Shortly after New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft officially parted ways with head coach Bill Belichick this past January, Kraft said that marrying Belichick with a newly hired executive tasked with making personnel decisions simply wouldn’t have worked out well for the organization after Belichick essentially ran the franchise’s football operations from 2000 through this past season.
For an article published on Thursday, one unnamed personnel executive told The Athletic’s Jeff Howe that owners may call candidates other than Belichick when he looks to land what likely will be the final coaching job of his legendary career in January 2025.
“If the model is the New England model, you’re blowing up the operation as you know it,” that executive said about a team possibly hiring Belichick. “If you’re doing that with a 73-year-old head coach, you’re blowing up your personnel operation and starting over with a head coach who may only be there for three years. There’d be a lot of questions. It’s got to be an owner who is in a situation where they need to win now because it’s not a hire for the future.”
It was reported back in the spring that Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank passed on hiring Belichick in part because “Blank likes coaches who feel part of a family” and ultimately realized it would never “be that way with” Belichick. Belichick has since accepted multiple media gigs as part of a supposed public relations makeover, and he’s also repeatedly been linked with the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.
Howe wrote the Giants likely aren’t a fit for Belichick because “they’re still in the middle of a large-scale rebuild.” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni is on the hot seat following his team’s collapse late last season, while Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy remains in the final year of a contract that won’t be extended by team owner/general manager Jerry Jones anytime soon.
Interestingly, Howe also named the Buffalo Bills as a possible destination for Belichick. The Bills have made five consecutive playoff appearances under head coach Sean McDermott but still haven’t played in a Super Bowl since January 1994.
“I believe it could become annoying and could be a distraction if it’s constantly asked about and mentioned,” one executive said about Belichick casting shadows over multiple teams throughout the 2024 season.
Sirianni, McCarthy and McDermott may want to prepare themselves to hear Belichick-related questions from media members in the event that their teams get out to slow starts ahead of Halloween.
