According to the reporting this winter, Bill Belichick came close to landing the Atlanta Falcons job. This narrative was, shall we say, misleading. The Falcons job was the closest the 6-time Super Bowl champion head coach was closest to landing, but even then he did not wind up even on Atlanta's medal stand.
That's according to a big piece diving Belichick's search for a post-New England head coaching job, published Wednesday by ESPN. As detailed by writers Don Van Natta, Jr., Seth Wickersham and Jeremy Fowler, Belichick had two interviews with Falcons owner Arthur Blank. But, when the Falcons' brain trust ranked their favorites among the 14 (14!!!) candidates for the job, Belichick wasn't within anyone's top three. Raheem Morris was the unanimous No. 1 choice and got the job.
The piece explains the complicated nature of hiring Belichick as well as the hoops that the most over-qualified candidate will have to jump through in order to land one last job.
Belichick finds himself stuck in a quagmire where those with the power to make or break his candidacy to ownership are inclined to vote against him because his status threatens their own. Bill Walsh once said it best.
Re: The ESPN story ... someone sent me this right as this year's hiring cycle wound down, and it became clear Bill Belichick would fail to get a job. It's a passage from Bill Walsh's book, and explains dysfunction in a lot of organizations. pic.twitter.com/DVodwim1yA
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) April 17, 2024
Belichick also did not get a glowing review from Patriots owner Robert Kraft, the piece said:
The same source said he did not know if Kraft had warned Blank about Belichick's trustworthiness, but he said both Krafts felt "betrayed" by the coach. "I don't think they'd try to hurt Belichick," he said. "But I don't think they'd try to help him either. They weren't going to try to sink him. He was finished as an effective head coach. Just look at his last four years in New England. A disaster ... If you're Arthur Blank, why do you want the headaches?"
There are other factors at play as well. Belichick was New England's head coach and GM for 24 years. He does not expect, nor want, the same level of responsibility at a new destination, but the feeling in NFL circles is that they'll believe Belichick can take orders from a GM when they see it.
There's also the factor of Belichick's age: Tuesday was his 72nd birthday.
ESPN writes that Philadelphia considered a pursuit of Belichick, but ultimately decided the upheaval required in order to hire him wouldn't be worth it considering they'd have to go through another overhaul a few years later.
Still, there was chatter in league circles that Philadelphia and Belichick could be a match. Despite some owners and executives believing the game had passed Belichick by, the Eagles felt he still had his fastball; he had nearly beaten them in the 2023 season opener with an inferior team. There's also a belief that Belichick will coach only until he gets 15 more wins, enough to pass Don Shula as the winningest coach in NFL history. Though not seriously considering a move, Lurie wondered to a confidant: Was it worth overhauling the building, changing personnel and philosophies on everything from training staff to salary cap structure, for someone who might coach only two years?
"You'll have to start over again," said a source with firsthand knowledge of the Eagles' thinking. "Who would replace him? He hasn't had a good record of developing coaches. They were afraid that he'll have changed everything and every person, and [then] you'll be starting from scratch again. He didn't demand those changes, but they felt like, if we hire him, we have to give everything to him and trust how he does it."
Moving forward, Belichick will be the first coach mentioned for every NFL opening until he either lands another job or announces his retirement from coaching.
However, two destinations are most likely, according to league sources contacted by ESPN: Philadelphia and Dallas. Both head coaches enter 2024 on thin ice: the Eagles lost five of their final six games and replaced both coordinators, and the Cowboys earned the No. 2 seed in the NFC only to get embarrassed by No. 7 seed Green Bay in the wild card round.
But if the Eagles and Cowboys perform above expectations, then what?
Belichick's availability will be one of the story lines hovering over the 2024 NFL season, but it's no guarantee the greatest coach in NFL history will land a job next winter, either.