Insiders expand on why Falcons passed on Bill Belichick

There's more information on why Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank hired Raheem Morris over Bill Belichick as the club's next head coach. 

"My understanding is Blank went into the process wanting to hire Belichick as coach," NFL and New England Patriots insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated reported on Sunday. "But those around the owner, fearing what that could mean for them, nudged him in different directions. After a while, the amount of change hiring Belichick could require weighed on Blank. Especially when taking into consideration that making that amount of change might only get him two years of Belichick." 

Belichick turns 72 years old in April and presumably could retire soon after he earns the 15 wins needed to set a new NFL record for career victories accumulated by a head coach (regular season and postseason combined). In his latest "Football Morning in America" column, NBC Sports' Peter King wrote that "the market being cool to" Belichick this winter could be related to the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach being "lukewarm, at best, to analytics" at a time when "most teams over the past decade have built staffs of football analytics people, with pipelines to the coaching staff and urging from management for coaches to use the work of these brainiacs." 

Additionally, Breer noted that NFL team owners "now more than ever want going to work to be fun." Belichick's supposed reputation for not being the most fun and easy-going coach may or may not be one reason that Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones decided to keep Mike McCarthy even though Belichick became a free agent earlier this month. 

"Belichick’s list of suitors likely got narrowed for the same reason Tom Brady’s did four years ago, simply by the conditions that would need to exist for a team to go get him," Breer explained. "It’d have to be a team that felt like it was close to contending, in a location that appealed to Belichick, with a setup and roster that could be shaped in his vision. Try applying all those elements to this year’s eight openings, and you’ll see how quickly the number gets whittled down." 

NFL insiders continue to suggest Belichick could spend a season working as an analyst for a network and then look to land a coaching gig next January. Barring a surprising development, it seems Blank won't be the only owner to pass on hiring Belichick, despite him being widely regarded as the greatest NFL coach of all time.