In the past few days, Dallas Cowboys fans have seen a blowout loss to a rival, their owner threatening to fire reporters, and a report potentially linking the team with legendary Head Coach, Bill Belichick.
Late on Sunday night, FOX Sports’ Jordan Schultz reported that people inside the NFL see Dallas as the “primary landing spot” for Belichick, who last coached in 2023.
Schultz referenced the “great” relationship that Belichick has with the Jones family, and we all know that’s the number one qualifier if you want to get hired by the Cowboys.
In all seriousness, Belichick to Dallas is a real possibility. With Mike McCarthy’s deal expiring this off-season and a lackluster start to the year, change could be in order for the organization this spring and his fit makes sense.
Factoring in the realistic possibility of this leads us to ask, would it work?
Could the future Hall of Famer fix the Cowboys’ problems, or would it just be another footnote in their tradition of coming up short? Let’s talk about it.
Bill Belichick: The Case Against
It’s important to note here that, solely from a fan-reaction perspective, hiring Bill Belichick would not garner unanimous support at all.
Some NFL fans just don’t like the guy; his serious persona and attitude, history with New England, and non-stop winning ways have driven many to hate him. I would even go as far as to say close to 50% of Cowboys fans would immediately hate this hiring.
That said, thankfully, fans don’t run the show, but there are still some major concerns to have with Belichick.
First off, his age.
Obviously, I don’t mean Belichick would fail because he’s an older coach. I mean that his decades of experience have molded him into a very specific coach that might just not be effective in the NFL anymore.
Teams have moved very quickly into a new guard of head coaches: young guys from the Shanahan tree with high-powered offensive minds.
Belichick isn’t coaching the Patriots anymore for a reason. It’s not like his Super Bowl winning ways were still going. New England wanted a fresh start with a more modern coaching mindset.
It is also hard to imagine this Cowboys team suddenly falling in line with the kind of culture Belichick brings.
Would it help them if they became ultra focused on attention to detail and physicality? Absolutely. Can they make the switch before it appears that Belichick is failing? I don’t think so.
Bill Belichick: The Case In Favor
In the college football world this offseason, the Indiana Hoosiers hired Curt Cignetti, the former coach at James Madison. In his opening press conference, he was asked why he got the job, to which he replied “it’s pretty simple, I win, google me.”
Bill Belichick wins, and you don’t need google to tell you that.
He is second all-time in head coach wins, just 14 behind Dolphins’ legend Don Shula, and nobody has won more Super Bowls as a head coach than him.
Say what you want about Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski and any other great Patriots you can think of, but they don’t become those guys without Belichick.
In terms of having an eye for talent, getting the most out of your players, developing them, and getting them to buy in on a hard-nosed, detail-oriented, selfless brand of winning football, nobody in the history of the sport does it better than him.
As I said, I don’t think it would be an easy transition for this Cowboys roster, which could lead to fans viewing a Belichick regime as a failure, but is it worth a shot?
If Belichick was open to bringing in an independent, modern-thinking, Shanahan tree kind of offensive coordinator, while he took the reins on the defensive side, this thing might work out pretty well.
There’s a reason so many fans from so many teams are clamoring for Belichick. NFL teams with talented rosters and an inability to translate them into wins will all be looking his direction this offseason.
The bottom line is this: Bill Belichick’s Patriots teams had the important things that the Cowboys always seem to lack; why not see if he can bring those things to Dallas?