He made the right call for himself (as long as he goes to a team with a good OL - because he really needs that now - and technically the 100% right call would be to retire, but whatever, he's not doing that), At this point he's not the guy who can take a Pinto and turn it into a Ferrari like he did here a couple of times. Now, you give him the keys to a Ferrari and trust him not to drive it into a pole. These Patriots are not a Ferrari.
And so, the Pats probably made the right call for the team. Now, were they forced into this by having one of those 2-3 year spells of unproductive drafts - plus losing a pick this year because Sanu can't play anymore? You bet they were. If you can't stock the 53-man with X% of guys on rookie deals, then you have to overpay your middle class just to keep the team operational, and that just piles up until there's no logical way to drop $30MM on a guy who was born in the Seventies.
It had to happen sometime, and to me, this time makes as much sense as any. Mahomes is the real thing. KC may own the AFC for a while if they stay healthy. They barely held him off 14 months ago and they're not in a position to do it this year, not even close. Even adding a stupid fucking 17th game makes it less likely that you'd want this team to start the season with an old dude back there.
With all that, I'm not terribly optimistic in how well Belichick can pull off the rebuild, but it's not like I have any idea if Stidham can play or not, or what else he has up his sleeve.