Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick just conducted his first interview for a head coach job around the NFL, meeting with owner Arthur Blank and the Atlanta Falcons on Monday.
Belichick, 71, is still looking to coach after 24 largely brilliant seasons in New England. It remans to be seen how many teams he’s going to meet with before a decision is ultimately made.
However, Belichick is looking for one specific thing when it comes to a potential partnership.
I was told from the beginning that Belichick would likely target talented, yet underachieving teams,” ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported on Tuesday (h/t Bleacher Report).
Fowler also indicated that there is mutual interest between Belichick and the Falcons. A marriage does make sense in that this team has talent, but it also underperformed in three seasons under Arthur Smith before the head coach was fired after the 2023 season.
Offensively, the Falcons have three core pieces in place in that of running back Bijan Robinson, tight end Kyle Pitts and wide receiver Drake London. That’s more skill-position talent than New England had for pretty much the final decade of Belichick’s career with the organization. The issue here is quarterback with the Desmond Ridder experiment having been an utter failure.
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As it relates to current NFL head coach openings, the Seattle Seahawks could also be seen as a fit. While they’ve been pretty pedestrian over the past few years (25-26 record over past three seasons), there is some young talent on their roster.
The same thing can be said for the Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC West. Sure, they are being linked more to Jim Harbaugh. But there were some rumors indicating that Bill Belichick could have interest in the team.
Meanwhile, it’s an open question whether Mike McCarthy will return as the Dallas Cowboys’ head coach after their humiliating loss to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Wild Card Playoffs. Belichick has also been linked to America’s Team over the past couple days.
We’ll find out soon enough who else is interested in the six-time Super Bowl champion as reports of interviews continue around the football world. For now, Atlanta and Dallas seem to be a prime potential landing spots for Belichick.
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