This Is Your Official Warning about Vikings + This Man in One Year
Dustin Baker
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Inexplicably, future Hall of Fame head coach Bill Belichick is on the cusp of remaining a coaching free agent into the 2024 season.
The Atlanta Falcons were expected to possibly hire “the goat coach” during this year’s carousel but hired Raheem Morris instead. Barring a Hail Mary from the Washington Commanders or Seattle Seahawks — or if Andy Reid retires in Kansas City — Belichick is about to stay on the open market in 2024.
This Is Your Official Warning about Vikings + This Man in One Year
So, here is a warning to you, the Minnesota Vikings fan: If the purple team rolls with Kirk Cousins for a seventh season, doesn’t draft a quarterback with high-round draft capital in April, and produces a playoffs-less season, all you will hear about is “Belichick to Vikings,” at least as a fan request.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio wrote this week about the Belichick sweepstakes, “The lack of widespread interest in Belichick is surprising on the surface, given his incredible success and his lingering reputation for being an excellent coach when it comes to preparing a team and coaching it during a game. However, plenty of fans are ambivalent about the prospect of embracing a coach who hasn’t had much success since losing quarterback Tom Brady.”
Put simply, the NFL masses are crediting Tom Brady, not Belichick, for the bulk of New England’s dynastic run. Brady bolted for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, he won a Super Bowl immediately, and Belichick encountered a rough patch in even getting the Patriots to the postseason.
But as the upcoming months twist off the calendar, the legendary shine of Belichick will resurface, and every team with a coach on the hot seat will send its fans to the what-if Belichick rumor mill. It’s the nature of the beast. The same mentality will beset the Dallas Cowboys in 2024: Every loss will be accompanied by fire-Mike-McCarthy chatter.
Of course, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell isn’t on the hot seat or anything of the sort. Minnesota is 20-14 (.588) on his watch, a fantastic first two years for any head coach. However, if the Vikings decide to “run it back” with the aforementioned Cousins and finish with a losing record, you better believe every Vikings fan in your orbit will daydream about Belichick as the solution.
Take the Dalton Risner rumor mill from last August and multiply it by about 10.
Belichick is 71 and will turn 72 in April, so any team that explores his services for 2025 will presumably embark on win-now mode. Well, the Vikings are notorious for a win-now mindset, almost never utilizing a full rebuild mindset for roster construction. In that vein, Belichick’s ethos and Minnesota’s history exactly align.
Perhaps O’Connell’s Vikings fire up a magnificent season in 2024; this would then be moot. Yet, if they do not, prepare for Belichick-everything if O’Connell experiences a hot seat. And this isn’t exclusive to the Vikings; it will apply to every NFL team with a decent roster.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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