Let me introduce you to a potential candidate to fill your NFL team’s head coach vacancy in the coming offseason.

He has held the job twice before. He is 26-29 over his last four seasons and trending downward, with the worst two losses of his career coming in back-to-back weeks. He hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2018 season.

He has a defensive background in an offensive league. He mostly groans when asked to explain anything publicly. He is accustomed to having full organizational autonomy, but his drafting record over the last decade is suspect. And he will be the second-oldest head coach in a league trending younger.

Hey, Chargers, are you ready to hire him? How about you, Commanders or Bears? Anyone who could have an opening?

His name is Bill Belichick. And, by the way, he owns the third-most coaching wins in regular-season history (299-156) and is a record six-time Super Bowl winner.

It feels stunning that Belichick’s 24-year reign presiding over the New England Patriots (1-4) could be spiraling toward a potential ugly divorce at season’s end, but it shouldn’t. History suggests that his tenure was much likelier to finish this way than with a Duck Boat parade to celebrate another championship.

Consider some of the unsuitable endings of great coaches who were historically tied to one franchise.

Who can forget Tom Coughlin, who coached the Giants to two Super Bowl wins over Belichick’s Patriots, not shaking owner John Mara’s hand — always said to be more of a single-minded accident than a snub — after his forced retirement press conference in 2016? He went 28-36 with no playoff appearances over his last four seasons, and the Giants still are trying to recover from the decision to change directions — with just one playoff win from the next four head coaches combined.

On his first day as Cowboys owner in 1989, Jerry Jones fired Tom Landry because he thought the legend was too old and wasn’t winning enough. Landry, 64 at the time, was 250-162 over 29 seasons but his last Super Bowl title was in 1977, his last playoff win in 1985 and he was 17-30 over his final three seasons. The change paid immediate dividends as the Cowboys won three more Super Bowls by 1995, but they haven’t been back to the NFC Championship Game since then.

Six days after Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga and head coach Don Shula were on the same page about Shula returning for the final year of his contract in 1996, Shula quit on his 66th birthday amid reports that he was ordered to make significant changes to his coaching and personnel staffs to save face after an ugly playoff loss. He finished with seven straight non-losing seasons, but the high of back-to-back Super Bowl titles (1972-73) and two more Super Bowl appearances (1982, 1984) was long gone — and still hasn’t returned to Miami.

Chuck Noll went out on his own terms after the 1991 season, but it was far from a Cinderella ending. After coaching the Steelers to four Super Bowl titles in the 1970s, Noll’s final seven teams squeezed out just one playoff berth (51-60 after a 1984 AFC Championship Game appearance). He had to fight to keep certain assistants and there were rumors that some of his organizational personnel authority was challenged just as he was dreading the arrival of NFL free agency, but successors Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin have kept the Steelers as a model organization.

Among coaches who are less synonymous with one organization than those three and Belichick but rank among the 10 all-time winningest coaches: Marty Schottenheimer was fired twice (Washington, Chargers) and resigned twice (Browns and Chiefs), Andy Reid was fired by the Eagles. Dan Reeves was fired three times (Broncos, Giants and Falcons) and chose not to even complete his 23rd and final season at the helm after being informed of his future with three games to go.

So, is this how the great Belichick, 71, limps across the finish line?

In a season marred by a 38-3 loss to the Cowboys followed by a 34-0 home loss to the Saints followed by … whatever happens this week against Belichick’s flailing protégé, Josh McDaniels of the Raiders? With constant calls to bench Mac Jones, the quarterback that he hand-picked to carry the torch after Tom Brady? When the long-rumored tensions between Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft — partially tied into the way both treated Brady — finally get the best of him?

“Patriots fire Bill Belichick” reads like an unfathomable headline, but then again so did “Tom Brady signs with Buccaneers.” If Belichick has no intention of retiring — and there is no indication that he does — a fresh start might be best for both parties.

Belichick would need to decide if he wants to focus on coaching without total personnel authority — that change seemed to revive Andy Reid with the Chiefs — or become a front-office executive like Coughlin did when he returned to the Jaguars, or continue trying to do both jobs somewhere.

About the only thing that can be ruled out is an ambassador-type role like Shula kept with the Dolphins.

The Patriots would need to decide if they seek a clean break or want to turn to someone in the Belichick tree. The problem there, however, is a lot of snapped branches: McDaniels (19-31), Patriots assistant Joe Judge (10-23), Eagles assistant Matt Patricia (13-29-1) and Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores (24-25) all have losing records as head coaches, and Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien (52-48) isn’t exactly inspiring confidence through his development of Jones.

It looks like the Patriots need a full rebuild, and there are other teams, most notably the Chargers, who have stacked rosters and seem held back by coaching.

Could a change be near? Someone keep an eye out to see if Belichick — reading the temperature of the room — reaches for a pen and a napkin to scribble seven words on the day after the regular-season finale.

“I resign as HC of the NEP.”

More than Taylor Swift’s boyfriend

The running joke for the last month is that a romance with pop icon Taylor Swift finally put Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce on the celebrity map.

The irony to football fans, of course, is that Travis Kelce is one of the biggest stars in a sport responsible for 82 of the top-rated 100 television broadcasts of 2022. This is not the equivalent of Kim Kardashian — near the peak of her fame in 2010-11 — dating and then marrying (for 72 days) NBA journeyman Kris Humphries.

In fact, Kelce probably does not get enough credit for his football career regardless of his dating life. He is much more than Patrick Mahomes’ go-to target or Eagles center Jason Kelce’s younger brother. He is a future Hall of Famer, just like Mahomes and the older Kelce brother.

So, where does Kelce rank in the pantheon of great tight ends? Kelce (841 catches for 10,566 yards) is fourth behind the same retired trio in both receptions and receiving yards: Tony Gonzalez (1,325 for 15,127), Jason Witten (1,228 for 13,046) and Antonio Gates (955 for 11,841).

So, is he the fourth-best tight end? Case closed?

Of course not. First off, Kelce (72) is sixth in touchdowns behind Gates (116), Gonzalez (111), Rob Gronkowski (92), Jimmy Graham (86) and Witten (74). Secondly, Kelce has played in 148 games, which is at least 88 less than Gonazalez, Witten and Gates.

Most notably, changes to NFL rules this century have made the game significantly more pass-friendly than when Hall of Famers Mike Ditka (1961-72), Jackie Smith (1963-78), Charlie Sanders (1968-77), Dave Casper (1974-84), Ozzie Newsome (1978-90) and Kellen Winslow (1979-87) mostly were in-line blocking as often as they were fearlessly crossing the middle of the field against head-hunting safeties.

And there still hasn’t been a mention of one of the most prolific tight ends post-1990: Shannon Sharpe (815 catches for 10,060 yards).

In an episode of the “New Heights” podcast, co-hosted by Jason and Travis Kelce, Gonzalez took a double-easy way out of naming his Mt. Rushmore of tight ends by separating eras and only considering those since 1990. He then listed five (instead of four) — Kelce, Sharpe, Witten, Gates and Gronkowski — and humbly omitted himself while acknowledging “first of all, I am on there, but I’m not going to put myself on there.”

Pro Football Reference offers a more objective measurement called the “Hall of Fame monitor score” to indicate a player’s chance of election to Canton for all careers that started after 1955. A score of 100 is the average Hall of Famer.

Gonzalez (195.43), Gronkowski (123.72), Sharpe (114.25), Gates (113.63), Casper (111.62), Kelce (108.52) and Witten (104.72) are the highest scorers among tight ends. Gronkowski, Gates and Witten all are awaiting eligibility, while Gonzalez, Sharpe and Casper have been enshrined.

So, where does Kelce rank in our opinion?

1. Gonzalez: The six-time First-Team All-Pro played in a remarkable 270 of 272 games over 17 regular seasons and set the new-age prototype for scouts with the body of a basketball power forward (which he was in college).

2. Gronkowski: Tom Brady’s go-to weapon could’ve played in any era. You’ll mostly see highlights of him running through tackles and catching touchdowns, but he was a great blocker who could’ve made his name that way. The record book would look much different if he stayed healthy.

3. Winslow: The first true “matchup nightmare” who lined up all over the field in the ahead-of-its-time “Air Coryell” offense. After he had 13 catches for 166 yards in a famous 1982 playoff win, Winslow said he had never felt so close to death.

4. Gates: Scoring touchdowns is the name of the game, right? Only six players — all wide receivers — have caught more touchdowns than Gates, an undrafted former college basketball player.

5. Kelce: You can argue for Ditka, who essentially created the position. Or Casper, Sharpe or Witten. But Kelce was the fastest tight end ever to reach 800 catches and 10,000 yards. Sure, he’s a great route-runner, but his knack for uncovering in the scramble drill is his best gift. 

Mistake at MetLife

The NFL expanded flex scheduling to include “Monday Night Football” for the first time in 2023 with the goal of avoiding late-season stand-alone games between non-playoff contenders. That’s exactly what the Week 14 matchup featuring the visiting Packers (2-3) at the Giants (1-4) is shaping up to be on Monday, Dec. 11.

Here’s the problem with flexing the game out of prime time, however: The Jets are hosting the Texans at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Dec. 10.

So, unless the NFL wants to swap those two games and bank on Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate C.J. Stroud carrying a national audience against the potentially dead-in-the-water Aaron Rodgers-less Jets, there is nowhere to move Packers-Giants. It’s stuck in prime time.

Perhaps something for the NFL to think about in the future when it comes to the Jets-Giants schedules and Chargers-Rams schedules is sending one team that shares a home stadium on the road the day before the other is hosting a flex-eligible “Monday Night Football” game. Or putting one team in “Thursday Night Football” when the other is on Monday.

The real shame is there are three more Sundays when MetLife Stadium is unused by the NFL: Nov. 12, Nov. 19 and Dec. 17. So, having either the Giants or Jets at home on one of those weekends instead of both at home Dec. 10-11 would’ve solved a potential issue.

The real irony is that the biggest opponent of flex scheduling on Mondays was Giants owner John Mara, who considered the short-notice changes to be unfair to fans who plan to attend games well in advance.

But the biggest loser of this scheduling quirk will be fans in markets other than New York and Green Bay. The Giants are about to appear in prime time for the fourth time in the first six weeks of the season, after being outscored, 94-15, in the first three. Who needs to see more?

College football game to watch

No. 8 Oregon at No. 7 Washington, 3:30 p.m., ABC

This game between unbeatens is for fans of offensive fireworks.

The 2024 quarterback class is deeper than just projected top-two picks Caleb Williams (USC) and Drake Maye (North Carolina), regardless of whether Quinn Ewers (Texas) and Shedeur Sanders (Colorado) stay in school or enter the draft.

Oregon’s Bo Nix (80.4 percent completion rate, 15 touchdowns and one interception) and Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. (74.7 percent completion rate, 16 touchdowns and two interceptions) are two names to know as potential first- or second-rounders.

Nix plays like a college version of Dolphins star Tua Tagovailoa — a point guard in total command of quickly distributing the ball within the offense — and Penix throws left-handed like Tagovailoa but seemingly everything is an aggressive, well-placed deep ball.

Washington leads the nation in yards, passing yards and is third in points per game, with Penix throwing into the big catch radius of 6-foot-3 Romeo Odunze and sure hands of the versatile Jalen McMillan. Like Odunze, Oregon has its own dynamic 6-foot-3 wideout in Tony Franklin, who separates with his routes and then cuts around would-be tacklers.

The best defensive prospect in the game? Washington long-armed and high-motor edge rusher Bralen Trice.