Bill Belichick won't be a head coach in the NFL this year ... and it wouldn't surprise former NFL exec Marc Ross if he's NEVER one again.
"As far as a head coach," Ross tells TMZ Sports, "yeah, I think this might be the end of the road for him."
It's a pretty shocking reality to think about ... considering arguably no one has ever found more success on an NFL sideline than Belichick.
In his 24 years as Patriots head man, he won 266 regular season games and six total Super Bowls. He earned Coach of the Year honors three times -- and if you include his five seasons as the coach of the Cleveland Browns, he left New England just 26 wins away from Don Shula's all-time mark of 328.
But, when we spoke about the 71-year-old's future this week to Ross -- an NFL Network analyst who previously spent 11 seasons working for the New York Giants ... he wasn't sure if The Hoodie would ever get the chance to be the big boss again.
"I think, unfortunately," Ross told us, "the head coaching career could be over for Belichick."
As for why ... Ross made it clear the hard-nosed way Belichick operated in New England might cause NFL owners to look elsewhere.
Ross, though, did say he could see Belichick as a coordinator down the road ... but only "if he wants to do that."