If you’d told me the great Bill Belichick would be available after the most recent hiring cycle? I’m taking that bet and cashing what I can get for sure. Former New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick is a free agent as we speak. The timing of his departure comes after a twenty-four year partnership with Robert Kraft. Twenty of those years were very successful with the GOAT Tom Brady. How did one of the greatest defensive coaches of all-time end up out of the only place he’s known?
Belichick has been a household name since the early 1990s, where he was a defensive coordinator under another great head coach Bill Parcells. Coaching THEE greatest defensive player of all-time in Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants. From there, Belichick went to Cleveland for a brief stint and ended up with an interview with the NY Jets. He turned it down and went to New England to be their head coach.
It took some years and this guy by the name of Tom Brady took him to new heights. Twenty years of success and the run ended in 2020.
Six Super Bowl titles, multiple 12 win seasons, AFC East titles, all the accolades ran its course. Now, the Patriots had to make a move and let the only man who’s held the title of head coach and defector GM walk. Even Patriots fans were anticipating this move and it happened with no real messy departure. Bill Belichick didn’t evolve as a head coach over the last few years. Tom Brady made Belichick as we saw in the first year Brady left New England. This made Patriots fans feel some type of way seeing the only two guys who were attached to each other’s hips break-up. As one Patriots fan told me: “Belichick won’t win without TB12; book it.” This fan back in 2020 was accurate and I didn’t disagree. Owner Robert Kraft wants to get back to being a title contender; Belichick wasn’t the answer in today’s modern NFL.
Failing to draft offensive players became the downfall of Belichick. As GM, signing guys who didn’t fit the offense or correlate in helping quarterback Mac Jones. His staff was a mess and didn’t deserve to be considered coordinators. Failure to adapt and evolve is two areas he didn’t bother doing. It’s a quarterback league and not having a guy who can replicate success proved to be too much to overcome. Re-hiring former assistants was bad as migraine headaches. Patriots fans were saying “lose every game for a better 2024 draft pick” and wanting other teams to help them out. Well, you’ll have a high enough draft pick to take a quarterback and see what happens.
As Belichick interviewed for the Atlanta Falcons job twice, they ended up hiring LA Rams defensive coordinator and former head coach Raheem Morris. I’m sure the interviews went solid, but Arthur Blank wasn’t allowing Bill to handle GM responsibilities. This is where teams have been red flagged in the process. He’s used to making those decisions and today’s teams aren’t willing to let a coach have control in that matter.
It's like walking away from a relationship and or marriage; you spent countless hours with one person and must start over. Going out and courting before committing long term is more work than before. In this sense, teams who still have a coaching vacancy are looking at the last four seasons with New England and the sirens are sounding. What’s next for Bill is uncertain as two openings are left to fill.
If he sits out in 2024 and sees what happens, that’s an option he must consider. As much as he wanted to break legendary Head Coach Don Shula’s win record, Atlanta was his best option in hindsight. The Falcons felt as if Raheem Morris gave them the best chance to win moving forward. There could be a slight possibility for an ideal team in 2025 if one underperforms, but all parties must agree and let Bill be a head coach; not GM to make personnel decisions. This will be the ultimatum in his next coaching hire. You know what you’re signing up for with Bill and all hands on deck. For now, there’s no field for old men.
Stai tuned
