Robert Kraft and Invoice Belichick smiled as they stood in entrance of a packed auditorium Jan. 11 at Gillette Stadium and emotionally recalled a few of their fondest recollections from their historic 24-year union with the New England Patriots.
The crew proprietor and coach’s run collectively had simply come to an finish, and it was an applicable time for the break up. But when there had been any reservation, it was when Kraft talked about how tough it might be to see Belichick “in a cutoff hoodie on the sideline” for one more crew.
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That concept felt inevitable within the second, with the Patriots amongst eight groups with a job opening and the NFL’s most profitable coach available on the market. Belichick, with 333 profession victories, is 15 wins shy of breaking Don Shula’s file, and that appeared like an apparent attraction to possession — on high, after all, of his teaching acumen.
That notion fell flat, nevertheless. The remaining teaching vacancies had been stuffed this week, and it seems Belichick gained’t be on an NFL sideline for the primary time in a half-century.
For all of the positives Belichick might convey to a brand new group, quite a few sources across the league, granted anonymity to talk freely with out reprisal, cited a handful of causes the teaching legend remains to be out of a job, and it runs deeper than the mere truth he’s about to show 72.
The Atlanta Falcons had been the one identified suitor with severe curiosity, however they employed Raheem Morris after interviewing Belichick a few occasions.
At one level, it appeared publicly as if Belichick and the Falcons had been constructing momentum towards a partnership. Nonetheless, sources near either side expressed warning all through the courting course of.
Been making an attempt to inform folks for per week Belichick to the Falcons was by no means a certain factor. Either side had been gathering details about one another, open to seeing the place it’d go, and the Falcons supposed to maintain their choices broad open. https://t.co/0Nu0PqOWGh
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) January 25, 2024
They had been every on a fact-finding mission to find out whether or not the group’s energy construction was the best match to maintain success with Belichick, who had turn into accustomed to whole management over soccer operations, as Falcons proprietor Arthur Clean was poised to maintain his management construction intact.
Sources near Belichick additionally cited a frosty relationship with Falcons president Wealthy McKay as a main cause the events might need determined they may or mustn’t work collectively.
It’s truthful to marvel why Belichick wouldn’t simply put his head down, adapt to a different crew’s method of enterprise and deal with teaching his approach to one other 15-plus wins earlier than retiring with a monopoly of great teaching data.
But when Belichick wouldn’t go all in to pitch Kraft on a approach to flip across the Patriots’ latest misfortunes, he definitely wasn’t going to do it for a relative stranger. League sources believed Kraft might need been swayed to maintain Belichick for one more season if the coach dedicated to altering sure methods with the personnel division, roster building and his offensive imaginative and prescient, however Belichick had been accustomed to a selected method and wouldn’t bend that far.
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That’s additionally pertinent because it associated to the mutual fact-finding mission with the Falcons, they usually had been hardly alone amongst groups within the teaching market.
However greater than something, the Falcons had been wholly offered on Morris, in response to a league supply. Belichick’s resume will trump any coach’s — in a hiring course of, or traditionally — however his previous accomplishments mattered much less to the Falcons in contrast with what they thought Morris might convey to their future.
When the Falcons employed Morris, solely the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Commanders had openings. At the moment, league sources known as it a protracted shot for both group to contemplate Belichick, and even these odds appeared beneficiant.
Three main causes had been echoed by quite a few league sources: Belichick’s mishandling of the Patriots’ quarterback state of affairs in recent times, his need to take care of whole management of soccer operations and a rising concern over the coach’s capability to narrate to this era of gamers.
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At quarterback, folks across the league nonetheless don’t perceive how Belichick might let Tom Brady go away in free company, however the lack of a succession plan was almost as perplexing. Belichick went the funds route with Cam Newton in 2020 and drafted Mac Jones within the first spherical in 2021 however did not develop him by just about each measurable diploma.
Jones had three offensive coordinators in three seasons, together with Belichick’s resolution in 2022 to make use of longtime defensive coach Matt Patricia, which was virtually universally criticized in league circles. The offense was poorly constructed with a patchwork line and principally substandard ability gamers. Executives from opposing groups had been additionally turned off by Belichick’s public alienation of Jones.
These points led decision-makers to wonder if Belichick might construct an offense with out Brady or have sufficient endurance to develop a younger quarterback.
The facility construction was one other crimson flag. Belichick has been fiercely loyal to his teaching confidants and like-minded personnel executives all through his profession, and people ties may very well be traced to the Patriots’ deteriorating data in latest seasons — once more, notably with transferring Patricia to offense.
Sources with a number of groups that simply employed new head coaches expressed various levels of reduction Belichick wasn’t becoming a member of their crew. Some had been involved Belichick would overhaul the management construction and the order of command.
Others, notably on the draft aspect, heard tales from Patriots scouts who didn’t really feel their opinions had carried any weight with Belichick. His draft file has come beneath heavy scrutiny over the previous decade, and phrase had unfold throughout the league about events when he overruled his personnel division with key draft selections. The concern, particularly with scouts who spend a lot time on the street away from their households, is that they’d be losing their time.
There’s additionally been a change in the way in which gamers need to be coached. So many present gamers need to relate to their coaches as folks, typically feeling that’s how they’ll present up at their greatest for seven days per week, they usually choose to really feel empowered by the workers.
The newest wave of new-age coaches doesn’t have as a lot of an authoritarian advanced, demanding gamers do all the things they are saying just because they’re their bosses. Gamers need to know why they’re doing issues, whether or not it’s the weightlifting schedule or a schematic method, and coaches who can ship their message in such a method have turn into extra interesting.
Although executives across the league agree Belichick can nonetheless lead a protection within the present period — and the way in which the Patriots performed nonetheless confirmed revolutionary concepts, they’ve mentioned — the considerations with the offensive method have outweighed the defensive teaching.
Historical past has proven us that the eight hires made on this cycle gained’t have a excessive success price. Because the saying goes within the enterprise, there are solely two kinds of coaches: those that have been fired and people who can be fired. Time may decide whether or not these groups will remorse bypassing Belichick, whether or not he will get one other probability on the sideline to show he can nonetheless do it or fades into retirement as these groups’ most well-liked hires are changed in brief order.
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Nonetheless it performs out, there was a robust sufficient conviction Belichick wouldn’t be on most of their shortlists attributable to his efficiency over the previous 4 years. They cited most of the identical causes Kraft and the Patriots opted to switch Belichick with Jerod Mayo.
And it’s why Belichick might need to attend a minimum of a yr earlier than he will get one other probability to guide a franchise.
(Picture: Bryan M. Bennett / Getty Photographs)