After spending 23 years with the New England Patriots, former head coach Bill Belichick made the jump to college football. However, since taking over at North Carolina Tar Heels in 2025, his transition has not been smooth. The 2026 NFL Draft presented yet another obstacle.

Belichick stepped into college football with six Super Bowl victories. But turns out, the NFL teams are not confident to draft players from his program. For North Carolina, none of the players from the program were drafted in Pittsburgh out of the 257 players.

As reported by Tar Heels Wire's Grant Chachere, North Carolina goes without a draft pick for the first time since 2016.

Just last year, the general manager of the Tar Heels, Mike Lombardi, made a statement calling the UNC the NFL’s 33rd franchise. However, the 32 other teams showed no interest in any players from the 33rd. 

 "There will be similar terminology, similar techniques and fundamentals, similar training, that have been very successful for me through the years and that I know that other NFL teams are using, whether other college teams are using or not," Belichick promised during his introductory press conference in Chapel Hill.

In the 2025 NFL draft, the Los Angeles Chargers drafted only running back Omarion Hampton from North Carolina.

During Mack Brown's last season, in 2024, North Carolina saw three players drafted, of which one of them was the New England Patriots' starting quarterback Drake Maye, who led his franchise to a Super Bowl appearance.

The other two were Tez Walker, wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens, and Cedric Gray, linebacker for the Tennessee Titans. 

Apart from Belichick’s North Carolina, Colorado, Wisconsin, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Syracuse, UCLA, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia are all Power 4 teams that did not have a player drafted. 

While there is a dip in earning pro league's trust, in college football, too, Belichick hit a roadblock.

Bill Belichick Receives an F Grade for His Debut Season

CBS Sports gave Bill Belichick a “F” grade for his Year 1 coach progress reports. The letter grade translates to “A total disaster.” 

"No hire was more hyped and failed worse than Bill Belichick in 2025," CBS Sports' John Talty wrote. "There was so much buzz leading up to the Tar Heels' season debut, which got primetime national TV coverage and had program celebrities Michael Jordan and Lawrence Taylor in attendance. UNC got crushed, 48-14, and it set the tone for what was to come."

That was just the first step of the domino to fall. In the first year of Bill Belichick’s tenure at North Carolina, the Tar Heels finished the season 4-8, making it the worst record since 2018. 

In the first four games, they went 2-2, but lost four games in a stretch, followed by two wins and rounded up the season with three consecutive losses.

The 34–9 road defeat to a UCF team projected near the bottom of the Big 12 stands as one of the program’s worst moments. Not to forget, Belichick replaced Brown, who delivered six consecutive bowl appearances.

Now that NFL is passing on the North Carolina players, will Tar Heels make a decision about Belichick? Share your thoughts.

Read more at Michigan Football Community.

Written by

Samvruth Raj

Edited by

Soheli Tarafdar