Is Bill Belichick headed to a coaching position with the Dallas Cowboys? The short answer is: no.
The longer answer is: Well, maybe. But not today.
As The Western Journal has already noted, Belichick will not have a head coaching position next season in the NFL after announcing that he and the New England Patriots had mutually decided to part ways after 24 seasons and a record six Super Bowl victories.
And Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday that he hadn’t “talked to anybody that is a head-coaching candidate other than my own” when asked about the possibility of Belichick coming to the Cowboys.
Current Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy has another year left on his contract, and Jones said in December that he was “100 percent supportive” of his current head coach — but that’s not exactly the whole story.
To be fair, the last three seasons have been decent under McCarthy for the Cowboys, with the team seeing 12-5 records three years in a row. The playoffs, however, have been more of a struggle.
Yahoo put it kindly, saying that Dallas had “exited the playoffs earlier than expected in each of those years.”
Belichick, of course, has a reputation for winning playoff games (at least when Tom Brady is his quarterback). Add to that the fact that Jones says he and Belichick could “work together” well.
“I know him personally and I like him,” Jones told Yahoo. “There’s no doubt in my mind we could work together. None. None.”
Will Belichick join the Cowboys?
Belichick may very well be available next year, unless something should happen mid-season, which is of course very possible.
On the other hand, Belichick is known for exercising a great deal of control over the team he coaches — and Jones has the same reputation as an owner. That sounds like a recipe for conflict.
Jones, however, seemed to disagree with that assessment.
“We all know that he’s certainly excellent, maybe at the top of his profession,” Jones told Yahoo. “To say that any one person automatically assures you a Super Bowl is ridiculous. That’s too high [an] expectation for him. But is he maybe the greatest pro football coach of all time? Could very well be.
“He is a friend and I like him and I want to make real clear: I wouldn’t have any problem working with him,” he reiterated.
For his part, Belichick has “expressed his admiration for Jones and the Cowboys organization in the past,” ESPN noted.
And Jones has sometimes “hinted” about changing head coaches, even as he has expressed his support for McCarthy, CBS observed.
“I thought we made a pretty good move four years ago when we hired Mike McCarthy, and he’s had some great in-season success,” Jones said Tuesday, according to ESPN. “Now he’s come up short three times and advanced us in the playoff. But I like that fact that’s he’s hanging around the rim, and I like what the team has done to hang around the rim.
“So, I think, what the answer that I would have is, that I’m aware that we’re hanging around the rim. We’re not getting the ball in but when you hang around the rim — let’s don’t discount hanging around the rim — where we are right now with the players we’ve got, and I’m thinking about it from the whole look.”
That doesn’t sound like absolutely unequivocal support for McCarthy — but it doesn’t sound like Belichick needs to hire a Dallas-based realtor anytime soon, either.
