For the first time in more than two decades, Bill Belichick is unemployed.
The 71-year-old head coach parted ways with the New England Patriots on Thursday after 24 seasons. It is expected that Belichick will look to continue his career elsewhere, and former Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich thinks he knows just the place.
On “The Pat McAfee Show” Thursday, Ninkovich contended that Belichick could look for a team that already has pieces in place to win before suggesting the Dallas Cowboys.
“You look at the Cowboys,” Ninkovich said. “I think — I don’t know who said it on Get Up, but I do believe that somebody was saying that (Mike) McCarthy, if he doesn’t win, that it might be as last year. And I could see Bill Belichick, say Green Bay goes down to Dallas and takes care of business, I could see Jerry Jones saying, ‘Hey, Bill. Hey, man, I only got so many times left, so to speak at the the old glory hole.’
“You know, Bill would be licking his chops to go down there to Dallas with a team that’s loaded like that.”
“If you’re Bill Belichick you wanna go somewhere and you wanna win right now..
I could see him going to Dallas if the Cowboys lose to the Packers” ~ @ninko50 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/5lh0JFE4ZI
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 11, 2024
For what it’s worth, Jerry Jones offered high praise for Mike McCarthy following the end of the Cowboys’ third-straight 12-5 regular season, which included an NFC East title.
“He has really made as big a difference from his head coaching vantage point as anybody could from any vantage point in the NFL,” Jones said this week, via The Athletic’s Jon Machota. “He’s the big difference this year.”
That hasn’t stopped some people from speculating that Dallas is the “mystery team” considering Belichick that ESPN’s Adam Schefter made reference to.
The Cowboys will host the Green Bay Packers in an NFC Wild Card game this Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET.