Report: Patriots would want compensation for Bill Belichick if two part ways

Bill Belichick’s future as the general manager and head coach of the New England Patriots isn’t known beyond this season.

What is known is that Patriots owner Robert Kraft would likely want some draft picks in return from any team other Belichick could potentially coach for next season if he and the team were to part ways in the offseason, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

“If Belichick is going to somehow, someway coach elsewhere next year, the Patriots have him under contract, they would at least want some sort of compensation to make this happen,” Rapaport said. “If you were going to fire him, what does that actually do? Does it give you a jump on a process when you may have his successor already in the building in Jerod Mayo?”

Following the Patriots 10-6 defeat to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, the team has lost three straight and eight of 10 games this season. It’s the third straight year the Patriots have lost seven or more games, and it’s just the second time since 2000 the team has had at least eight losses.

“It's really disappointing, and I had hoped that things would be a lot better as I know our fan base did,” Kraft said Sunday during an appearance on “NFL GameDay Kickoff,” via NFL.com. “… This isn't what we were expecting to happen this year.”