'33rd Team' as sad as Bill Belichick's dwindling coaching twilight | Opinion

Matt Hayes, USA TODAY Wed, April 29, 2026 at 8:55 AM UTC

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'33rd Team' as sad as Bill Belichick's dwindling coaching twilight | Opinion

It was laughable on its face a year ago, when the declaration first arrived and provided humor.

Now it’s just sad.

Like everything else in Bill Belichick’s dwindling twilight as a football coach.

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The 33rd Team — the outlandish, self-ascribed moniker Belichick and general manager Michael Lombardi gave North Carolina when Belichick took control of everything in December of 2024 — whiffed in last week’s NFL Draft.

1 / 0Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick struggling early on as North Carolina football coachCHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - SEPTEMBER 01: Head coach Sonny Dykes (L) of the TCU Horned Frogs and head coach Bill Belichick of the North Carolina Tar Heels shake hands following their game at Kenan Stadium on September 01, 2025 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The TCU Horned Frogs defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels 48-14. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Apparently, the 32 NFL teams weren’t too pumped about Belichick’s gutting and rebuilding of the North Carolina roster in the 2025 season. That’s 257 players drafted, and not one selected from the program currently led by the greatest coach in NFL history.

More than 100 players on the UNC roster, and Belichick and his high-paid staff — including Lombardi and defensive coordinator Stephen Belichick — couldn’t manage to acquire and develop one lousy player the NFL deemed draft worthy.

Not even a flippin’ seventh rounder, where teams take flyers all the time on projects, players with legal issues, speed to burn, or players who just haven’t yet put it all together.

Not one North Carolina player.

This, of course, is the perfect ending to the first season of What You Get for $10 million annually. And it’s here where we start firing more facts about the 33rd team under Beli and The Muse.

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North Carolina won four games in Belichick’s first season as a college head coach, the lowest number of wins at the school since Larry Fedora’s back-to-back 3- and 2-win seasons in 2017-2018.

Fedora, one of the true good dudes in the coaching fraternity, is no longer in the business.

North Carolina lost to state rivals Duke, NC State and Wake Forest in the same season for the first time since 1989 — during Mack Brown’s first run of the program.

Brown, the best dude ever in the coaching fraternity, is no longer in the business.

North Carolina began the 2025 season with 70 new players, a roster Belichick and Lombardi constructed after running off players they didn’t feel could cut it.

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They know talent, people. Don’t be ridiculous.

Not only did no one from the gutted and rebuilt roster get selected by the NFL to play at the highest level of football, but Belichick and Lombardi were at it again as soon as the Tar Heels skulked off the field with the last of three straight losses (to those same state rivals) to finish the season.

More than 30 players were sent packing, and 61 were added (41 high school/junior college recruits, 20 players from the transfer portal), and here we go again. Another reboot, another opportunity for the 33rd team to make its mark.

The recruiting class was ranked 17th by the 247Sports composite on quantity, not necessarily quality. Only three of the 41 were nationally ranked, and the transfer portal class was ranked 50th.

Fifty.

Trailing notable powers Northwestern, Purdue, Mississippi State, and … do I need to continue?

Football at all levels revolves around roster building. Getting the right players, and developing those players to reach their ceilings as quickly as possible.

North Carolina was 120th out of 135 FBS teams in scoring offense in 2025. The Tar Heels were 90th in turnover ratio, 111th in penalties, 97th in third down conversions, 104th in opponent third down conversions, and 123rd in long scrimmage plays.

Boy, it’s absolutely shocking why the NFL passed on the 33rd team.

But there’s hope on the horizon, and it has nothing to do with the 2027 recruiting class and it’s early sprint from the gate as the 50th-ranked class in the nation. Belichick may have found a quarterback, and more important, he finally realized he needed a real, legit college coach on his staff.

So he hired Bobby Petrino to run the offense and coach the quarterbacks. A mercenary yes, but one helluva mercenary who knows how to coach quarterbacks and call plays as well as anyone in the game.

That leaves us with four-star freshman quarterback Travis Burgess, who enrolled early and competed in spring drills against a deep quarterback room that includes transfers Billy Edwards (Wisconsin/Maryland) and Taron Dickens (FCS Western Carolina).

Burgess is big (6-4, 200 pounds), has a live arm — and Petrino isn’t intimidated by playing a freshman.

“Last year, everyone was brand new,” Belichick said earlier this month. “There is no question we’re definitely better.”

Now it’s time to provide wins instead of sad humor.

And maybe a few draft-worthy players in 2027.

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NFL sent a clear message to Bill Belichick’s UNC football project

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