During his appearance on Toucher & Rich, Albert Breer from the MMQB.com was asked whether Robert Kraft would push for a mutual parting of ways with head coach Bill Belichick if the team fails to perform well in the upcoming season. Ultimately, Breer believes that Kraft would not hesitate to make a change if he felt that it was necessary to improve the team’s performance.

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  Oct 16, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft shakes hands with head coach Bill Belichick following the win against the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium. Credit: Scott Galvin-USA TODAY Sports

• Rich Shertenlieb: Do you believe that Robert Kraft could actually force a mutual parting of ways if there is a disappointing season? Do you think he has that in him, that this could potentially be the last year for Bill Belichick as a Patriots coach?

  Albert Breer: I think this is an incredibly important year for the organization because after this year you have to make a big decision on Mac Jones. One way or the other, within two years, either Mac Jones is going to be gone or he’s going to be on a massive contract. So that window that you had to build around Mac and be aggressive in building around a rookie quarterback is going to be closing relatively soon.

  I think this is the first time in the Kraft era that they’ve had two losing seasons in three years. I’d say they go 8-9 again this year. Right? So now Bill’s within nine wins of Shula. Does Kraft have the stomach to fire Bill nine wins short of Shula? I think it would take something happening. You know what I mean? Whether it’s oh God, I’m going to lose Jerod Mayo because he’s going to go become a head coach somewhere, which might not happen if you don’t have a good year anyway. Is it the quarterback is unhappy? Or the quarterback doesn’t look like he’s developing?

  I think there’d have to be some sort of mitigating factor on top of a losing record because I think it’d just be so hard to just flat out fire him. Like this year you had those sorts of factors, which I think is why we’re talking about it in the first place and what a dumpster fire the offense was and like the unorthodox decision making and putting together that offense, I think it would take losing plus something like that. And maybe it’s Mac Jones’s career coming undone that would cause Kraft to say, okay, I have to seriously look at this.

• Nick Gemelli is a Producer for the Toucher and Rich program and contributor for 985thesportshub.com. you can follow Nick at @NickGemelli on Twitter.

  Follow @Toucherandrich on Twitter, @Toucherandrichofficial and @fredtoucher on Instagram to keep up with the show!

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