The AFC West is already a haven for some of the NFL's greatest head coaches. As it turns out, perhaps the greatest head coach ever was possibly going to join them in recent years—and it was not with the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Kansas City Chiefs have Andy Reid. The Denver Broncos are led by Sean Payton. The Los Angeles Chargers boast Jim Harbaugh. That in itself is a murderer's row, even as the Raiders are hoping Klint Kubiak turns into something special. But a new report from ESPN's Seth Wickersham broke the news on Tuesday that the one and only Bill Belichick could have joined the division in the last year as well.
Belichick is now head coach at the University of North Carolina after a record-setting run as the leader of the New England Patriots. As it turns out, per Wickersham, when the Patriots and Belichick parted ways after the '24 campaign, Payton tried to get Belichick to join the Broncos for a special run at the all-time coaching wins record.
Per Wickersham's report, Payton had the idea to bring in Belichick as a "temporary" head coach and he would step aside into an assistant HC role. That would allow Belichick to climb the ranks from his already lofty perch of second place with 333 career wins in the regular season and playoffs. Fifteen more would elevate him above Don Shula's legendary 347-win total and give him the record. At that point, Payton would take back over. In the end, nothing materialized. As Wickersham notes, "In the end, it was too complicated -- and maybe too fanciful."
The whole pursuit of an idea like that is flat-out wild on multiple levels. The Broncos had just hired Payton as head coach only one year prior and it came at a cost of first- and second-round picks to the New Orleans Saints. The idea that an owner would be okay restructuring the leadership to accommodate such an odd request after going through those levels to get his man in the first place only to hand the keys over to another coach is weird.
It's also notable that 15 wins is not nothing. For the Broncos to win 15 games is going to take at least a full season and perhaps a bit into the next one. That's a serious organizational hierarchical shift to adhere to some grand gesture on the part of Payton. That's not to say that Belichick wouldn't serve as a valuable addition to any team, but one year into a franchise reset, organizationally speaking, is an odd time to say, 'I have an idea here.'
As for why Payton would even conceive of such a plan, Belichick's resume speaks for itself: 333 career victories across 29 seasons as an NFL head coach, a record-setting six Super Bowl titles with the Patriots, and that's not to mention two more rings as the Giants' defensive coordinator. Then you can add 17 division titles, nine conference championships, both records for a head coach, three AP Coach of the Year awards, and the NFL's only 16-0 regular season in 2007. There's the appeal.
As it turns out, Broncos fans should be glad this never happened. While things might have gone swimmingly with Belichick in-house, it's hard for anyone in Mile High to complain about the franchise's trajectory. The Broncos took over the division from the Chiefs last year for the first time in a decade and were close to representing the AFC in Super Bowl LIX. They have a stacked roster on both sides of the ball and should expect to contend for a title again in 2026.
Belichick, meanwhile, is hanging out in the college ranks. Perhaps a return to the NFL is in his future to climb to the all-time coaching summit, but it likely won't be with a franchise that already has head coach figured out.
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