NFL Rumors: Bill Belichick targets 2025 return, ‘expected to be picky’ about HC job | News, scores, highlights, stats & rumors

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick “would still like to return as a coach in 2025.”

Schefter reported that the 72-year-old “is expected to be choosy if and when he returns to the sideline.”

According to an NFL insider, Belichick “had several opportunities this past summer to join various staffs as a defensive coordinator or assistant coach.” However, he has his sights set on a head coaching job next year.

An obvious question is why teams around the league would evaluate the future Hall of Famer differently next spring than they did during the previous hiring round.

When it became clear toward the end of the 2023 season that Belichick’s tenure with the New England Patriots was coming to an end, many assumed he would be one of the hottest coaching candidates on the board. He’s a six-time Super Bowl champion and the greatest head coach of the modern era.

The thinking was that Belichick, given his age, would be a short-term solution for a franchise on the verge of winning or looking to quickly engineer a turnaround.

As it turned out, Belichick’s success with the Patriots amounted to little and the reputation he had built as the sole source of personnel power in New England had preceded him.

ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wickersham and Jeremy Fowler reported in April that he “failed to convince Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank and other team executives that he would be willing to evolve and become more collaborative. Even worse, Patriots owner Robert Kraft contacted Blank “to warn him not to trust Bill.”

It’s difficult to predict how Belichick’s chances of getting a contract will improve once he’s a year older in 2025 and has spent a full season out of the NFL.