Breaking News: Michigan Wolverines Management has announced the Next Coach for the Team………

Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera speaks during a news conference after Sunday’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Landover, Md. Rivera was fired on Monday.

ASHBURN, Va. — Washington Commanders ownership has already started the process of finding the team’s next head of football operations and coach to replace Ron Rivera, a process that could include Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, among many others.

The team is interested in speaking with Harbaugh, according to a person with knowledge of the search committee’s thinking. The person said the Commanders have also requested to talk to a handful of assistant general managers, including Philadelphia’s Alec Halaby and Kansas City’s Mike Borgonzi and reached out to Baltimore about defensive line/assistant head coach Anthony Weaver.

Another person with knowledge of the move told the AP the Cleveland Browns have granted permission to speak with assistant GM Glenn Cook. A third person said Washington requested to talk to San Francisco assistant GM Adam Peters.

The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Monday because the team hasn’t publicized its list of potential candidates.

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“I don’t think we want to get into specifics around the process, but we’ve been thinking about who the best candidates are,” controlling owner Josh Harris said at a news conference after firing Rivera. “And I think it’s an attractive destination.”

Harbaugh has been rumored to be mulling a return to the NFL. He spent four seasons with the 49ers from 2011-14, making the playoffs three times and reaching the Super Bowl once.

Harris would like to make separate hires to run the front office and coach the team, but did not rule out one person doing the two jobs as Rivera did.

Longtime NBA executive Bob Myers and former Minnesota Vikings general manager Rick Spielman will assist Harris and co-owners Magic Johnson, Mitch Rales and David Blitzer in the search processes.

Atlanta Falcons heads coach Arthur Smith faces reporters after his team’s 37-17 loss to the Chicago Bears on Dec. 31 in Chicago. Smith was fired after the Falcons loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

Charles Rex Arbogast, Associated Press

Falcons fire HC Smith

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Arthur Smith was back at the Atlanta Falcons’ practice facility on Monday morning for a final meeting with his players after he was fired late Sunday night.

Smith had the support of the players but that was not enough to overcome a third consecutive 7-10 finish. The coaching change was announced at midnight, so Monday’s meeting was an opportunity to say goodbye.

“Most of us already knew,” rookie defensive lineman Zach Harrison said Monday. “Just having the chance for him to get up there and address us and tell us the last couple of things he wanted to say before he left. It meant a lot to me that he stood up there and looked us all in the eye and told us some things.”

Added Harrison: “He’s a guy you know is going to have your back.”

Said offensive tackle Kaleb McGary: “I’m just bummed for him.”

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick watches from the sidelines during the first half of Sunday’s game against the New York Jets in Foxborough, Mass.

Michael Dwyer, Associated Press

Belichick under contract

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Bill Belichick is open to letting someone else handle personnel duties if he remains with the New England Patriots.

The Patriots coach also confirmed Monday during his season-ending news conference that he remains under contract, though he didn’t specify the length of its current terms.

New England’s 17-3 loss to the New York Jets on Sunday cemented a 4-13 record for the Patriots, Belichick’s worst record in his 29-year NFL head coaching career. It’s left his status for next season up in the air as he prepares to meet with team owner Robert Kraft about his future. That meeting was expected to take place this week, possibly as early as today.

“I’m for whatever collectively we decide as an organization is the best thing to help our football team,” Belichick said during Monday’s video conference. “I’m under contract. I’m going to do what I always do, which is every day I come in, work as hard as I can to help the team in whatever way I can. So that’s what I’m going to continue to do.”

No mutiny in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS — Saints coach Dennis Allen is taking a nuanced view of his players’ decision to disobey coaches’ orders and hand the ball off to Jamaal Williams for a 1-yard touchdown run in the final minute of a season-ending 48-17 victory over Atlanta.

With a night to digest what happened, Allen stuck by comments he made immediately after Sunday’s game that players were wrong to overrule coaches. But he also painted his players’ conduct in that moment as an isolated incident under somewhat unique circumstances — not as an act of disrespect toward Saints coaches.

“Those players went out and played their tail off in the last five games of the season — and I’ve been on teams where that doesn’t happen,” Allen said Monday, referring to the Saints’ four convincing victories in their final five games to finish at 9-8 and narrowly out of the NFC playoff picture.

“So, no, I don’t believe there was any fracture” between the players and staff, Allen added.

BRIEFLY

PANTHERS: Carolina fired general manager Scott Fitterer, one day after the team finished with an NFL-worst 2-15 record. The Panthers will be looking for a head coach and a general manager this offseason. Fitterer joined the team in 2021 and the Panthers have gone 14-37 since. Fitterer orchestrated orchestrated a trade with the Chicago Bears that allowed the Panthers to move to the No. 1 spot to get quarterback Bryce Young in exchange for four draft picks and wide receiver D.J. Moore.

GIANTS: New York special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey, offensive line coach Bobby Johnson, outside linebackers coach Drew Wilkins and defensive assistant Kevin Wilkins have been fired. Coach Brian Daboll announced his decision to dismiss McGaughey and Johnson at the start of a postseason news conference. The Wilkins brothers were fired later Monday.

JAGUARS: Defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell and seven of his assistants ended up taking the fall for the biggest late-season collapse in Jacksonville history. Also relieved of their duties: D-line coach Brentson Buckner, linebackers coach Tony Gilbert, safeties coach Cody Grimm, senior defensive assistant Bob Sutton, cornerbacks coach Deshea Townsend and quality control assistants Sean Cullina and Tee Mitchell.