It appears that at least one Belichick has found his next stop
FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - NOVEMBER 14: New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick stands with linebackers coach Steve Belichick on the sideline at Gillette Stadium on November 14, 2021 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
It won’t be in New England as a member of Jerod Mayo’s ever-expanding coaching staff, but the show will go on for Steve Belichick all the same.
And it’ll apparently come in the college ranks, with the longtime Patriots assistant expected to join the University of Washington as the team’s new defensive coordinator, The current expectation is that the University of Washington is going to hire Steve Belichick as its defensive coordinator, sources tell @247sports.
Belichick was part of his dad’s New England Patriots staff the last 12 years, including as the team’s defensive playcaller the… pic.twitter.com/ImObigw0qR
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) February 5, 2024">according Matt Zenitz of 247Sports.
In Washington, Belichick will be reunited with Jedd Fisch, who had served as the Patriots’ quarterbacks coach during the 2020 season. Fisch left the Patriots to take the head coaching gig with the University of Arizona football team, where he went 16-21 over three seasons, but finished strong in 2023, with a 10-3 record and an Alamo Bowl victory over Oklahoma.
Fisch signed a gigantic, seven-year contract with Washington last month following then-Washington coach Kalen DeBoer’s decision to leave the program to be Nick Saban’s replacement at the University of Alabama.
Belichick’s departure from the Patriots organization comes following the club’s decision to mutually part ways with his father, Bill Belichick, and after what was a 13-season run with the Patriots for Steve in a variety of defensive coaching roles, including the last four as New England’s defensive play caller.
Mayo did reportedly extend an offer to Steve Belichick to remain on the coaching staff even after his father’s departure. But the Patriots’ recent promotion of DeMarcus Covington to defensive coordinator was probably just the latest and final sign that Belichick was going to explore other opportunities.
With Steve off to Washington, the Patriots will have an opening at outside linebackers coach. Should Bill’s other son on the New England staff, Brian Belichick, follow in Steve and Bill’s footsteps and explore other opportunities following a New England tenure, the Patriots will also need to find a safeties coach before the start of the 2024 NFL season.
Examining initial comments from the Patriots' front office on the 2024 NFL Draft

L-R: LSU QB Jayden Daniels, Ohio State WR Marvin Harrison Jr. Who will the Patriots front office target?(USA Today)
With the departure of Bill Belichick, the leadup to the NFL Draft for the New England Patriots this year represents a whole new era. In the past, there were two decades of trends from Belichick’s front office to serve as a guide when analyzing the draft from a Patriots lens. Now, that process starts over.
Forget the trends themselves for a second – we still don’t really know who it will be creating the blueprint for the new era. From ownership on down the team has stressed a collaborative approach. There’s nothing wrong with that, but somebody will ultimately have to have ‘final say‘ when it’s time to make a decision.
READ MORE:
—2024 NFL Draft quarterback big board
—Initial reactions and immediate questions following the Patriots’ hire of Alex Van Pelt
—Patriots pre-draft meetings from the Senior Bowl
We finally got a brief glimpse into the new process on Friday, when Evan Lazar of Patriots.com posted interviews with both director of player personnel Matt Groh and college scouting director Camren Williams. Based on Groh’s comments, it sounds like the overall process may not change much, outside of who has final say.
“This is what we’ve always done here is get together as a group and talk things out,” Groh said of the ‘collaborative approach’ the front office staff is using. “So, not a whole lot has changed on our end. I’m looking forward to having the staff be a part of the evaluation process as we go through free agency and the draft.”
“It’s more just identifying good players and finding players in the right buckets and values within their skill sets and how they fit for our team,” Williams added, sharing more about how that process works. “We’ll have a coach that comes to us and says, hey, I want this and this position. These are the skills that I’m looking for. Then we can identify a list of players that we think fit that.”
Just because the process isn’t changing much doesn’t mean the approach, and ultimately the results, won’t be better. A lot of that will come down to how they view this class specifically.
While they didn’t give away the board (nor should they have), both Groh and Williams touched on some key topics about the 2024 draft process, and draft philosophy as a whole. Here’s the three quotes that stood out the most from the interviews.
Ty Anderson is 98.5 The Sports Hub’s friendly neighborhood straight-edge kid. Ty has been covering the Bruins (and other Boston teams) since 2010, has been a member of the PHWA since 2013, and went left to right across your radio dial and joined The Sports Hub in 2018. Ty also writes about all New England sports from Patriots football to the Boston Celtics and Boston Red Sox.