Belichick would look like a ‘clown’ coaching this team

“If you put a king in the circus, the circus doesn’t look like a palace. The king looks like a clown.”

Bill Belichick could be in the running for several top coaching jobs next offseason. Matthew J. Lee / The Boston Globe

Could Bill Belichick be a viable coaching candidate for the Dallas Cowboys next season?

Dallas is off to a rough start this year, entering Thursday’s primetime game against the Giants with a 1-2 record.

And with head coach Mike McCarthy already on the final year of his deal, the writing is on the wall that owner Jerry Jones will be looking to swing for the fences with a new hire if Dallas continues to underperform.

Belichick would be a splash for a team like Dallas, which already boasts plenty of talent between stars like Dak Prescott, Micah Parsons, and CeeDee Lamb.

But former NFL wide receiver and current ESPN analyst Andrew Hawkins believes that Belichick should steer clear of Dallas — due in large part to Jones’ influence and tendency to meddle in football operations.

“If you put a king in the circus, the circus doesn’t look like a palace. The king looks like a clown,” Hawkins said Wednesday on ESPN’s “Get Up.” “The culture in Dallas is not conducive to bring out the best in Bill Belichick or that organization.

“He (Jones) wants to run the show. He wants to be the one to pick the players. He wants to go in the media and say what he wants because it’s his team and none of that works for Bill Belichick. When he (Belichick) was running the organization — top to bottom — nobody talked.”

While Belichick carved out a Hall-of-Fame resume due to his work on the sideline, he also served as New England’s de-facto general manager for most of his 24 seasons in Foxborough.

Jones has served not only as the Cowboys’ owner and president since 1989, but also as their general manager — spearheading personnel decisions involving both Dallas’ coaching staff and roster over the years.

According to Yahoo Sports, Belichick’s failed pursuit of the Atlanta Falcons’ head-coaching position earlier this year was due to Belichick and the franchise hitting a “crossroads” over just how much power he would have within the Falcons’ organization.

“While Blank and Belichick apparently never discussed a detailed plan of how a linear chain of command under the head coach would work, the source said meetings with Blank crystalized Belichick’s continued belief that the full scope of football operations, personnel, and coaching should be under his decision-making umbrella,” Yahoo’s Charles Robinson wrote.

A few years in Dallas might be Belichick’s best avenue toward surpassing Don Shula for the most head-coaching wins in NFL history. But it remains to be seen if both Belichick and Jones would be willing to make concessions in Dallas’ power structure in order to strike a partnership.