NFL insider Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk somewhat buried an interesting piece of information in a Thursday update he shared about Bill Belichick seemingly inching closer toward becoming the next head coach of the Atlanta Falcons.
Florio mentioned that there’s “a belief in some league circles that both” the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles “expressed interest in Belichick, that Belichick didn’t reciprocate, and that those teams then decided to stick with their current coaches.”
Belichick had been linked in stories and rumors with the Cowboys and Eagles before both NFC East teams suffered wild-card playoff defeats.
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones somewhat surprisingly confirmed this week he’s sticking with Mike McCarthy as his head coach even though McCarthy has lost three of four playoff games with the organization since the 2020 season. To his credit, McCarthy’s Cowboys won 12 regular-season contests across each of the past three campaigns.
As for the Eagles, team owner Jeffrey Lurie had not yet publicly revealed the fate of head coach Nick Sirianni as of Friday afternoon. While Sirianni guided Philadelphia to Super Bowl LVII, where the club fell to the Kansas City Chiefs last February, the 2023 edition of the Eagles went from 10-1 to 11-6 before Philadelphia was thrashed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the tune of 32-9 in this past Monday’s wild-card showdown.
“Although Belichick to Atlanta is not done yet, there’s buzz around the league that it’s moving in that direction,” Florio added. “As one league source explained it, Belichick is believed to be done with ‘big-market media,’ making him more inclined to go to a place like Atlanta than Dallas or Philadelphia.”
Outsiders may never fully know how serious, if at all, either the Cowboys or Eagles were about doing business with Belichick after he officially became available last week.
However, Jones and/or Lurie may have to answer questions regarding the subject later this year depending on how Dallas and Philadelphia perform next season.
