There was a chance that we could have seen Bill Belick on the sidelines again this season — this time side-by-side with San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. 

After 24 seasons and six Super Bowls with the News England Patriots, Bill Belichick and the team mutually parted ways in February. However, Belichick’s name was still being thrown around in conversations for different coaching positions across the league. He was even offered a second interview with the Atlanta Falcons before the team moved on to hire Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris as their 19th head coach.

As all the vacant positions began to fill up across the NFL, Belichick was left with no coaching job for the first time since 1975 and no head coaching role since 1999. But new details emerged earlier this week that revealed his name was linked to Shanahan and the 49ers:

It was just three days after the 49ers had lost their second Super Bowl in the last four years when Shanahan told reporters that he fired the team’s former defensive coordinator Steve Wilks. Wilks spent just one year with the team after serving as the interim head coach of the Carolina Panthers in 2022.

According to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle, Shanahan first called Belichick to offer him the defensive coordinator position, a job Belichick hasn’t served since 1985 for the New York Giants under head coach Bill Parcells. Ultimately, the call seemed to go nowhere as Shanahan eventually promoted passing game specialist Nick Sorensen as the team’s new defensive coordinator.

Before hiring Sorensen, Shanahan even threw the ball into the court of Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, according to The Athletic. However, that conversation also fizzled out as Kansas City made sure to offer Spagnuolo a new contract when his previous one expired following the team’s latest Super Bowl win over the Niners.

Now, as things stand, Sorensen is the new defensive coordinator of the Niners and Belichick is without a job for the time being. What the highly decorated 71-year-old will do with all his spare time remains a mystery, but his son Steve, who was just recently hired as the University of Washington’s DC, did hint at the possibility of his father dipping his toes into media.

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