When Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots announced that they would being parting ways just a few weeks ago, the assumption around the NFL was that Belichick, an NFL lifer who is just 27 wins shy of breaking Don Shula's record for most coaching victories in NFL history, wouldn't be jobless very long. With head coaching openings in Washington, Carolina, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Tennessee, Seattle, and Atlanta — the Falcons were immediately considered a likely Belichick destination — that provided Bill Belichick seven potential opportunities to come away with another job before the start of the 2024 season.

Then one by one, those jobs started being filled. Jim Harbaugh left Michigan to come back to the NFL and coach the Chargers. With much insistence from Raiders players, Antonio Pierce got the full-time job in Las Vegas. Coordinators Dave Canales, Brian Callahan, Mike Macdonald, and Dan Quinn got the Panthers, Titans, Seahawks, and Commanders jobs respectively. And that Atlanta Falcons opening that everyone immediately penciled Belichick into… well, we all had to flip the pencil around, erase “Bill Belichick” and then write “Raheem Morris” in Sharpie.

All of this has led us to this point, where Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey took to Twitter to comment on Bill Belichick's inability to land a head coaching job after establishing himself as a mainstay in New England for the last two and a half decades.

“The ‘greatest coach of All time' did not get hired out of 6 Head Coaching jobs open. I think that debate can be put to rest now,” Humphrey tweeted on Thursday morning. Incredibly, this is not the first time this year that Marlon Humphrey has questioned the coaching prowess of Bill Belichick.

All Marlon Humphrey is doing is saying what a lot of folks have been thinking since Tom Brady left New England for Tampa Bay. Questioning Belichick's place in history feels like a pointless exercise. Whether he's number one on the list of greatest coaches ever or not, he's virtually locked in to a spot on the NFL Head Coach Mount Rushmore for the time being. His resume is too solid not to include him. Sure, without Tom Brady, Belichick probably doesn't have six Super Bowl rings. But without Belichick, Brady likely doesn't have seven.

I think what Belichick's inability to land a job over the last few weeks tells us is that teams are rightfully concerned with bringing in a 71-year-old coach who would want full control over football operations. Is that a smart bet for the future of any franchise, especially when there are lingering concerns about whether Belichick can win at a high level without an All-Pro quarterback, let alone the greatest quarterback of all-time? Of course it's not. But I'll tell you right now what's going to happen:

Bill Belichick will take a year away from coaching, and he'll be awesome in whatever sort of role he ends up occupying on TV. Anyone who didn't watch Belichick on the NFL 100 broadcasts will be stunned by how great he is, and it'll get everyone all excited about Belichick again. And then in 2025, he'll land a job for a team that theoretically is very close to winning a Super Bowl — the Eagles, Cowboys, and Bills feeling like the most realistic options — to make one last push for the all-time wins record and a seventh Super Bowl.