Just like Sean Payton before him, Bill Belichick is now the coaching name likely to be discussed the most among Dallas Cowboys fans witnessing Mike McCarthy's contract year season in 2024.
If things go wrong, could Jerry Jones swing for the fences by bringing in the head coach that won six Super Bowls in the same timespan the Cowboys failed to even make an NFC Championship Game. Or for added effect, the man whose Super Bowl rings as head coach outnumber the Cowboys' playoff wins since 1997?
"I don't think Bill Belichick will ever be a head coach again in the National Football League," a longtime friend of Belichick told ESPN. "Unless it's (for) Jerry Jones."
Belichick has quickly become one of the most polarizing figures in the NFL. On the one hand, there's no way of questioning his greatness and his deep knowledge of how football works. Whether or not former players complain about how demanding the Belichick Way is, it yielded results. And although playing Tom Brady at quarterback helped, Belichick continued to produce strong schemes and adapted the Patriots to dominate over two full decades.
But he's the same man that told his organization that Brady was done before witnessing him win another ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He's the man who seemingly wants all of the control to run the team, which doesn't fit the overall way of doing things in the league.
For a long time, it seemed like that was the major obstacle standing in the way between Belichick coaching the Cowboys. Forget about the "circus" aspect of the most popular franchise in American sports: Could Belichick work for a front office that wouldn't give him a lot of control over the draft process, let alone free agency?
The team has Will McClay running the draft operation with a high level of success and with how much they're likely paying him (we don't know the numbers but McClay keeps turning down GM offers all across the league and it's likely not because he has too much fun in Dallas), he'll continue to run the show there.
As for the rest of the GM duties, Stephen Jones appears set in his ways and bringing Belichick could unsurprisingly lead to unfun, power-struggle times.
That's unless... Belichick wants a reduced role? Per ESPN's deep dive into the coaching legend's job hunt, the former Patriots head coach told the Atlanta Falcons that he'd be willing to give up control.
"He assured (Falcons owner Arthur) Blank that he wasn't seeking the total control he had for most of his 24 seasons in New England," ESPN reported. "He pledged to work with the team's existing group of decision-makers, including general manager Terry Fontenot."
While there are many other factors that would go into a decision like this - after all, he's 29-39 since Brady's departure and somebody Robert Kraft warned Arthur Blank about - Belichick seems open to giving up control and focusing on coaching only.
If that's the case, it would be a massive obstacle taken out of the way for a potential Cowboys pairing down the road.
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