Bill Belichick appeared to be in the driver’s seat for the Atlanta Falcons head coaching vacancy…until owner Arthur Blank and the front office opted to go in another direction.
After interviewing Belichick twice for their head coaching position, the Falcons instead decided to hire Raheem Morris for that role. Morris spent the previous three seasons as the Los Angeles Rams’ defensive coordinator under Sean McVay.
According to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, there were multiple factors that led to Atlanta passing on Belichick. Among them: Belichick would have wanted to bring sweeping changes across the organization:
“The Falcons decided they could live without Belichick, who certainly would have changed things within the building. As one Falcons source put it, there would have been “a groundshake” with Belichick coming to town. Football people would have been reassigned or fired. Business people would have had to change how, where and when they do their jobs.
That’s how the soon-to-be 72-year-old Belichick wants to run his ship, and Blank decided that’s not what he wants for his franchise. And with Belichick believed to be a short-timer wherever he goes — sources gave him a four-year maximum anywhere — the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.”
Additionally, a source close to Belichick told Jones that the six-time Super-Bowl winning HC needs a team that will “give him total control.”
Belichick was given the final say on all roster personnel decisions during his 24-year run with the Patriots. But in this day and age, teams simply don’t hire head coaches to also serve as the general manager.
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The power structure across the league is far different now than it was when Patriots owner Robert Kraft hired Belichick in 2000. So if the legendary head coach wants to return to the sidelines again, he just might have to be willing to accept far less power than what he got in New England.
