Arthur Blank wants Bill Belichick.
His front office doesn’t.
That’s the buzz Bill Simmons — who, while having sources, is not an NFL insider — is hearing as Belichick searches for his first job after splitting from the Patriots.
“The Atlanta thing, there’s a lot of buzz going around right now about the Atlanta job, that the executives are there are trying — and I’ve heard this, I’m telling you from so many different people — basically Arthur Blank wants to hire Bill Belichick, and all the front office people in Atlanta don’t want to hire Belichick because it’s like any big company — sport franchises are like microcosms of all big companies,” Simmons said on his self-titled podcast.
“The people that run the franchise, they just want to keep their jobs, they’re in job preservation mode, so they’re like ‘Maybe we hire Raheem Morris.’ Yeah, you hire Raheem Morris, he’s young, you’ll have your job for five more years.
“You bring in Belichick — you think Belichick’s going to listen to like [John] McKay’s kid … or [general manager Terry] Fontenot. He’s going to be like, ‘I’m going to do my own thing.’ “
The odds boards pegged Belichick as the heavy favorite to be named Atlanta’s next coach, and ESPN Insider Adam Schefter said Monday on “The Pat McAfee Show” that, to his knowledge, the Falcons are the only team in on the legendary coach.
Blank, as the owner, ultimately has the final call, so it may not matter if this front office has hesitations about giving Belichick control.
The Falcons have already met with Belichick twice, and Blank is said to “desperately” want the defensive genius to guide his franchise.
Simmons wondered if one of the four eliminated teams from the postseason this past weekend could instead be a good fit for the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach.
“Belichick going to Buffalo, though. I kinda like it. I don’t know if he’d stay in the AFC East but it does have the Jets, who he owns, he gets to go against [Robert] Kraft every year, which there is a little bit of residue and bad blood, gets Miami, gets an awesome QB, gets a team that can win between 10-13, he breaks the record in two years,” Simmons said. “If you’re Buffalo, aren’t you like, ‘Hey, let’s get Bill Belichick, how much money you want?’ And then he gets to live in Buffalo, he can wear heavy hats and big parkas and just be super cold, and if you’re Buffalo fans, you’re like, ‘Hey, maybe this will end our curse, we get Bill Belichick.’ ”
