Losing power to Robert Kraft frustrated Bill Belichick (report)

As the dust settles following the news that the Patriots and Bill Belichick are parting ways after 24 seasons, details are beginning to trickle out about the coach’s meetings with Robert Kraft this week.

According to NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero, Belichick was still irked by some things that transpired last offseason.

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“For Belichick, there had certainly been some frustration about the level of power he had lost within the organization with Robert Kraft increasingly putting his stamp on things in the football operation,” Pelissero reported. “Such as last year, when the Patriots put out a rare press release that they were retaining Jerod Mayo and that they were (actively seeking a new) offensive coordinator.”

Beyond just the press release, a source told MassLive’s Mark Daniels that last year’s meeting between Belichick and Kraft led to the firing of offensive play-caller Matt Patricia, which the coach wasn’t necessarily on board with.

In this year’s meetings, Kraft’s frustrations were straightforward: The team’s 4-13 record was unacceptable.

“For Kraft, he had hoped and had said publicly that he wanted and expected to get back to the playoffs this year. Instead, it was the most frustrating and disappointing season of the Bill Belichick Era,” Pelissero said.

Kraft made that clear at the owners’ meetings last spring, when asked about Belichick chasing down Don Shula’s all-time wins record. As it stands, Belichick is 13 wins away.

“I’d like him to break Don Shula’s record, but I’m not looking for any of our players to get great stats,” Kraft said last March. “We’re about winning and doing whatever we can to win. That’s what our focus is now. It’s very important to me that we make the playoffs. That’s what I hope happens (in 2023).”

It didn’t, and now a new era is Foxborough has begun.