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Bill Belichick

Patriots Notes: Peppers, Woods, Wilson, Belichick

September 7th, 2025 at 1:03pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

The Patriots overhauled their approach to the safety position this year by cutting Jabrill Peppers and benching Kyle Dugger, their starting duo for the past few seasons.

The two veterans are better at playing downhill than covering the deep areas of field, the latter of which is what new head coach Mike Vrabel looks for in his safeties. Those roles will now be filled by former Falcon and Charger Jaylinn Hawkins and fourth-round rookie Craig Woodson.

New England put Dugger on the trade block before roster cut-downs, but his $9.75MM guaranteed salary was likely a significant obstacle to a deal. The Patriots also looked into moving Peppers, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss, but similarly received little interest despite a more tradable contract with only $4.3MM in guaranteed salary remaining.

Pepper has yet to catch on with another team, though he will have a better chance at signing after Week 1 when veteran salaries are non-guaranteed. Dugger, meanwhile, seems headed out of New England within the next year. The Patriots could try to re-bait the hook at the trade deadline if there are safety injuries around the league; if no club bites, he’ll likely be a cap casualty next offseason.

  • New England was the only team to claim Rams cornerback Charles Woods off waivers, according to Reiss. He worked closely with new Patriots vice president of football operations and strategy John Streicher on Los Angeles’ special teams unit in 2024. The Patriots also claimed Colts cornerback Jaylon Jones with priority over the Bears, but they rescinded their claim after securing Woods.
  • The Patriots were also the only team to claim quarterback Tommy DeVito, per Reiss, despite reports that he would receive more interest on the waiver wire.
  • New England is entering the 2025 season with almost $47MM of cap space and won’t come close to hitting the ceiling this year. However, they will be able to roll over this year’s space to set up more spending next offseason, per Doug Kyed of the Boston Hearld.
  • Head coach Mike Vrabel named rookie Jared Wilson as the Week 1 starter at left guard. The third-round pick out of Georgia will line up between fellow rookie Will Campbell and veteran Garrett Bradbury.
  • Bill Belichick addressed his decision to ban the Patriots from North Carolina’s facilities during a recent press conference, saying (via The Athletic’s David Ubben), “It’s clear I’m not welcome there at their facility. So they’re not welcome at ours.” His dispute with his former team has continued over perceived slights on both sides, per Ubben’s colleague Dianna Russini, including a charge that a Patriots staffer was told not to wear UNC gear in the team facility.

UNC, Bill Belichick Ban Patriots Scouts

September 5th, 2025 at 8:30pm CST by Ely Allen

Despite recent news that a Bill Belichick statue may be coming to Gillette Stadium (per ESPN’s Mike Reiss), some bad blood apparently remains between the rookie collegiate head coach and his former NFL team.

The University of North Carolina, where Belichick now runs the football program, has reportedly banned the Patriots’ scouts from attending practices at its facility this season, according to ESPN’s Kalyn Kahler and Ben Volin of the Boston Globe. Patriots scouts are also not allowed to attend the Tar Heels’ home games, due to the team’s purported mistreatment of Belichick since he left New England.

Per Volin, the unfair treatment most likely refers to the Apple TV docuseries The Dynasty. The 10-part series, reported to be an independent project but with a copyright held by Kraft Dynasty LLC, focuses quite a bit on pinning the loss of quarterback Tom Brady and the team’s Super Bowl loss to the Eagles on the head coach, while glossing over many of the franchise’s successes under Belichick. Volin adds that NFL Films was originally meant to be involved in the project but stepped away due to the negative tone towards Belichick.

“Why would we let them in our home after how they have treated Belichick since he left?” a source with the Tar Heels said to The Globe. “We will help our players to the fullest, and we will help their scouts over the phone and sharing of film, but being treated fairly is a two-way street.”

ESPN was met with similar undertones of pettiness when they reached out to UNC general manager Michael Lombardi for comment, and he replied with a curt “good luck” before hanging up the phone.

The comments of The Globe’s source ring a bit hollow in their commitment to help their players. Lombardi and the Heels’ pro liaison Frantzy Jourdain were the ones who informed New England of their ban a day before one of the team’s scouts was scheduled to visit in August.

Scouts from other teams informed ESPN that UNC, under Belichick’s directive, is offering limited access to all NFL personnel. It’s not the ban the Patriots have received, but teams can “speak only with Jourdain,” and the Tar Heels’ college relations website, a page only NFL personnel have access to, reportedly says that “scouts will have zero access to coaches or other personnel people,” with the term “zero access” appearing twice more across the site. Per Kahler, one scout claimed that the Tar Heels limit scouts to watch only three periods of practice, while other schools mostly allow full practices to be watched.

All of this gatekeeping could be extremely harmful to the NFL prospects of players on the UNC football team. Obviously, much of the work in scouting comes from watching games and game film to evaluate the abilities of student athletes, but scouts often enjoy several benefits at school facilities, as well. Scouts are able to get in-person assessments at practices, and often, relationships are made with position coaches, personnel staff, and strength coaches that allow scouts access to candid testimonies on a player’s character or work ethic. By severing any access to those kinds of connections, NFL hopefuls won’t have anyone trustworthy advocating on their behalf.

The odd closed-door protocol hardly makes sense for the Patriots, though a line can easily be drawn to retribution against a former employer, but expanding that policy to the rest of the NFL feels disrespectful to the student athletes and neglectful of the duties of a college football program. It will be interesting to see how much these boundaries extend into the pre-draft process, in regard to the school’s pro day and private workouts with teams, but one hopes Belichick and Co. won’t continue standing in the way of their players and the NFL.

When reached for comment, ESPN reports that Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel told the media, “That’s an individual choice, and we’ll cross that bridge when we start looking at players. I’m going to focus on our football team. That’s their prerogative to make the decisions that they feel like are the best for them. We’ll have to find other ways to get the information for any players that we want to look at at North Carolina.”

Nikhil Mehta contributed to this post.

Raiders Rumors: Telesco, Davis, Brady, Pierce, Carroll, Belichick, Leonard

February 2nd, 2025 at 9:45pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

After a playoff win drought of more than 20 years, Raiders owner Mark Davis was hoping that adding Tom Brady to the ownership group would result in a transformative offseason.

Indeed, Brady was a key voice in the Raiders’ decisions to fire head coach Antonio Pierce and general manager Tom Telesco, as well as the team’s subsequent search processes to fill both positions, per The Athletic’s Tashan Reed. Las Vegas ultimately hired Pete Carroll as head coach and John Spytek as general manager, but Brady will continue to play a role in football operations.

[RELATED: Raiders To Hire Chip Kelly As OC]

Davis praised Pierce’s locker room leadership, but finishing in last place in the AFC West for the first time since 2018 was too much for the 46-year-old coach to overcome. “We just felt it was time for a change,” said Davis (via Reed).

Davis was satisfied with Telesco’s 2024 draft class, which featured star tight end Brock Bowers in the first round and starting offensive linemen Jackson Powers-Johnson and Delmar Glaze on Day 2. However, Davis hinted that he was disappointed with Telesco’s free agency signings in the offseason, which included a massive four-year, $110MM contract for defensive tackle Christian Wilkins.

Wilkins played in just five games with two sacks before suffering a Jones fracture in his foot that would require season-ending surgery. The Raiders’ other major signing, quarterback Gardner Minshew, similarly failed to live up to his two-year, $25MM deal. He posted a passer rating of 81.0 before a broken collarbone ended his season. Pierce had benched Minshew on multiple occasions prior to that injury, effectively ensuring the veteran QB would not be back in 2025.

The list goes on: Alexander Mattison (one year, $2MM) averaged just 3.2 yards per carry, while veteran offensive linemen Cody Whitehair (one year, $2.5MM) and Andrus Peat (one year, $2MM) combined for just four starts. Wide receiver signings Michael Gallup (one year, $1.75MM) and Jalen Guyton (one year, $1.29MM) were not on the team’s 53-man roster by the time the regular season started.

Telesco choosing Bowers, who went on to break Mike Ditka‘s 63-year-old record for rookie tight end yardage, only to be fired after one season does seem a bit hasty. At the time of the ouster, it was reported Brady and Davis decided to start fresh to align the team’s next HC and GM. Telesco has been fired twice in 13 months, after seeing a 63-21 Raiders demolition over the Chargers end his stay in Los Angeles. Telesco and Pierce butted heads on the quarterback issue, which effectively went unaddressed — as far as the big picture is concerned — much to the coach’s chagrin.

As Davis did in December, Carroll confirmed Brady will have a significant role in helping the Raiders identify a quarterback. Viewed by most as the greatest quarterback in NFL history, Brady is now operating in a historically unusual dual role — lead FOX announcer and Raiders part-owner/personnel exec. Brady, 47, is not leaving FOX after this season; the 23-year veteran QB will try to balance these roles moving forward.

“We happen to have the greatest of all time to help us,” Carroll said, via Reed and The Athletic colleague Vic Tafur. “And we’re going to lean on Tom as much as we possibly can. Because nobody has the insights that he has.”

Davis had eyed Brady to fill a football ops role after Jon Gruden “had his head chopped off,” referring to the latter’s forced resignation in light of the problematic emails that surfaced in 2021 as part of the NFL’s Dan Snyder investigation. Gruden remains embroiled in a lawsuit against the NFL, while Brady and ex-college teammate and Buccaneers coworker Spytek will work together to help rebuild the Raiders.

The Raiders were briefly connected to Bill Belichick to team with Brady, but those rumors did not get far off the ground. Belichick signed his North Carolina contract, and while the $10MM buyout is not believed to have proved to be much of an issue for NFL teams, six jobs are now gone. One going to Carroll, who is seven months older than Belichick, may not be sitting too well with an eight-time Super Bowl winner who passed on a second NFL carousel ride to preemptively enter the college ranks. Talk in NFL circles pointed to Belichick not being pleased about the Raiders hiring Carroll, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio writes.

While the Raiders moving the bar for oldest head coach ever hired (by seven years) could reopen the door for Belichick, his passing on an aggressive NFL push now will still make matters difficult if he decides to do so in 2026. Belichick would turn 74 before Week 1 of the ’26 season. Carroll is in place as a short-term Raiders fix; it will be interesting to see how Belichick fares in a similar role in Chapel Hill.

Carroll already retained Patrick Graham as DC, and he will keep Rob Leonard in place as D-line coach, NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo adds. The Raiders interviewed Leonard for the DC post, and they are adding an additional title — that of run-game coordinator — to his duties for the 2025 season. Leonard has previously coached with the Giants, Dolphins and Ravens.

Sam Robinson contributed to this post

Bill Belichick Signs North Carolina Contract

January 23rd, 2025 at 12:09pm CST by Sam Robinson

JANUARY 23: Talk of a Belichick backtrack to the NFL has cooled over the past several days, and Jones reports the new North Carolina HC has signed his contract. The deal points reported last month — a $10MM buyout before June 1, along with a $1MM fee after that date — are included in the official pact. While Belichick-NFL rumors may not be over for good, it appears the eight-time Super Bowl winner is committed to the college gig he landed — at least for the 2025 season.

JANUARY 16: Opting out of a second ride on the NFL HC carousel, Bill Belichick made a preemptive strike by accepting an offer to coach at North Carolina in December. Despite connections to the Raiders and then Cowboys, Belichick is on the recruiting trail at the ACC school.

If an NFL team were to poach Belichick after he committed to the Tar Heels, a $10MM buyout would need to be paid to the university. Though, a gray area now exists with regards to the buyout. Belichick has not signed an official contract with the school, CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones reports. Instead, he is working in Chapel Hill after agreeing to a term sheet December 11. The school confirmed this, via Jones.

That term sheet outlines Belichick’s $10MM-per-year salary and would be set to precede a signed contract at some point. It is not too uncommon at the college level for coaches to begin working without a fully signed deal, but Jones adds a notable wrinkle here by indicating the term sheet Belichick inked is not binding. This could introduce a potential complication if the buyout — $10MM before June 1, $1MM after that date — comes into play.

Earlier this week, a report surfaced indicating the North Carolina athletic director and the ACC commissioner were uneasy about Belichick’s status. Jones has also previously reported NFL teams have not been intimidated by the $10MM buyout number, and the reporter adds some within the UNC community are a bit nervous related to this component of Belichick’s agreement.

Working without a contract is not done in the NFL, where Belichick had only coached from 1975-2023. The league’s second-winningest coach trying his hand at the college game — at a time in which the transfer portal and NIL landscape have radically reshaped the sport — now remains a curious move, especially when four more coaching jobs opened up after Belichick and his lieutenants surveyed the NFL market during the season. The Cowboys, Jaguars and Raiders jobs have since opened, and Dallas connections persist.

Former Browns GM Michael Lombardi, who worked with Belichick in New England, is now the North Carolina football program’s GM. Lombardi denied any NFL interest exists, refuting the above-referenced report about Belichick’s thin staff creating some unease, and he responded to Jones’ report by indicating (via X) “the NFL isn’t an option” for the legendary HC. A report shortly after Belichick took the college job pegged him as being “disgusted” with a league that has been unwilling to grant him a third head coaching opportunity given the success he had in New England.

That said, Jonathan Jones notes that Belichick and Jerry Jones maintain a good relationship. Belichick was connected to monitoring the Cowboys job in 2024, and the Cowboys did backchannel work on him before deciding to retain Mike McCarthy last year. A report in the wake of McCarthy’s dismissal this week classified a Belichick-Cowboys partnership as one both sides would have been open to had the coach not jumped to the college ranks. Though, as we have mentioned many times, Belichick’s age (73 in April) poses a problem for him — as no HC older than 66 has ever been hired by an NFL team — and he ultimately opted to punt on a second carousel ride.

Bill Belichick also brought son Steve over from Washington to be his DC, a development that would further entrench the former in Chapel Hill, and ESPN.com’s Pete Thamel adds the Tar Heels have hired veteran NFL assistant Mike Priefer to be their special teams coordinator. Priefer had served as ST coordinator for the Chiefs, Broncos, Vikings and Browns from 2006-22. He last coached in college in 2001.

2025 NFL Head Coaching Search Tracker

January 15th, 2025 at 11:03pm CST by Sam Robinson

With the Cowboys and Mike McCarthy splitting up, seven teams have made coaching changes so far during this year’s cycle. Here are the candidates connected to each of the HC-needy franchises. If more teams make changes, they will be added to the list.

Updated 2-11-25 (11:40am CT)

Chicago Bears

Dallas Cowboys

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Jets

Coaching Rumors: Belichick, McDaniels, Patriots, Packers, Cowboys

January 14th, 2025 at 5:29pm CST by Sam Robinson

Bill Belichick has come up in connection to the Raiders and Cowboys’ HC jobs. Though the ties have been loose to this point, the recently hired North Carolina coach’s staff may be causing some unrest in Chapel Hill. Belichick having only hired a few assistants — including retaining interim HC Freddie Kitchens as OC and adding son Steve as DC — despite having a $10MM staff budget has made multiple staffers nervous, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio writes. This report drew a rebuke from the Tar Heels’ new GM (Michael Lombardi), who indicated (via X) the team was being diligent and had hired three more staffers Sunday.

When the Cowboys separated from Mike McCarthy on Monday, Belichick came up. Reports described a situation where mutual interest would have existed, were Belichick truly available. When Belichick-Raiders tie emerged, the prospect of a quick North Carolina departure was quickly shot down. Though, Belichick’s $10MM buyout — which drops to $1MM after June 1, impacting a potential 2026 jump (albeit at age 73 by that point) — has not spooked NFL teams thus far. The coach who once famously resigned as Jets HC in early 2000 may still be caught in NFL rumors until the Cowboys fill their post, as the rookie college HC was connected as a potential 2025 option at multiple points in 2024. Jerry Jones‘ willingness to pay Belichick’s $10MM buyout has also drawn skepticism.

For now, Belichick appears to be sticking with the Tar Heels despite having immense NFL interest last year. Here is the latest on the Dallas situation and other coaching matters:

  • One of Mike Vrabel‘s rumored options for the Patriots‘ OC job came off the board today, as the Browns promoted Tommy Rees to replace Ken Dorsey. Vrabel said Tuesday (during an appearance on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show) he would conduct an expansive search to replace OC Alex Van Pelt, and he confirmed Josh McDaniels will be a candidate. Vrabel-McDaniels rumors have circulated for weeks now, and the underwhelming HC returning to the place where he won three Super Bowl rings as a coordinator would make sense. McDaniels has not been tied to North Carolina, despite helping Belichick as he searched for his 2025 landing spot, and has not coached since the Raiders fired him hours after the 2023 trade deadline. McDaniels and Vrabel overlapped on the Patriots from 2001-08 and have maintained a good relationship. With a possible third Pats OC stint in play, McDaniels has not been connected to any other team.
  • The Packers previously lured Tom Clements out of retirement, but their quarterbacks coach is again calling it quits, ESPN.com’s Rob Demovsky notes. Having coached Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love, Clements has been an NFL staffer since 1997. The 71-year-old assistant was with the Packers from 2006-16 under McCarthy, unretired to be the Cardinals’ QBs coach from 2019-20 and then rejoined the Pack in 2022 as QBs coach. Collecting a Super Bowl ring and being on staff for two of Rodgers’ four MVP awards, Clements was the Packers’ OC from 2012-14 and Bills OC from 2004-05.
  • In Deion Sanders, the Cowboys already looked toward an off-grid name to start their search to replace McCarthy; it is possible another will surface soon. Although Jason Witten has no coaching experience beyond the high school level, Florio names names him as a candidate to watch to rise all the way to the Cowboys’ HC post. Some in the organization believe the Dallas tight end great will ascend to the team’s HC job at some point, though Florio does not indicate he will definitively be a 2025 option. With Witten coaching at Liberty Christian School in Texas for four years, it would stand to reason the Cowboys would want him to gain some seasoning at the pro or college levels before he becomes a true consideration for the job.

Mike McCarthy Will Not Return As Cowboys’ Head Coach

January 13th, 2025 at 10:20pm CST by Adam La Rose

After talks on a new deal failed to result in an agreement, Mike McCarthy is set to depart the Cowboys. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports Dallas and the former Super Bowl winner will go their separate ways this offseason. A team announcement has since confirmed the news.

Several signs have pointed throughout the year to McCarthy remaining in Dallas despite the fact he spent the season on an expiring contract. He and owner Jerry Jones communicated with one another once the campaign ended, a point at which the Bears and Saints emerged as teams which could be interested in the event McCarthy became a free agent. Tomorrow night looms as the expiration date of his current pact, although Pelissero’s colleague Ian Rapoport notes he is free to speak with teams immediately.

[RELATED: Fallout From Cowboys-McCarthy Separation]

A report from last week stated McCarthy and the Cowboys were set to begin negotiating the terms of a new contract. A window of opportunity therefore existed for the parties to reach an agreement before tomorrow’s deadline, but that will no longer be the case. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported earlier on Monday there had not, in fact, been substantive talks on a new contract up to this point. Now, this latest update on the situation confirms Dallas will be in the market for a new head coach after McCarthy held the role for five seasons.

The first year of that tenure produced a 6-10 season, but McCarthy managed to deliver sustained regular season success after that point. The 61-year-old helped lead Dallas to a 12-5 record every year from 2021-23. This past campaign, a Cowboys roster which lost several key players in the offseason was hit hard by injuries. Dallas fell out of playoff contention early, although a turnaround late in the year seemed to help McCarthy’s stock.

Of course, the veteran’s tenure in Dallas will best be remembered for his playoff outings. Of the four postseason games McCarthy coached with the Cowboys, the team only ended up winning one. Jones cited last year’s home wild-card defeat against the Packers as a main reason why he made the decision to retain McCarthy without offering him an extension. After making it clear no in-season firing would take place (as was the case when his Green Bay tenure ended), questions were raised about how negotiations would proceed.

As Pelissero and CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones note, one of the main sticking points between Jones and McCarthy was the length of a potential new contract. Given the former’s hesitance to make a new commitment last offseason, it would of come as something of a surprise if a long-term offer has been made over the weekend. As the latter prepares to seek out his market, meanwhile, his assistants are also set to become free agents.

The Bears requested permission to interview McCarthy last week, when his Dallas future remained uncertain. The Cowboys blocked it, a move which has now proven to be a moot point. Chicago has conducted a wide-ranging search with interest being shown in NFL and college staffers. Longtime Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll – who is now joined by McCarthy as a 2025 candidate with a lengthy resume and a Super Bowl title – already interviewed with the Bears. It will be interesting to see if McCarthy does the same.

It was also learned last week that the Saints could be a team to watch in the event McCarthy reached the market. Since that is now the case, New Orleans will be free to set up an interview. Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn is seen as the top candidate for the job at this point, but plenty could change on that front over the coming days and weeks.

Former DC Dan Quinn could have represented a candidate to take over from McCarthy had a change been made last year. Quinn took the Commanders’ coaching gig, however, leaving Dallas in need of a different defensive coordinator. Mike Zimmer was brought in after previously leading the team’s defense over a seven-year period. The former Vikings head coach has expressed a desire to land another HC gig, and it will be interesting to see if Jones considers promoting him to the role. Meanwhile, Fox Sports’ Jordan Schultz reports Bill Belichick would have had interest in Dallas’ opening had it existed before his decision to take charge of North Carolina. He adds that feeling likely would have been mutual, but now the Cowboys will need to move in another direction.

McCarthy sports an all-time winning percentage of .608, making him one of the most accomplished staffers available for the 2025 hiring cycle. He is a somewhat late addition to the list of options for the winter, but with the Patriots representing the only team to make a head coaching hire so far he could have several suitors in the near future.

Mike McCarthy Fallout: Failed Negotiations, Cowboys Candidates, McCarthy Suitors

January 13th, 2025 at 9:45pm CST by Ben Levine

The Mike McCarthy era in Dallas finally came to an end today, as the team announced that they wouldn’t be re-signing their head coach. With McCarthy’s contract set to expire tomorrow, the two sides were reportedly negotiating the terms of a new deal. However, it sounds like true contract talks never took place.

[RELATED: Cowboys Considering Deion Sanders For Head Coaching Job]

In a statement, owner Jerry Jones clearly stated that he made the determination to move on from McCarthy before any contract talks could commence.

“Over the past week, Mike [McCarthy] and I had the opportunity to conduct a joint review of all aspects of the past season, our players and staff, and also spent considerable time discussing the road forward for the team,” Jones said (via Jon Machota of The Athletic). “These discussions were thorough and received an appropriate amount of time and depth to cover. Prior to reaching the point of contract negotiations, though, it became mutually clear that it would be better for each of us to head in a different direction.”

While Jones’ statement was pretty clear, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero slightly pushes back at the notion that the two sides never discussed a new contract. Pelissero somewhat points to semantics, noting that “contract negotiations” would signal a definitive exchange of proposals (vs. the informal “talks”). Either way, the reporter believes the two sides did indeed discuss a path forward but ultimately couldn’t agree on contract length.

It didn’t take long for the Cowboys to start preparing for their impending head coaching search. According to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, the team’s decision makers took part in “inclusive hiring training” this afternoon, only hours after news broke of the McCarthy divorce. Soon, we’ll start hearing of some definitive candidates, but the rumor mill is already churning with potential names. Deion Sanders has already been linked to the Cowboys, and there are some initial rumblings surrounding other big names.

Predictably, the biggest name on the market will be connected to the offseason’s biggest vacancy. Sources told Jonathan Jones that Bill Belichick could be towards the top of the organization’s list of candidates, and sources also told the reporter that the iconic HC would have interest in the Dallas gig if it became available. While Belichick’s UNC contract includes a $10MM buyout, sources believe that penalty wouldn’t stop owners from pursuing the future Hall of Famer. Still, many reporters (including Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com) are skeptical that Jones would be willing to pay for a buyout…a relevant note in their potential pursuits of Belichick and Sanders.

Jonathan Jones also suggests that the Cowboys could look to the college ranks for another candidate: Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian. The long-time college coach has never held the HC role in the NFL, although he did have a stint as the Falcons offensive coordinator. Sarkisian would also require a buyout. Among current NFL coaches, two popular names are also expected to be on the team’s list of candidates. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport says Eagles OC Kellen Moore is a name to watch. Moore, of course, finished his playing career with the Cowboys before moving to the sideline, where he worked his way up from QBs coach to offensive coordinator.

The Cowboys will presumably also have interest in Lions Ben Johnson, but the team missed their window to interview the popular HC candidate. As Fox Sports’ Jordan Schultz notes, the Cowboys will now have to wait until Detroit is knocked out of the playoffs until they can talk to Johnson about their vacancy. Fortunately, Jonathan Jones notes that Johnson shut down communication with teams following the first round of interviews, as the coordinator is now solely focused on Detroit’s playoff run. So, if the Cowboys do truly have interest in Johnson, it shouldn’t take a whole lot for the team to make up ground on their competition.

As for McCarthy, the veteran head coach has reportedly already scheduled an interview with the Bears, and NFL Network’s Jane Slater says Chicago’s interest is “very real.” ESPN’s Adam Schefter says the Saints are also expected to show interest in McCarthy; New Orleans was listed as a potential landing spot for the coach before his ouster in Dallas.

The rest of McCarthy’s staff is also free to speak with teams starting today, per Albert Breer of SI.com. Practically the entire Cowboys staff had expiring contracts, and Slater notes that there were some assistants who grew tired of the lack of uncertainty over their futures. It sounds like that includes Mike Zimmer, as the defensive coordinator has contemplated retirement, per ESPN’s Jeff Darlington. Zimmer just joined the Cowboys last offseason, and it was believed that his status with the organization would be tied to McCarthy’s status.

Raiders To Interview Pete Carroll For HC Job

January 9th, 2025 at 8:38pm CST by Ben Levine

After failing in their (potential) Hail Mary attempt to lure Bill Belichick to Las Vegas, the Raiders will now take a look at another long-time NFL coach. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Raiders are set to interview Pete Carroll for their coaching vacancy next week.

Carroll spent this past year out of the NFL following his divorce with the Seahawks last offseason. It didn’t take long for the former Super Bowl winner to reemerge in this year’s hiring cycle. The 73-year-old met with the Bears about their head coaching vacancy earlier today.

The long-time coach would bring 18 years of HC experience to Las Vegas. He most recently spent more than a decade in Seattle, where he helped guide the Seahawks to 10 playoff berths, including two Super Bowl appearances. However, the organization decided to move on after Carroll and the Seahawks went 25-26 with a single one-and-done playoff appearance between 2021 and 2023.

Even before Carroll was ousted, there were rumblings that the coach was considering retirement or a transition to the front office. Shortly thereafter, we heard that Carroll always intended to stick around as Seattle’s HC for at least one more year, and his recent appearance in the interview circuit clearly indicates that he’s not ready to step away from the NFL.

While Carroll was tasked with guiding competitive teams in his time with Seattle and New England, he’ll be eyeing a rebuilding situation in Las Vegas. The Raiders are armed with the sixth-overall pick and will be one of the main suitors for the draft’s top QB prospects. Carroll once guided the Seahawks to contention with third-round pick Russell Wilson, and his defensive pedigree could help speed up the franchise’s turnaround.

The Raiders are now seeking their fourth full-time HC since the 2021 campaign. While Antonio Pierce avoided a Black Monday firing, he was handed his pink slip the following day. Carroll represents the sixth definitive candidate for the job. We heard earlier today that former Jets head coach Robert Saleh had joined the list with Lions coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, Ravens OC Todd Monken, and Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo. Mike Vrabel and Brian Flores have also been mentioned as potential options for the organization, but neither candidate has scheduled a reported interview.

As for Belichick, we heard that Tom Brady — who is playing a central role in the Las Vegas HC search — recently contacted his former coach to see about a reunion. It was quickly reported that Belichick didn’t have any interest in reneging on his UNC commitment. Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal believes that Brady was merely picking his former coach’s brain as he prepares for a HC move, and Mark Maske The Washington Post says the Raiders haven’t given “serious consideration in recent days” to a Belichick pursuit.

It’s already been a busy day in Las Vegas. The Raiders kicked off a GM search after moving on from Tom Telesco.

More On Jerod Mayo’s Firing: Succession Plan, Hiring Process, Stevenson Benching

January 9th, 2025 at 6:02pm CST by Ben Levine

The Patriots’ succession plan for Bill Belichick clearly didn’t go as planned, as Jerod Mayo was let go after only one ugly season at the helm. However, there were cracks in the organization’s overall plan before Robert Kraft even named Mayo as his head coach.

[RELATED: Patriots Fire Jerod Mayo]

According to Chad Graff of The Athletic, Kraft’s literal succession timeline intended for Mayo to take over in 2025. When Kraft instituted his plan in 2023, he planned to give Belichick two more seasons (allowing the coach to break the all-time wins record) before Mayo would take over the gig.

That obviously didn’t come to fruition, as Belichick’s fractured relationship with the Patriots led to his ouster after that 2023 campaign. Before that, Belichick failed to mentor his successor like the organization expected (Graff notes that Belichick cut off communication with a number of coaches during his final season in New England). So, when Mayo was suddenly thrust into the HC role, he didn’t have the prerequisite mentorship that ownership had hoped for.

That could partly explain Mayo’s unusual approach to his head coaching role. The newly-named head coach first struggled to fill his coaching staff, although he curiously avoided one solution by offering incumbent defensive play-caller Steve Belichick a demotion (which the younger Belichick refused, leading to him taking a DC job at Washington). Andrew Callahan and Doug Kyed of The Boston Herald report that some OC candidates were left unimpressed with Mayo’s approach during the interview process, leading to the team opting for their last interviewee in Alex Van Pelt.

Then, once the season began, Mayo reportedly struggled to discipline his players, and Graff passes along an anecdote where Mayo played cards with the players during a plane ride following a loss. Mayo also struggled with some of the seemingly simple tasks that are required from a head coach. For instance, The Boston Herald duo point to Rhamondre Stevenson‘s uncertain status in Week 17. Mayo intended to bench the RB for fumbling issues, and he communicated the lineup change to Van Pelt. The OC never relayed the message to running backs coach Taylor Embree, leading to Stevenson taking the field with the starting offense. Mayo later covered for his coordinator, but there were clear cracks in communication.

While Mayo has been the only Patriots leader to lose their job, executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf has also drawn his fair share of criticism. The front office leader took some accountability for the team’s disappointing 2024 showing while admitting that some of the Patriots’ younger players didn’t develop as expected (specifically WRs Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker).

“I would say that I guess personally, what I was expecting is maybe a little bit more internal development, which is a good lesson certainly heading into next year. And that you can’t always rely on that,” Wolf said (via The Herald). “The rookie receivers didn’t have it really that much for us.”

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