The race for Bill Belichick? Five best fits for teams with coaches on hot seat
It’s probably too early for an NFL team to fire a head coach. It’s too early for most teams to even think about firing their coach.
But it’s got to be hard not to at least think about it when Bill Belichick is available.
The 72-year-old former Patriots coach is the biggest name looming over all the struggling head coaches in the NFL this season. He has made it known that he wants to coach again. And it’s a good bet someone will give him a chance. His name, his 333 wins, and his six Super Bowl rings as a head coach will probably be too alluring for someone to pass up.
But which team will make a move for him first?
Four weeks into this NFL season, the race for Belichick is probably already on. But there are a few things to know for any owner who makes that call:
1. It’s hard to imagine Belichick joining any team midseason. He’s going to want to install new systems, hire a new staff, and completely change the philosophy of whatever program he takes over. That can’t be done on the fly.
2. He’s not going anywhere where he has to groom a young quarterback. He experimented with that from 2021-23 with Mac Jones, and that was a disaster. Come to think of it, he hasn’t been able to groom a young quarterback since that Tom Brady guy back in 2001.
3. Not to be indelicate, but he’s old. He’s already was the fifth-oldest head coach in NFL history, and he’d jump to third if he was hired tomorrow. If he’s hired next season and is still coaching on Nov. 2 he’ll be the oldest NFL head coach ever. So he’s not taking on a rebuilding project. He’s going somewhere where he’ll have a franchise quarterback and a belief that the team is in place to win right now.
That doesn’t leave a lot of options. But there are five teams currently struggling