Former GM eviscerates Falcons brass for passing on Bill Belichick

Former NFL executive and current analyst Michael Lombardi recently advocated for friend and former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick after several teams, including the Atlanta Falcons, passed on his services. 

On Thursday's episode of the "GM Shuffle" podcast, Lombardi took the Falcons to task for bragging that the future Hall of Famer didn't rank among the top three coaches on their candidate list. While Lombardi included general manager Terry Fontenot and senior personnel director Ryan Pace in his rant, most of the ire was directed at the team's longtime executive and current CEO, Rich McKay. 

"They've made seven playoff appearances in his entire time there. 21 years. The guy they're interviewing went to [nine] Super Bowls — they're judging this," Lombardi said. "They lost a Super Bowl to the gentleman, and they had six seasons of under eight wins. They're the standard for evaluation?" 

Lombardi's tirade comes after a recent ESPN story claimed that a call from Patriots owner Robert Kraft potentially prevented Belichick from landing the Falcons' head-coaching gig. According to the report, Kraft warned Falcons owner Arthur Blank about trusting Belichick with the role before the franchise ultimately offered the job to Raheem Morris. Kraft has denied saying anything negative about Belichick and instead claimed he encouraged Blank to hire him. 

As for Belichick's future, he'll seemingly spend the 2024 NFL season as an analyst, scheduled to appear on "The Pat McAfee Show Draft Spectacular" while also agreeing to work with Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions. 

That doesn't mean the coaching bug has left Belichick, who would reportedly be open to coaching three teams, including the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. The six-time Super Bowl champion and three-time Coach of the Year recently turned 72 but remains only 15 wins shy of passing Hall of Famer Don Shula for the most career victories (regular season and postseason) by a head coach in NFL history.