Cowboys are reportedly on Bill Belichick’s list of teams he would like to coach

The Cowboys are reportedly on Bill Belichick’s list of teams he would like to coach in the future.

The decision to bring back Mike McCarthy feels like eons ago for the Dallas Cowboys. In some ways this offseason feels like it just started (probably because the Cowboys have not done much), in other ways the playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers seems like a lifetime ago. Maybe what we are experiencing is what Shane Falco described as quicksand in The Replacements.

Either way the NFL draft begins next week and it offers the last significant chance for this team to put itself in a position to properly contend in 2024. If they do not contend next season it is assumed that proverbial heads will roll, likely starting with head coach Mike McCarthy.

While McCarthy is returning for a fifth season with the Cowboys, the year in question is the last one on the contract that he initially signed with the team. Jerry Jones has knowingly and willfully set his coach up for a contract year and all of the drama that comes with that (this is the third coach contract in a row that Jones has allowed to reach this point as it happened twice with Jason Garrett) and wouldn’t you know it, the drama is here.

The Dallas Cowboys are on Bill Belichick’s list of teams he would like to coach

Among coaching news across the league this offseason. it was notable that Bill Belichick did not find a new home after he and the New England Patriots went their separate ways.

It appeared as if Belichick was set to join the Atlanta Falcons, but things fell through and they ultimately went with Raheem Morris. Our immediate futures could still have Belichick in them as he may or may not do some sort of media work, but many assume that whatever he does in 2024 will be a bridge back to the world of coaching.

ESPN published a massive piece on Wednesday that took a look at the fallout between Belichick and the Patriots and what could or could not come next for the greatest coach of all time. The article is worth your time in general, but you should know that it was specifically said that the Dallas Cowboys are among the teams Belichick is interested in coaching if he returns to the NFL sidelines.

In the coming weeks, Belichick is expected to sign a deal to do analysis for Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, which produces ESPN’s “ManningCast” during Monday Night Football. He is believed to be biding his time until next January for openings on teams he has told confidants he would be interested in coaching: the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. A source who spoke with a longtime friend of Belichick said the friend wonders if the coach will have another opportunity: “I don’t think Bill Belichick will ever be a head coach again in the National Football League,” the friend said. “Unless it’s [for] Jerry Jones.”

Belichick famously served as the defensive coordinator for the New York Giants through their first two Super Bowl seasons in the 1980s. He has always shared a deep affection for the team so it makes sense that they could be viewed as a home to return to.

Including the Cowboys with the Philadelphia Eagles as the other two choices certainly makes for some ripe NFC East drama. We thought things got heated when the rivals competed for Shaq Leonard last season, imagine if they were both vying for the GOAT?

Dallas and Philly have been among the more successful regular-season teams in the NFL as of late (the Eagles obviously won the Super Bowl much more recently) so they are also logical dots to connect Belichick too, especially with both teams having head coaches that seem to be on warm seats for different reasons. We greatly enjoyed the Eagles completely collapsing over the final weeks of the season while Nick Sirianni did nothing to stop it.

These situations force the people in charge to consider a potential change in general, but when someone like Bill Belichick is available your mind cannot help but wander. According to the ESPN piece that seemed to happen more for the Eagles than the Cowboys late last season, but Dallas was involved nonetheless due to Belichick’s relationship with Jerry Jones.

Still, there was chatter in league circles that Philadelphia and Belichick could be a match. Despite some owners and executives believing the game had passed Belichick by, the Eagles felt he still had his fastball; he had nearly beaten them in the 2023 season opener with an inferior team. There’s also a belief that Belichick will coach only until he gets 15 more wins, enough to pass Don Shula as the winningest coach in NFL history. Though not seriously considering a move, Lurie wondered to a confidant: Was it worth overhauling the building, changing personnel and philosophies on everything from training staff to salary cap structure, for someone who might coach only two years?

“You’ll have to start over again,” said a source with firsthand knowledge of the Eagles’ thinking. “Who would replace him? He hasn’t had a good record of developing coaches. They were afraid that he’ll have changed everything and every person, and [then] you’ll be starting from scratch again. He didn’t demand those changes, but they felt like, if we hire him, we have to give everything to him and trust how he does it.”

Dallas was another potential suitor. On paper, the Cowboys seemed to make sense: Belichick and Jerry Jones are decades-long friends, and both are in win-now mode. Nobody is better than Belichick at converting a talented roster into a championship team. And Belichick told a friend that he liked the idea of sticking it to the Krafts by working for Jones. But Jones, for all his flash, bluster and vows this offseason to go “all-in,” is change-averse when it comes to head coaches. He decided quickly after Dallas’ blowout exit in the wild-card round to let Mike McCarthy coach the final year of his contract.

Many Cowboys fans have pushed back against the idea of Belichick out of fear that he would want to control everything and therefore take over process that the team is successful at like how they approach the NFL draft. That is a fair concern.

But in an overall sense the Cowboys are relatively lost at sea. Would it not be worth it to bring in a new captain, one with experience in turbulent waters, in hopes of finding land? Again, the mind cannot help but wander.