with the Patriots or mad at them. I’ll be on the side of being mad.
Zolak: I’m not mad either way. I understand the change if they make one.
Bertrand: What should the Patriots do?
Zolak: If you ask me, I’d keep him and get him help in personnel. I mean, they’ve already kept Mayo from leaving the building. But I would think this slides more toward ownership. They didn’t let Jerod Mayo leave the building. We don’t know what that agreement was built upon.
I think the ownership people were the ones to go after Bill O’Brien. And I think they made sure that if O’Brien were coming back here, he’d be staying here long-term. I mean, he moved his family. O’Brien is from here and say his wife wanted to get back here. If ownership was going to commit to him, he’ll be here for at least two years.
O’Brien was a head coach in a former place. That guy ran Penn State. He ran the Texans. He was a GM. He made all the decisions. So, for that guy to come here, it’s not just some sloppy coordinator that you could whack after a year. There had to be some sort of agreement in place there.
Ownership has already, kind of, tried to get Belichick coaching help. So, now, you have to go to the front office and hope they want you back. But the talent is really the problem. The team plays hard. I know you don’t get any bonus points for playing hard.
I watch the league. There are some really bad teams out there. This isn’t a bad team. They make stupid mistakes at times, yeah. But talent forces some of those mistakes to happen. The experience forces some of those mistakes to happen.
The only guy you could say really quit was Trent Brown. I mean, they didn’t even travel with him last week. That’s a pretty obvious one. Everybody else, I think anybody’s engaged. They’re in. They’re locked in. I’d keep Belichick and get him help in the front office.
Segment Audio
Ryan Beaton is a producer for 985thesportshub.com. You can follow Ryan at @ry_beaton on Twitter.
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