Bill Belichick interviews for Falcons’ head coaching job after Patriots exit

Bill Belichick is back on the market and the Falcons didn’t wait long to get him in for an interview.

Atlanta had a sit down with the legendary football coach for their vacant head coaching job, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

It’s the first job Belichick, 71, has interviewed for since he and the Patriots parted ways last week. 

The Belichick-led Patriots famously defeated the Falcons in Super Bowl LI after coming back from a 28-3 deficit in the second half.

Now it appears Falcons owner Arthur Blank is trying to recruit the man who orchestrated that to join Atlanta. 

But the Falcons’ coaching search has already seen several qualified candidates come in for interviews, with Raiders interim head coach Antonio Pierce, who the Falcons requested permission to interview, probably the biggest name.

Still, Belichick is a major name to be added to the list in the first of what will likely be several job interviews he will receive now that he is a free agent.

Belichick’s tenure in New England ended after he helped lead the Patriots to six Super Bowl victories, nine AFC championships, 17 AFC East titles and 296 combined regular-season and playoff victories.

He is surely a future Hall of Famer and is the biggest coaching name on the market after his departure.  

The Falcons are coming off three straight 7-10 seasons under former coach Arthur Smith and have not had a winning campaign since 2017

“For me, this is a day of gratitude and celebration,” Belichick said at a press conference last week. “We had a vision of building a winner, building a championship football team here. And it’s exceeded my wildest dreams and expectations — the amount of success we were able to achieve together through a lot of hard work and the contributions of so many people.”

The Falcons job is one of several open coaching positions at the moment, which also includes the Commanders, Chargers and Raiders.