One of the many juicy nuggets in the Seth Wickersham article regarding the alleged internal dysfunction at the Patriots appears in paragraph 26. There, Wickersham reports that coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft had a meeting two weeks before the November 1 trade deadline, a meeting that lasted half of a day and left the office “buzzing.”
“The meeting ended with a clear mandate to Belichick,” Wickersham writes. “[T]rade Garoppolo because he would not be in the team’s long-term plans, and then, once again, find the best quarterback in the draft and develop him. Belichick was furious and demoralized, according to friends.