Bill Belichick’s résumé from New England, or at least the first 83% of it before a certain quarterback made his exit, speaks for itself. Belichick led the Patriots to six Super Bowl championships, won the AFC nine times and the AFC East 17 times. No one has ever enjoyed that much success and probably no one ever will.
But here’s a question about Belichick as the Falcons and owner Arthur Blank pursue him, apparently targeting him as their top choice.
Why has no one else interviewed him?
The Falcons interviewed Belichick for a second time Friday. He became the club’s first candidate to receive a second interview. Meanwhile, none of the other six teams in the NFL who had or have a coaching vacancy (not including the Patriots) have brought in Belichick even once.
Do other teams not have his phone number? Is he slow at returning text messages? Is he too busy scribbling “Falcons coach Bill Belichick” over and over in his notebook, dotting his i’s with hearts?
There are reasons that could explain why none of the other clubs have decided to formally interview Belichick that don’t make the Falcons look like ill-informed suitors, fools rushing in where angels fear to tread. For one, Belichick himself might be the one who’s declining to interview.
But there’s also the other possibility – that other clubs have considered Belichick’s record over the past four years without Tom Brady (29-38), his spotty history with personnel decisions and his likely demand to retain authority to continue making them, the uncertainty about how much more a 71-year-old coach has left to give and decided it’d be best to put his cover letter at the bottom of the stack.
“Dear coach Belichick, Thank you for your interest in our head-coaching opening. You were one of several strong candidates for the position. Unfortunately…”
Certainly, the Falcons don’t need the validation of other teams knocking on Belichick’s door to hire him, if that’s how this ends up. And one of the most irritating tendencies in the NFL is teams’ proclivity for mimicking the decisions of the successful, whether it’s trends in coaching hires, schemes or player types. Executives and coaches are afraid to flout convention. It could be argued that the Falcons’ status as the sole team to woo Belichick might actually be to their credit.
However, Belichick isn’t exactly an outside-the-box candidate, an analytics guy with an Ivy League degree who rides his bicycle to work. He is located safely within the box’s domain. He could be presented as an entirely sensible and even compelling choice.
You would think that Washington – with a new owner and the No. 2 overall pick – might be tempted to call on Belichick to find his next Brady and start another dynasty. Or, after another postseason flameout, that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones would ditch coach Mike McCarthy and do whatever it took to bring in Belichick and lift a team with a franchise quarterback in Dak Prescott and the No. 5 defense in the league into the Super Bowl. Or that the Los Angeles Chargers would be interested in bringing in Belichick to take better advantage of talented quarterback Justin Herbert.
But Washington has interviewed at least three candidates, requested to speak with several more, and according to multiple reports, is not expected to pursue Belichick.
Jones made the decision to stick with McCarthy after a third consecutive season in which the Cowboys went 12-5 but failed to make the NFC Championship game.
As of Friday, the Chargers had interviewed 12 candidates, none of them Belichick.
And, again, making the same decisions as the Chargers or Panthers or any of the other teams looking for a new head coach should be no one’s idea of intelligent strategy. They’re all looking for a new head coach because they had problems with the last one.
And just because a coach is a hot candidate doesn’t mean it’s going to work out either. The Falcons probably will be happy to remind you that Arthur Smith was a sought-after coach when they hired him in 2021.
Here’s what a coaching agent told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It’s probably a combination of a few factors. First, Belichick probably wouldn’t agree to interview with a team unless it had an owner and organization he was comfortable with and a roster he felt he could work with.
Second, owners that were not willing to consider giving Belichick the personnel authority that he wants likely wouldn’t see the point in bringing him in if that was going to be a dealbreaker from the start. Last, if owners suspect that Blank is going to give Belichick what he wants and that Belichick wants the Falcons job, they may also pass on a formal interview, not wanting to look like they lost out to the Falcons.
So the first reason is a positive for the Falcons and the third seems foolish on the other owners’ part. But the second – that Blank may be willing to grant Belichick authority over personnel that others aren’t – ought to give Blank and team CEO Rich McKay pause about the soundness of their plan (whatever it is) with Belichick. After all, it’s not like they’ve mastered the coach-hiring game.
Perhaps the argument that “Belichick can’t coach; look what happened to the Patriots without Brady” is overblown. But “Belichick made faulty personnel decisions that Brady covered up” might not be. As has been written elsewhere, under Belichick’s watch, the Patriots have not re-signed a player drafted in the first three rounds since 2013.
Possibly, the fact that Blank has lined up a second interview with Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, according to the reporting of esteemed colleague D. Orlando Ledbetter, and also want to talk with former Titans coach Mike Vrabel, according to ESPN, are indications that they’re not homed in solely on Belichick or willing to grant his every whim.
Presumably, Harbaugh wouldn’t agree to a second interview unless he believed there was a possibility he had a legitimate chance at the job. Lest it’s forgotten, Harbaugh had a 44-19-1 record with the 49ers 2011-14 with three NFC title-game appearances and a Super Bowl berth after taking over for a team that had not had a winning record or playoff appearance in the previous eight years. The record is even better than Belichick in his first four seasons with the Patriots (39-25).
Better yet, the Falcons aren’t the only team to interview him.
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