Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick smiled as they stood in front of a packed auditorium on Jan. 11 at Gillette Stadium and emotionally recalled some of their fondest memories of their historic 24-year union with the New England Patriots.
The team owner and coach’s run together had just come to an end and it was an appropriate time for the separation. But if there were any reservations, it was when Kraft mentioned how difficult it would be to see Belichick “in a hoodie on the sideline” for another team.

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That idea seemed inevitable at the time, with the Patriots among eight teams with a vacancy and the NFL’s most successful coach on the market. Belichick, with 333 career wins, is 15 wins away from breaking Don Shula’s record, and that seemed like an obvious attraction to ownership, plus, of course, his coaching acumen.
That perception, however, backfired. The remaining coaching vacancies were filled this week, and it appears Belichick will not be benched in the NFL for the first time in half a century.
Despite all the positives Belichick could bring to a new organization, numerous league sources, who were granted anonymity to speak freely without retaliation, cited a variety of reasons why the coaching legend is still out of a job , and that’s deeper than just the fact that she’s about to turn 72.
The Atlanta Falcons were the only known suitor with serious interest, but they hired Raheem Morris after interviewing Belichick a couple of times.
At one point, it appeared publicly that Belichick and the Falcons were building momentum toward a partnership. However, sources close to both parties expressed caution during the courtship process.
Trying to tell people for a week that the Falcons’ Belichick was never a sure thing. Both sides were gathering intelligence on each other, open to seeing where it would go, and the Falcons intended to keep their options wide open.
—Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) January 25, 2024
They were both on a fact-finding mission to determine whether the organization’s power structure was suited to support the success of Belichick, who had grown accustomed to total control over football operations as Falcons owner Arthur Blank was prepared to keep the its leadership structure. . .
Sources close to Belichick also cited a frosty relationship with Falcons president Rich McKay as a primary reason why the sides might have decided they could or could not work together.
It’s fair to wonder why Belichick wouldn’t just put his head down, adapt to another team’s way of doing business, and focus on training for another 15-plus wins before retiring with a monopoly on major coaching records.
But if Belichick hadn’t gone all in to pitch Kraft on a way to reverse the Patriots’ recent woes, he certainly wouldn’t have done it for a relative stranger. League sources believed Kraft could have been enticed to keep Belichick for another season if the coach had committed to changing some strategies with the personnel department, roster construction and his offensive vision, but Belichick was used to a specific approach and it wouldn’t have bent that far.

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This is also pertinent as it pertained to the mutual fact-finding mission with the Falcons, and they were hardly alone among teams in the coaching market.
But more than anything, according to a league source, the Falcons were completely sold on Morris. Belichick’s resume will surpass that of any coach — in a hiring process, or historically — but his past successes mattered less to the Falcons than what they thought Morris could bring to their future.
When the Falcons hired Morris, only the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Commanders had opportunities. At the time, league sources called it a long shot for either organization to consider Belichick, and even those odds seemed generous.
Three main reasons have been echoed by numerous league sources: Belichick’s mishandling of the Patriots’ quarterback situation in recent years, his desire to maintain total control of football operations, and a growing concern about the coach’s ability to relate to this generation of players.

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At quarterback, people around the league still don’t understand how Belichick could let Tom Brady walk away in free agency, but the lack of a succession plan was equally baffling. Belichick went the budget route with Cam Newton in 2020 and drafted Mac Jones in the first round in 2021, but he failed to develop him in virtually any measurable way.
Jones has had three offensive coordinators in three seasons, including Belichick’s decision in 2022 to hire longtime defensive coach Matt Patricia, which has been almost universally criticized in league circles. The offense was poorly constructed with a patchwork line and players with mostly below-average skills. Officials on opposing teams were also disappointed by Belichick’s public alienation of Jones.
These issues left decision makers wondering whether Belichick could build an offense without Brady or have enough patience to develop a young quarterback.
The power structure was another red flag. Belichick has been fiercely loyal to his coaching confidants and like-minded personnel executives throughout his career, and those bonds could be traced back to the Patriots’ deteriorating record in recent seasons — again, particularly with the Patricia’s move into attack.
Sources with multiple teams that just hired new coaches expressed varying degrees of relief that Belichick would not be joining their team. Some were concerned that Belichick might overhaul the leadership structure and order of command.
Others, particularly on the draft side, heard stories from Patriots scouts who didn’t think their opinions carried any weight with Belichick. His track record has come under intense scrutiny over the past decade, and word has spread around the league of times he overruled his personnel department with key draft decisions. The fear, especially for Scouts who spend so much time traveling away from their families, is that they would be wasting their time.
There has also been a change in the way players want to be coached. Many current players want to relate to their coaches as people, often thinking this is how they will be at their best seven days a week, and prefer to feel empowered by the staff.
The latest wave of new age coaches don’t have such an authoritarian complex, demanding that players do everything they say simply because they are their bosses. Players want to know why they’re doing something, whether it’s the weightlifting program or a schematic technique, and coaches who can get their message across this way have become more attractive.
While league officials agree Belichick can still lead a defense in the current era — and the way the Patriots have played still shows game-changing ideas, they said — concerns about the offensive approach have overtaken coaching defensive.
History has shown us that the eight hires made this cycle will not have a high success rate. As they say in the industry, there are only two types of coaches: those who have been fired and those who will be fired. Time could determine whether these teams regret passing over Belichick, whether he gets another chance on the sideline to prove he can still do it or whether he fades into training camp as those teams’ preferred hires are replaced in short order.

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However things played out, there was a pretty strong belief that Belichick wouldn’t be on most of their lists due to his performance over the last four years. They cited many of the same reasons why Kraft and the Patriots decided to replace Belichick with Jerod Mayo.
And that’s why Belichick may have to wait at least a year before he gets another chance to lead a franchise.
(Photo: Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)