Bill Belichick could be sneaking back onto the Browns’ coaching radar

There’s still a segment of Cleveland Browns fans who loathe Bill Belichick, and always will.

Belichick’s first run as an NFL head coach didn’t generate much fanfare. He cut beloved QB Bernie Kosar during the middle of the 1993 season, and became the face of the franchise’s move to Baltimore as his tenure literally crumbled to a close with a 37-45 overall record at the end of the 1995 season. That Belichick later landed with the New England Patriots and helped lead one of the greatest sports dynasties ever was just more salt in the wound.

But in 2025, with the Browns on the verge of yet another regime change, the vitriol towards Belichick had dissipated. We’re going on 30 years since Belichick was fired by former owner Art Modell. We’re (reluctantly) in the Jimmy Haslam era, and Belichick is now the 73-year-old coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Belichick has held firm in his desires to see things through in Chapel Hill. Back in November, he actually released a statement to squash rumors that he might be interested in replacing Brian Daboll as head coach of the New York Giants.

It’s painfully obvious, though, why Belichick would return to the NFL if the right opportunity arises. With 333 career wins, he currently sits 15 shy of passing Don Shula for No. 1 all-time. For a football history buff like Belichick, that definitely matters more than he’s leading on.

It’s just as painful to see his career washing away at a middle-tier college program, but that could change this offseason. Insider Josina Anderson reported Thursday that at least two NFL teams are currently exploring Belichick as a potential option in 2026. 

She also hinted that one of those teams could be the Cleveland Browns.

Bill Belichick rumor may excite Browns fans, but it comes with a warning

For clarity, Anderson’s report didn’t name the Browns as a team currently looking into Belichick. Cleveland, of course, still has to make a decision on Kevin Stefanski’s future, and that’s likely not coming until after the regular season.

Anderson did, however, mention Cleveland as a team that remains “fond” of Belichick after his failed attempt to land a head coach job in 2024.

“My understanding is Belichick has upper-level personnel still fond of him in Atlanta, New York, Cleveland, whilst all struggling teams going through customary evaluations this time of year.”

Belichick closing his head coaching career where it started, while breaking Shula’s all-time wins record? That would be something. It could actually make some sense on his end, too, as he’s obviously familiar with the area, and he’d be inheriting one of the most talent-rich defensive rosters in the league.

Belichick loves to tell stories about his days coaching Lawrence Taylor with the Giants. The chance to coach Myles Garrett — who’s literally chasing Taylor as maybe the most dominant singular defensive player of all time — would be right up Belichick’s alley.

Should the Browns really be in on Belichick, though? Definitely… not. 

The pros? He’d get more buy-in from the fanbase than old-school Browns fans think, and he’d be awesome with talents like Garrett, Denzel Ward and Carson Schwesinger on defense. He would also be able to fix Cleveland’s ongoing disaster on special teams basically overnight.

It’s the offense — and the looming decision at quarterback, especially — that should steer the Browns far, far away. 

After Tom Brady left New England to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, Belichick’s Patriots rifled through five different starting quarterbacks in four years. He signed Cam Newton and Brian Hoyer in free agency (both in 2020), and drafted both Mac Jones (2021) and Bailey Zappe (2022). Those moves produced one playoff appearance and a 29-38 overall record in four seasons, ending with his firing by owner Robert Kraft in 2023.

That plight should sound all-too-familiar to Browns fans. Belichick’s poor roster decisions and deteriorating track record in the draft should scare the heck out of Haslam and company, if they do indeed move on from Stefanski at the end of the year.

The Browns have some franchise-altering decisions coming up, as they look to transition away from Deshaun Watson’s crippling contract, develop the exciting young talent from their 2025 draft class, and continue to build the roster with their 10 projected selections in 2026.

Belichick definitely deserves more respect than he’s getting from NFL owners, but a team like the Browns, whose biggest decisions are at quarterback and on the offensive side of the ball, should think long and hard before throwing him a bone.