Future Hall of Fame coach Bill Belichick won’t be coaching for an NFL team in 2024 for the first time since 1974. While the legendary football coach will be away from the game directly for the first time in decades, there is reportedly a good chance it’s only a one-year hiatus.
ESPN’s senior NFL insiders Don Van Natta Jr, Seth Wickersham and Jeremy Fowler detailed the reasons why Belichick isn’t coaching an NFL team this season. Among them, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft reportedly encouraged Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank not to hire Belichick.
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- Bill Belichick coaching record: 302-165 in the regular season 31-13 in NFL Playoffs
Even without that negative recommendation from his former boss, Belichick had minimal interest around the league. The Falcons were the only team to interview Belichick for a head-coaching vacancy this offseason and he rebuffed inquiries from the San Francisco 49ers for a role on Kyle Shanahan’s coaching staff.
Belichick still wants to be an NFL head coach, just with the right organization and on his terms. That opportunity didn’t become available in 2024, but NFL rumors have made it clear that he does have his eye on the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants.
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Speaking to Andrew Brandt, ESPN’s senior writer Don Van Natta Jr. said he would be ‘very surprised’ if Belichick doesn’t become the head coach for the Cowboys, Giants or Eagles if those jobs become available in 2025.
“If there’s at least two of those three teams with openings… and he doesn’t get either of those jobs, I’ll be very surprised.”
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There’s a very realistic chance at least two of those jobs will be open in 2025. Dallas kept Mike McCarthy around for another season, but he is in a contract year and expectations in Dallas are NFC Championship Game or bust. Meanwhile, after a historic collapse in the second half of the 2023 season, Eagles’ coach Nick Sirianni is getting one more chance to prove himself in 2024.
The seat for Brian Daboll might be just as hot. New York has one of the worst rosters in the NFL right now on the offensive side of the ball, with only some help coming from the 2024 NFL Draft. If Daboll’s team delivers underwhelming results for the second consecutive season, he will likely be fired. It’s why there should be at least two head-coach openings in the NFC East next offseason and potentially even three.