One of the most surprising results of the NFL offseason was that, after the coaching carousel had finished spinning, longtime New England Patriots head coach and living legend Bill Belichick ended up without a job. Belichick is just 15 career wins shy of setting the NFL’s all-time record, and he wanted to coach in 2024. But that didn’t happen, and it apparently was not very close to happening.
Belichick, according to ESPN, finished outside the top three of the Atlanta Falcons’ finalists, and that was the closest he came to landing any of the available — or even potentially available — head-coaching positions. Belichick apparently tried to convince owner Arthur Blank and the Falcons’ front office that he was willing to just be the head coach and not have full control over the organization, but was unsuccessful and then got blindsided when the Falcons instead decided to hire former Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.
“He was essentially voted off the island,” a Falcons source told ESPN.
ESPN also went through the list of the other available head-coaching positions this offseason and provided the apparent reasoning why Belichick was ultimately not the man for the job, even if he was willing to cede organizational power to the front office:
Philadelphia Eagles: Owner Jeffrey Lurie did not seriously consider moving on from Nick Sirianni, though he did have a conversation with Belichick where coaching for the organization did not come up. “You’ll have to start over again,” an Eagles source told ESPN. “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.”Dallas Cowboys: Change-averse Jerry Jones decided quickly to…..
