Robert Kraft: Removing personnel powers from Bill Belichick would have created 'confusion'

On Monday, former Patriots coach Bill Belichick addressed the possibility of relinquishing control over personnel moving forward. If the letter to owner Robert Kraft was anything to go by, it did not prevent the decision to move forward.

“We've thought about that [adjusting Belichick’s role]“But I have experience running different businesses and trying to grow a team,” Kraft told reporters Thursday. Think about it, when you have someone like Bill, who had control over every decision, every coach we hired, the organization would report back to him about the draft, how much money we were spending. Every decision was his, and we always support him. And then taking some of that authority away and giving it to someone else – accountability is important to me in every one of our companies, and where they have responsibility and then someone else takes it away, it's going to create confusion. “It was his choice and it was a bad choice,” or “He didn’t play them right.” “It won't work, in my opinion.”

Kraft makes a very good point. After Belichick spent so much time in charge of everything, it was awkward (to say the least) to have someone else take over some of his duties while he remained head coach.

Kraft also explained that Belichick's power has grown over time. And perhaps Kraft regrets not being sure there was someone who could properly counter Belichick's power, which eventually became absolute.

“Just to be clear, he didn't have all that authority and rights [when he arrived]”I don't think it happened until after the third Super Bowl, but it happened slowly, and in my opinion it's worth it,” Kraft said. It worked well most of the time. But each of us needs checks and balances in our lives. We need what I say – I call it, we need “Dr. No” around us, people to protect us from ourselves. As things evolve and gain more power, people are sometimes afraid to speak up. I'm talking about all companies. I think it's good to have controls. And balances, but once you do that [the power]It's kind of hard to pull it away and expect to get the accountability that you want.

Again, as long as they fielded championship-caliber teams, it was fine. After Belichick slipped on the personnel side (which has happened over the years), Belichick's coach was no longer able to make up for those failures. As Kraft sees it, it was very difficult to reset the clock to the time before Belichick ran everything.

It will be interesting to see how much strength Belichick wants on the roster in his next coaching job. His comments from Monday may not have been a message to Kraft as much as they were a message to the owners who will now consider hiring Belichick.