Asante Samuel is sending a message to NFL owners looking into hiring Bill Belichick ... warning them, under no circumstances, do NOT give him general manager powers!!
Samuel tells TMZ Sports given the way it all ended in New England ... Belichick's next employer shouldn't even remotely entertain the idea.
"If any owner would give Bill Belichick that power again," the former Patriots star said, "that would be crazy."
Belichick, of course, held both the head coach and GM roles for New England during his 24-year tenure in Foxborough ... and despite some of the greatest success ever during that timeframe, things ultimately flamed out recently.
Samuel made it clear he believes it all shows Tom Brady was the reason for the winning in New England ... telling us straight up, "One man, one player determined your success."
And, he says that's exactly why if Belichick ends up on a new sideline next year ... he shouldn't have a GM hat, too.
Samuel also continued his questioning of Belichick's legacy ... asking just hours after it was revealed Belichick and Robert Kraft had broken up, "How does a coach fall off?"
"Here's my thing," he said. "You're a coach. You don't have to be fast. You don't have to be strong. You don't have to be agile. All you have to do is use your mind like you always been doing and coach. So if you're so great of a coach, how do you fall off? You didn't lose anything!"
That all being said, Samuel tells us he can see Belichick finding wins elsewhere -- explaining that if he teams up with Josh McDaniels again and gets "an alpha" GM in place, it all could work out.