Chapel Hill isn’t seeing a 33rd NFL team anytime soon. In fact they are closer to football purgatory than ever before. The Belichick experiment has been written off by almost every analyst and the head coach himself is on the hot seat. The season hasn’t even begun and bad news has already hit the Tar Heels with their second year GM.

According to On3’s Andy Staples, UNC has placed its football general manager, Michael Lombardi, on paid administrative leave, effective immediately.

“As is standard procedure with personnel matters, leadership, staff, and student-athletes are prohibited from addressing this topic further, and it has no reflection on the merits,” the program said in a statement.

Lombardi was hired by the program as the football general manager in December 2024, just after it chose former New England head coach Bill Belichick to succeed Mack Brown. According to USA Today, Lombardi is the highest-paid GM in college football and is in the second year of his three-year, $1.5 million-per-year deal.

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While UNC has not disclosed the explicit reason for the suspension, there are many speculations surrounding it. 

“Per a source, this stems from a human resources complaint filed by a former UNC front office employee. There’s a pending investigation, which led to the administrative leave, “Pete Thamel stated on X after the news about Lombardi.

The CFB insiders also noted the football GM was not included in conversations around the Tar Heels at the ACC Kickoff. According to Brian Murphy, Belichick attended three media availabilities, and, interestingly, Lombardi was never mentioned by him in any of them. Murphy was not sure if the head coach talked about the football GM at other events.

When Belichick brought Lombardi on board, the vision was clear: Belichick would coach the team, while Lombardi would manage the roster. It made sense at the time since the two share a professional relationship stretching back nearly four decades.

Lombardi originally joined the Cleveland Browns organization as a scout in 1987. When Bill Belichick was hired as the head coach in 1991, Lombardi became his Director of Pro Personnel and later Director of Player Personnel. They worked side-by-side managing drafts and roster acquisition until the franchise moved to Baltimore after the 1995 season. They reunited in 2014 at New England where Lombardi served as an Assistant to the Coaching Staff for three seasons.

Before joining college football, Lombardi had transitioned away from front-office roles. He spent nearly a decade working as an analytical voice for various media outlets, including guest appearances on Pat McAfee’s show. Throughout this time, he remained Belichick’s vocal defender in the public eye.

But Belichick is not the only legend that Lombardi had the fortune to work with. He had a long relationship with legendary Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis. Lombardi spent nearly a decade, from late 1998 to 2007, working directly under Davis as a senior personnel executive, viewing him as both a childhood idol and a brilliant yet chaotic mentor.

During this period, he helped construct the rosters that went to three straight AFC West titles and an appearance in Super Bowl XXXVII. The relationship did not end on good terms, leading to a public feud after Lombardi left. In a infamous, scathing 2008 press conference, Davis took direct, personal shots at Lombardi, when he said, “Mike Lombardi has been fired from every job he’s had. Every job. He can’t get a job. Last year he was fired from a job he was working for for nothing. He was fired from Denver. But he does have ability. He does have some ability.”

When he came to the Tar Heels, Lombardi proudly proclaimed that he would build a powerhouse roster reminiscent of an NFL franchise. Yet, his talent evaluation and transfer portal management yielded a miserable 4-8 season. Even worse for a program branding itself as the “33rd NFL team,” not a single Tar Heel was selected in the subsequent NFL Draft.

What this means moving forward for the Tar Heels 

The timings can be extremely challenging for the Tar Heels. Lombardi was tasked with overseeing the roster logistics, NIL contract distributions, and compliance paperwork for a football team that brought in dozens of new roster transfers this offseason. 

With Lombardi sidelined indefinitely, Belichick faces a severe front-office vacancy as the program builds toward its highly anticipated August 29 season opener against TCU.

According to college football analyst Phil Steele, UNC ranks No. 1 in the nation for schedule toughness based on opponents’ previous-season win percentage. The team’s 2026 opponents combined for a staggering 65.2% win percentage in 2025, and the Tar Heels are scheduled to face 11 total teams that finished with a winning record.