Devin McCourty doesn’t believe Sunday’s game will be Bill Belichick’s last as Patriots head coach.
Asked Wednesday whether New England’s Week 18 game feels like the end for Belichick with the franchise he led to six Super Bowl titles, McCourty replied: “It doesn’t.”
McCourty, a safety on three of those Super Bowl teams, pointed to the Patriots’ competitive play of late and impressive defense as factors that could convince team owner Robert Kraft to retain Belichick.
New England is 2-6 in its last eight games, but all six of those losses were decided by 10 or fewer points, and five were one-score games, including last Sunday’s 27-21 defeat in Buffalo.
“I think a month ago we were all kind of writing this story about what’s happening next,” McCourty said on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.” “But I think as you look at this team, I think a lot of times people always talk about — from an ownership standpoint, they want to see their team progress, right? When they fire coaches in the middle of the year they say, ‘Well, we just looked at the team and it just doesn’t look like it’s progressing or it’s getting better.’ And when you look at the Patriots, it looks like it’s getting better. Like, you can’t say that it doesn’t.
“I think the way this team has played, this defense has even gotten better while losing key pieces. The offense has gotten better even though the turnovers killed them last week. But you look at that game, like, they’re close to beating Buffalo. … I think it’s really hard to move on from a guy, obviously of what he’s done, but even what he’s done this year, of getting that team going and turned around.”
It’s hard to pinpoint too many positives during a 4-12 season, however — the Patriots’ worst in more than 30 years. The fact that Belichick doubles as New England’s de facto general manager also hurts his cause, as he’s primarily to blame for the Patriots’ dearth of high-end roster talent, especially on offense.
McCourty acknowledged the need for changes and said Kraft, who stressed his desire to return to the playoffs this season, could ultimately choose to split from Belichick and chart a new course for the franchise. But the future Patriots Hall of Famer isn’t convinced booting out Belichick would help New England.
“I think obviously, when you don’t win and you’re going to have a top-five pick, there’s going to be changes,” McCourty said on WEEI. “Like, you definitely need to do some things differently than they did this year. But I think it’s going to be really hard.
“I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but if you asked me right now, sitting at this point, I don’t feel like you walk away from this season and say, ‘Hey, if we just replace our head coach, we’ll be better.’ I think that would be a really hard statement to make.”
