Bill Belichick will cast a large shadow over the NFL throughout the 2024 season.

The coaching legend is out of the league for the first time in 50 years, but he’ll have a ghost-like presence in many buildings, specifically among those franchises with coaches under intense pressure to win now.

Whether Belichick actually gets another coaching job remains to be seen. Still, there’s no question his free-agent status will be among the most heavily discussed topics around the league during the season. In fact, it’s already been a prominent topic at various facilities.

You can understand why. This is a completely unprecedented situation. There’s never been a six-time Super Bowl champion head coach waiting on standby — though with a meaty media schedule — to sift through the inevitable wave of job openings in January.

Call it The Belichick Cloud.

“That will definitely be a much bigger cloud than we’ve seen in a long time,” said a high-ranking team executive, who, like the other sources in this story, was granted anonymity so he could speak candidly.

The Dallas Cowboys are the obvious connection. Mike McCarthy, who is on an expiring contract, has 36 regular-season victories and just a single playoff triumph over the past three years, so the Cowboys may need to advance deep into January for McCarthy to keep his job.

And even then, would it be enough? The Cowboys still have one of the most talented rosters in the NFL, and owner Jerry Jones isn’t afraid to go star-chasing. If Jones believes Belichick would give his ready-made contender the best chance to end a three-decade Super Bowl drought, it could be the perfect fit for both sides.

“Nothing (the Cowboys) could do would surprise me,” an assistant coach from another team opined.

Belichick, who will turn 73 in April, has his own short-term goals. He’s got 333 career victories, including the playoffs, and needs another 15 to surpass Don Shula for the all-time record. Belichick’s legacy is secure without hitting that benchmark, but he still wants to hit it.

Therefore, a team in need of a roster reconstruction wouldn’t be a logical fit, not personally or organizationally. So while Belichick will forever be linked to the New York Giants, whom he helped guide to two Super Bowls as a defensive coordinator, they’re still in the middle of a large-scale rebuild in the third year of the Joe Schoen-Brian Daboll ticket.

Other teams that could potentially match a more suitable criteria could include the Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles. While the Bills have won double-digit regular-season games in five consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history, they haven’t gotten over the hump in the playoffs. If Sean McDermott can’t buck that trend, would ownership consider a run at Belichick?

Nick Sirianni has also caught plenty of heat in Philly. In fact, when the Eagles practiced in Foxboro this month, a fan yelled at Sirianni that Belichick would be taking his job next year, so he’s already privy to the noise.

Patriots fan just yelled at Nick Sirianni

“Hey Sirianni, Bill is taking your job next year”

Going to be an intense practice today

— Eliot Shorr-Parks (@EliotShorrParks) August 13, 2024

“(It’s) definitely a distraction,” another assistant coach said, “especially if the coaching staff is on an expiring contract. (It’s) important to get off to a good start, I would think.”

There’s an important element at play that must also not be overlooked, though. There were seven coaching vacancies last offseason, not including the New England Patriots, and Belichick still wound up without a job.

The Athletic reported in February that three primary factors played into that: Belichick’s mishandling of the Patriots’ quarterback situation, including the events that led to Tom Brady’s departure in 2020 and the failure to develop Mac Jones, Belichick’s desire to maintain total control of football operations and a concern over his inability to relate to a younger generation of players.

The same apprehension still exists.

“If the model is the New England model, you’re blowing up the operation as you know it,” a personnel executive said. “If you’re doing that with a 73-year-old head coach, you’re blowing up your personnel operation and starting over with a head coach who may only be there for three years. There’d be a lot of questions.

“It’s got to be an owner who is in a situation where they need to win now because it’s not a hire for the future. It’s not future-oriented. It’s present-oriented. And then what do you do for two years? How do you sustain success?”

Another executive simply asked, “Do you really think Jerry and Stephen (Jones) are giving personnel control to (Belichick)?”

It’s surely conceivable the year away will soften Belichick’s stance on maintaining roster control, especially if the alternative means he’s coached his last game. Jerry Jones has long since established he’ll remain the Cowboys’ general manager, and his aligned vision with Stephen Jones and Will McClay has yielded a premium roster.

Similarly with the Eagles, Howie Roseman is widely viewed as one of the best general managers in the NFL. Even if owner Jeffrey Lurie ultimately approved a coaching change, it’d be somewhat stunning if he took away responsibilities from Roseman.

The Bills are in a unique spot of their own on that front. General manager Brandon Beane and McDermott have worked together since 2011 when they were with the Carolina Panthers. If owner Terry Pegula determines Belichick is the better option after the season, would Pegula view Beane and McDermott as a package deal, or force Beane and Belichick to make serious adjustments and figure it out?

It’s also fair to remain concerned over Belichick’s delivery. His old-school, hardline approach with players has become the exception in the modern landscape, as players have gained a greater appreciation for coaches who empower the locker room. While older generations of coaches, players or fans may roll their eyes at that notion, it doesn’t change the truth. Those who have refused to adapt have had shorter shelf lives in their roles.

At any rate, these questions will continue to help drive the conversation, which will only fuel the speculation in several buildings. Strong starts will be imperative to curb the discussion in places like Dallas, Philly and even Buffalo where the debate has already started, either as a whisper or otherwise. But as history has shown, a few purported Super Bowl contenders will limp or fall out of the starting blocks, leading to a new group of potential Belichick suitors.

“The teams that struggle the first two months who have high expectations, you’re going to have that pressure anyway, whether it’s Belichick hanging overhead or anyone else,” an executive said.

But if sports-talk speculation seeps into the building, either in news conferences or conversations among coaches or front office executives who are wondering about their future, tensions could rise in certain organizations.

“I believe it could become annoying and could be a distraction if it’s constantly asked about and mentioned,” an executive said.

Belichick won’t be hard to find this season. He’s got various media roles lined up, so he’ll surely hear questions about the matter. He may duck them to avoid putting a former colleague in a bad spot, but it won’t take much to generate headlines.

And that hoodie-shaped cloud will remain overhead.

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(Photo illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos of Bill Belichick, Nick Sirianni and Mike McCarthy: Cooper Neill, Mitchell Leff and Adam Bettcher) 

Confidence was radiating from Will Campbell as Louisiana State’s towering left tackle and future first-round pick leaned back comfortably in his chair this week, declaring in a deep bayou drawl his intentions for Sunday’s season-opening meeting with USC’s defense in Las Vegas.

“We know what we’re there for. It’s not to go to Caesars Palace,” said Campbell, the All-Southeastern Conference lineman. “It’s to be in a fistfight.”

He wasn’t hiding how it would be fought either. “We’re gon’ run the ball,” Campbell said in another interview. “That’s not something we’re … trying to keep quiet.”

This wasn’t exactly bulletin board material in the traditional sense. Even if it was presented that way to USC defenders, who responded with shrugs or sideways glances. But Campbell’s confident declaration drove home the reality of USC’s situation.

There is no warmup week this season for a new staff to work out any kinks in its new scheme. After eight months of USC taking punch after punch for its flimsy performance on defense last season, here is a heavyweight bout against one of the most physical offensive fronts in college football, a group seemingly built to exploit the issues that USC set out to fix in the offseason.

D’Anton Lynn, the man tasked with making those fixes, called it a “great test” of the Trojans’ evolution up front, where USC set out to get bigger and stronger this summer ahead of its Big Ten leap. Asked what gave him confidence as USC squares up with a seasoned LSU line that returns four starters, including Campbell, the top tackle in college football, Lynn answered plainly.

“We’re prepared,” the new coordinator said. “We’ve known what the challenge is going to be since I got the job here.”

Players and coaches had been answering the same questions for months, repeating the same refrain about how a defense that dwelled near the bottom of every statistical category last season would be decidedly different. They’ve pointed to the depth in the secondary and the apparent 1,400 pounds of mass added in their offseason training program. They’ve assured anybody who will listen that the scheme is smoother and easier to understand.

But in spite of his own confidence in the Trojans’ defensive turnaround, Jamil Muhammad knows nobody is going to be convinced until they see it for themselves.

“You gotta realize,” the senior defensive end said, “until you have another real chance to show what you’re working on or how much better you’ve gotten, what you did and what everybody saw is going to be on their minds until you change it.”

A strong first impression Sunday would go a long way in that regard. Especially if it includes USC holding its own at the line of scrimmage, where LSU is at its best. Last season the Tigers ranked first in the nation in yards per attempt (6.18) on the ground.

“Teams from the SEC, they’re going to run the ball,” USC linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold said. “That’s inevitable. We pride ourselves as being a run-stopping defense.”

That pride was noticeably absent last season as USC slid to 119th in run defense, second worst among power conference teams. But while the Trojans hit rock bottom against the run, Lynn was leading a UCLA defense that improved from 36th to second in rushing yards given up.

What progress looks like against LSU, a team replacing more than 75% of its rushing production from a year ago, is difficult to pin down. The Tigers relied heavily last season on Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels to pile up rushing yards as he scrambled from the pocket. Without him the expectation is LSU will divvy up carries among a deep, experienced rotation that’s yet to have one lead back emerge.

Though, behind an offensive line that could be dominant, it may not matter who’s carrying the ball for LSU.

“We don’t have trouble blocking anybody,” Campbell said. “You line them up, we’ll block them.”

It’ll be up to Lynn and his retooled defense to complicate that equation up front for LSU. But as USC’s potential redemption awaits, any concerns about confidence after last season’s collapse have faded.

Asked how USC’s new defense might match up with LSU’s ferocious front, Mascarenas-Arnold didn’t hesitate to offer his own declaration, one that’s sure to be tested.

“As a defense,” Mascarenas-Arnold said, “we fear nobody.”

Some things never change for Jayson Tatum. As his career has continued to ebb and flow, there has been one constant: Tatum finds himself at the center of conversation.

He broke onto the NBA scene as an impressive role player when he was 19, only to oscillate in the public eye between auspicious and overhyped. Leading the Boston Celtics to a title in June gave him a championship pass, a final word to put questions of his stardom to bed.

But it took just a few weeks for the conversation to start again. This time, the tenor was different. As a member of Team USA, Tatum (alongside Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton) didn’t make it off the bench in the Olympics opener against Serbia. Though Tatum played in four of the other five games — he sat again against Serbia in the semifinals — his benching became one of the talking points of the tournament.

“It’s one of those things where there’s been so much talk and debate,” Tatum said. “There was a period of is he a superstar or not? Then it was a big debate, like, is he championship ready now? Then it’s like how could he not get in the (Olympics)? I’m like, I just won a championship, it’s the summertime, it might be nice to have a little break where you don’t turn on ESPN and they’re talking about you. But I guess this is part of it, and that may be the level that I’ve reached now in my career.”

Even though he was in the Olympic Village and avoided discussing it publicly while the Games were still going, Tatum was aware of what was happening outside of Paris. And while this was one of the rare times in which the public seemed to have his back, it still wasn’t easy for him.

“It was a lot. In the age of social media, you see everything,” Tatum said during a phone call. “You see all the tweets and the people on the podcasts and people on TV giving their opinion on whether they thought it was a good decision or it was an outrageous decision or whatever. Obviously, I wanted to contribute more, and I’ve never been in (this) situation. I started playing basketball at (age) 3 at the YMCA, and I’ve never not played, so it was different and it was challenging.”

Team USA head coach Steve Kerr attributed his decision to matching up against Nikola Jokić and the big Serbia roster, then proved he meant it by playing Tatum in every remaining game except for the Serbia rematch in the semifinals.

Ironically, his Celtics teammate Jrue Holiday was a beneficiary of Tatum’s benching as he started those matchups against Serbia. But Holiday said Wednesday he felt the whole situation might have been blown out of proportion with the amount of coverage it got across the basketball world.

“When you see it everywhere all the time and people are talking about it and I’m hearing about it all the time, I’m like, ‘Man, I can only just imagine what he’s going through,’” Holiday said. “I feel like he enjoyed himself and I feel like that’s a part of the experience, is enjoying it. I hope he got a chance to (enjoy) it, because I did. It’s fun to play with him and (Derrick) White, but then it’s also fun to play with some of the best players ever.”

“I wasn’t moping around. I didn’t have an attitude. I wasn’t angry at the world,” Tatum said. “I stayed ready and did what was asked of me and I won a gold medal, right?”

Beyond the rotation limitations, there was another reason for Tatum to get knocked down the depth chart. After shooting lights out in the second half of the regular season, he has been on the worst cold streak of his career since the playoffs began.

“I know I didn’t make a jump shot when I was with Team USA. I don’t know, law of averages,” Tatum said. “It’s a weird rhythm thing being with Team USA; you never exactly know when you’re gonna get the ball. But that’s part of it. You sign up for that because I’ve done it before (at the Tokyo Games).”

Tatum and those around him have maintained he is not injured and hasn’t lost confidence in his shot. Though he shot 28.3 percent from deep in the playoffs and missed every jumper he took while on Team USA, he said he’s been playing basketball long enough that he’s not worried about getting back on track by October.

“I have two (gold medals) now, I have a championship, and everything doesn’t necessarily go the way you expect it to go, right?” Tatum said. “I’ve learned to be like, ‘OK, that’s a part of it.’ You move on, and I’m getting ready to enjoy the last little weeks I have before the season starts and get ready for another season.”

Tatum’s summer has been full of success on and off the court. He was named the NBA 2K25 cover athlete, he has a children’s book coming out Sept. 10, and he signed the largest contract extension in NBA history (for now).

Jayson Tatum lifts his son, Deuce, after the Celtics won the NBA title at home in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Things have finally slowed down, so Tatum can focus on spending the rest of the summer with his 6-year-old son Deuce before he starts first grade. As Tatum continues to learn how to handle the increasingly bright spotlight, his son is starting to understand who his father is to the rest of the world.

“Being at school, I guess, made him realize how big of a deal it was (for) us winning a championship or competing for it,” Tatum said. “He just thought that was normal until he went to school and people are talking about the Celtics and us winning and us trying to compete for a championship. I think he realized the magnitude of that, being around kids his age and even the older kids in fourth, fifth grade.”

Last season he would show up to Deuce’s school often to spend time with his son’s classmates and teachers. Tatum said he loved reading to his son’s class as the kids got excited. Deuce got a taste of what it was like to be his dad when he was the talk of his school as a kindergartner. While his son is growing up fast, Tatum said he’s is learning as a parent to let go.

“I’m not gonna lie, I was nervous, at first, to send him to school,” Tatum said. “Just because you’re putting your most prized possession, your own child, in the care of somebody else five days a week, which is obviously a normal thing. Kids go to school. But at first, I was nervous.”

Once Deuce starts school, Tatum can turn his attention to his day job. His goal for the Celtics is to make sure they don’t lose their sense of urgency next season. He said they will have to fight the urge to be complacent, something they succeeded with last year under Joe Mazzulla.

The Celtics were fitted for their rings two weeks ago, and Tatum said everyone was excited by the process. When the team came into the facility earlier this month, he told everyone they needed to make sure their title celebration was short-lived once the games began.

“I’m of the mindset that after ring night, in a weird way, we got to put that behind (us),” he said. “Last year was last year. We did it. It was a dream come true. We worked our ass off for it. But after ring night, we gotta move on. We gotta get ready for game two.”

Tatum and the Celtics came up short so many times in the past before finally breaking through this summer. Just one championship changed their reputations and perspective, even though they came so close so many times.

But this summer wasn’t perfect for Tatum. With all his success came a humbling experience as well. Those moments in prior seasons helped hone him into the Celtics’ best player, a now officially championship-caliber superstar. So the Team USA benching, even if it may have been blown out of proportion in the grand scheme of things, may benefit Tatum in the long run.

“I’m always a glass-half-full type of guy,” he said. “I always believe everything happens for a reason and whatever that is, I don’t know yet. But I’m certain I’ll find out.”

(Top photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)