Bill Belichick didn’t ask for ‘full control’ of Atlanta Falcons, owner Arthur Blank says

Bill Belichick didn’t ask to be the boss.

Running the Falcons’ front office in the same way he did the Patriots’ wasn’t a requirement for Belichick as he interviewed for Atlanta’s head coaching job, team owner Arthur Blank said.

“Bill Belichick never asked for, in our discussions, full control of the personnel or the building or anything of that nature,” Blank told reporters Friday.

“He was very inclusive, very collaborative. He met [Falcons general manager] Terry Fontenot. He checked out our people, doing his own references. He sent me a private text, which I eventually shared with Terry, that he was happy working with him. … All of these things that were being produced by the media were totally not true.”

Belichick, 71, interviewed twice with the Falcons, including a one-on-one meeting with the Queens-born Blank.

Many considered Belichick, a six-time Super Bowl champion in his 24 seasons as New England head coach, a favorite for the Falcons job, though Atlanta ultimately chose Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.

Belichick operated as the Patriots’ general manager throughout his tenure, which ended last month in what he and owner Robert Kraft described as a mutual decision. The Patriots made the playoffs only once in the four seasons after quarterback Tom Brady left and bottomed out in 2023 with a disastrous 4-13 campaign featuring one of the league’s worst offenses.

“He’s got his history,” Blank said. “He has a way of doing things, etc., which were very, very successful. You could debate, is that true the last four years or so? Might be a little different picture, but there’s a lot of stories behind a lot of things. I think it was a very good series of interviews with him.”

Belichick’s continued unemployment remains a surprise, and there aren’t any NFL head coaching jobs currently open. His 333 wins between the regular season and postseason rank second in NFL history, behind only the 347 compiled by Don Shula.

Belichick also spoke with the Washington Commanders and “had support from some decision makers” about their vacancy, according to The Athletic, before they hired Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.

The Falcons fired Arthur Smith as head coach last month after a 21-30 record over three seasons — a tenure largely defined by a frustratingly conservative offense in which top-10 draft picks Kyle Pitts, Drake London and Bijan Robinson failed to flourish.

Morris spent six years on the Falcons’ staff from 2015-20, serving as defensive coordinator and interim head coach in the last of those seasons. Blank described Morris’ leadership over those years as a “20” on a scale of 1-10 and said his candidacy improved after spending three years with the Rams.

“Today, he’s still a 20. That hasn’t changed,” Blank said. “What I did see change: The three years he had in L.A., where he worked with a different coaching environment, a different kind of setup, which [head coach] Sean McVay operates differently than a lot of other coaches do … was a learning experience for him.”