The 2018 coaching carousel is all about the Patriots, with both of New England's coordinators departing once the Super Bowl ends and the Titans scooping up former Pats linebacker Mike Vrabel as their next head coach. Both the Lions and Colts deserve high grades for securing the services of Matt Patricia and Josh McDaniels, respectively, but there will be a bit of grasshopper-sensei action at work for both those teams in 2018. 

The same works for Vrabel, because when you take a look at the Patriots' 2018 opponents, it becomes clear the storylines fro Bill Belichick on a weekly basis will be rather obvious. 

Six of the Pats games, obviously, involve the AFC East, with New England drawing two games each against the Bills, Jets and Dolphins. 

Next year, in somewhat of a startling coincidence, the Patriots will play the entire AFC South and the entire NFC North. 

Location

Opponents

Home

Jets, Bills, Dolphins, Colts, Packers, Vikings, Texans, Chiefs 

Away

Jets, Bills, Dolphins, Jaguars, Steelers, Lions, Bears, Titans

Which means Bill Belichick, as helpfully pointed out by one of our Pick Six Podcast listeners, will play all of McDaniels (Colts), Vrabel (Titans) and Patricia (Lions), with former offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien (Texans) thrown in for good measure. 

Belichick basically built the AFC South, by the way. Once McDaniels is officially announced -- the Colts can't do so until after the Patriots' season is over -- it will mean three former assistants or players are in charge of the teams in the AFC South. And while Belichick did not directly deal with Doug Marrone, he did give the Jaguars a "glowing recommendation" when it came to hiring the former Bills coach.

Vrabel never coached under Belichick, but he was signed by the Patriots coach in free agency after spending his rookie contract with the Steelers. He would later be traded to the Chiefs and started coaching with the Texans (after a stop in Ohio State) for his NFL coaching career, before leaving to take the Titans job with GM Jon Robinson, who also used to work in New England. 

We won't know the full schedule until later in the offseason, but we do know that McDaniels and O'Brien will be heading back to New England, while Belichick will get a chance to visit with Patricia and Vrabel on their home turf. Ready yourself for the bombardment of questions, followed by the disenchanted scowls in response, during press conferences.