Patriots LB shares player reactions to Bill Belichick departure

New England Patriots linebacker Mack Wilson revealed to Sophie Weller of A to Z Sports that those inside the club's locker room had no inside information about the future of head coach Bill Belichick until Belichick and team owner Robert Kraft confirmed on Jan. 11 that they "mutually" agreed to part ways. 

"Honestly, we didn’t know as players," Wilson explained for a piece published Tuesday. "I feel like we was just taking it one day at a time, trying to put our best foot forward. And we honestly didn’t know if Bill was gonna be the head coach, if they was gonna move on from Bill, if (linebackers coach Jerod Mayo) was gonna get the head coach - we didn’t know nothing. ...We definitely didn’t see it coming like that for real. Honestly, we didn’t think it was gonna happen."

Even though it had been reported on multiple occasions that Kraft decided on Belichick's fate shortly after the Patriots fell to the Indianapolis Colts in Germany on Nov. 12, a later story suggested that Kraft and Patriots president Jonathan Kraft could wait until some point in February to offer any public confirmation about the 71-year-old's status. 

It's now known that the contract extension Mayo signed last offseason included language that resulted in him becoming Belichick's immediate successor, but Wilson indicated players had no knowledge about the situation on the morning of Jan. 12. 

"I was having bad anxiety," Wilson admitted during his chat with Weller. "I was nervous to check my phone because I know that the day before, I kind of heard a little news that it could possibly be happening or whatnot any day now. I didn't know it was going to be Mayo, but that morning that he got announced the head coach, I woke up and like I had anxiety. I was nervous to check my phone."

Wilson added that "we all was rooting for Mayo to get it," a comment that could help silence any notion that the coach allegedly "rubbed at least some people the wrong way in the building" over the past year. 

Meanwhile, Wilson is set to reach free agency in March, and he told Weller he will "make the best decision I feel that’s right for my family and stuff like that" regarding his future even though he did acknowledge he "would love to continue to play for" Mayo.