Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has witnessed numerous NFL hiring processes throughout his coaching career. Recently, he expressed his discontent regarding one particular aspect of the NFL coaching carousel: the frequent distraction caused to playoff teams by interest in their assistant coaches. Every year, assistant coaches from playoff teams attract significant attention from teams looking for a head coach after missing the postseason. Belichick believes this creates unnecessary disturbances for those teams aiming for a championship.
“I’ve never been a big fan of it,” Belichick said in the latest episode of the Let’s Go! podcast. “I think it’s really unfortunate when you have a team, including the coaches and the coordinators, worked so hard all year to get to the playoffs, to have an opportunity to play in conference championships and Super Bowls, and then they’re totally distracted by another team, who was a bad team, who has a coaching change, infringing on that team that’s trying to get to a championship by hiring one of their top coaches. Nobody would be happy if that was a player. But for a coach, that’s also very disruptive, especially when you’re the playcaller. It’s just human nature to be distracted by a potential job opening, staff, and change of lifestyle from a coordinator to a head coach when you’re trying to prepare and call plays in a critical game.”
Belichick’s concerns seem valid. This postseason highlighted the issue for the Detroit Lions, who were upset in the Divisional Round by the Washington Commanders. Both Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn were involved in various head coaching searches prior to their game against the Commanders, which may have impacted their performance in the playoffs. Perhaps this will lead to a rule preventing NFL teams from speaking with or inquiring about assistant coaches still active in the postseason.
It is also notable that Belichick has chosen to address this topic after opting out of the NFL coaching scene, potentially shifting his focus to the collegiate level as he prepares to coach at the University of North Carolina this coming football season.
