The Atlanta Falcons moved on from head coach Arthur Smith on Jan. 7 after a third-straight 7-10 season, and just four days later, the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick announced that they would be parting ways. Within minutes, Belichick had been linked to the Falcons head-coaching vacancy with the assumption being that the 71-year-old coach would come to Atlanta with a parade of former Patriots assistants coming with him.

However, a week passed by, and the two sides could not reach an agreement. Belichick would interview with the Falcons not once, but twice, but in the end, the job would go to Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.

I don't see any problem with the Raheem Morris hiring. Nor would I have had a problem with it if the Falcons hired Jim Harbaugh, Mike Vrabel, or any other number of qualified coordinators who deserved a shot at running their own team.

But I can't sit here and say that it's not surprising that Bill Belichick, the greatest head football coach of all-time, interviewed not once but twice with the Falcons, and they passed him over for the job. Until you consider the following, which comes from Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated:

“My understanding is Blank went into the process wanting to hire Belichick as coach,” writes Breer. He continued, saying, “But those around the owner, fearing what that could mean for them, nudged him in different directions. After a while, the amount of change hiring Belichick could require weighed on Blank, especially when taking into consideration that making that amount of change might only get him two years of Belichick.

“And, again, none of this is really Belichick’s fault. It’s just that if you’re going to hire him, you have to go all in on that, and given that he’s not going to coach for another decade, it makes sense that that’d be hard for an owner to reckon with.”

Now all of this makes perfect sense. Belichick has been used to running almost everything on the football side of things for the Patriots for the last 2 1/2 decades.

It wouldn't come as a surprise to learn that any situation he walked into, he would be expecting to do the same. Those in positions of power would likely not want to relinquish any of their sway within the organization, especially for a new head coach who will be 72 by the time the 2024 season starts.

How much longer can we really expect Belichick to coach? And is it even a sure thing that you'll be getting high-level Belichick at all at this point in his career?

The expectation is Belichick will sit out a year, likely take a TV job — which he will be roughly 75 times better at than the general public will expect — and will be able to survey the situation and make one last coaching run starting in 2025. The all-time coaching wins record is within reach, and Belichick, maybe more so than any other coach alive, is keenly aware of his place in history.