Six-time Super Bowl champion head coach Bill Belichick is out of a coaching job this year, but there's a chance that he may not have been had the Philadelphia Eagles given up on Nick Sirianni.
Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wickersham and Jeremy Fowler of ESPN took a deep dive into Belichick's coaching search, revealing where the Eagles' heads were at following their 2023 disaster season.
They found that while owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman remained confident in Sirianni, both thought it was worth reaching out to the legendary Patriots coach:
Roseman told ESPN he had a conversation with Belichick, a check-in to see how the coach was doing after he was out in New England. A source close to Belichick confirmed there was no talk during the call about working for the Eagles.
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?
After much uncertainty and fear of losing control, the Eagles ultimately concluded that it wasn't the right move.
"You'll have to start over again," a source with firsthand knowledge of the Eagles' thinking told ESPN. "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."
For now, Belichick is expected to "bid his time" until the next hiring cycle by signing a TV deal with Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions.
ESPN says he still has an interest in coaching the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and Eagles in 2025.
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