It’s only November, but the coaching carousel in the NFL has already begun spinning.
The New York Giants became the second team to fire their head coach during the 2025 NFL season, dismissing Brian Daboll 10 games into his fourth season. They joined the Tennessee Titans, who fired Brian Callahan in October, as the only teams with a head coach vacancy.
Surely, there will be more head coach openings between now and the first week following the regular season. But how many jobs will open? Seven teams made changes at head coach last offseason, and eight teams swapped head coaches in the prior offseason.
Still, even if the coaching carousel is smaller this year, having the right head coach in place can alter a franchise. Just ask the New England Patriots, who are 8-2 entering Week 11 in Mike Vrabel’s first year at the helm after two consecutive four-win seasons.
So, is there a Vrabel-like candidate waiting to get hired as a head coach this offseason? Which coordinators might be the next Ben Johnson and make the leap to head coach this offseason? Will Bill Belichick receive head coach interest this offseason?
We asked executives and staffers around the league those questions and their thoughts on the coaching carousel for this offseason.
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Top Coordinators Who Will Stand Out
Greg Auman: Look for successful coordinators on the opposite side of their head coaches, which gives you Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula and Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. Hafley is 46 and has head coaching experience from Boston College, and Kubiak and Shula aren’t even 40 yet and come with coaching pedigree.
Are we ready for a British NFL head coach? Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde, born in England but an NFL assistant since 2018, could get a look if Seattle continues to impress. He’s in his first year as a coordinator, so it could be that he draws a few interviews but is ultimately more ready for a head coaching job a year from now.
Do comeback coaching stories like Josh McDaniels (Patriots offensive coordinator), Brian Flores (Vikings defense coordinator) or Vance Joseph (Broncos defensive coordinator) get another shot as a head coach, or are they just seen now as good coordinators? There should be fewer head coaching openings than in recent years, so competition for these jobs will be all the more fierce, especially if any coaches outside the current NFL – a wide spectrum from Jon Gruden to Lane Kiffin – fill any of the vacancies.
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has helped Drake Maye become an MVP candidate this season. Is that good enough for teams to consider him for head coach vacancies after failed stints with the Broncos and Raiders? (Photo by Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
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Don’t Expect Big Splash From College Ranks
Ralph Vacchiano: When the NFL’s head-coach hiring cycle begins, expect to hear a lot of college coaches mentioned as potential candidates. But if history is any indication, none of them are likely to be asked to make the jump to the pros.
“The media brings up college guys way more than people around the NFL do,” one former NFL general manager told me. “It’s too big of a risk, and it rarely works out.
“The exception is if you get a ‘college guy’ with NFL experience — a Jim Harbaugh or Pete Carroll, guys like that. They understood the NFL and had experience running a pro team. That’s important because it’s a lot different trying to lead a bunch of kids than it is trying to lead grown men.”
So while names like Dan Lanning (Oregon), Marcus Freeman (Notre Dame), Lincoln Riley (USC) or Steve Sarkisian (Texas) will get thrown around publicly, they all remain longshots to be lured to the NFL. Same for Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss), who at least has experience as an NFL head coach with the Raiders in 2007-08.
“But it was a terrible experience,” the former general manager said. “Plus, no one’s going to out-bid LSU, Florida or even Ole Miss for him.”
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has been a popular name in the college football head coach cycle. But could he return to the NFL nearly 20 years after his stint as the Raiders’ head coach? (Photo by Jason Clark/Getty Images)
Much more alluring to NFL teams are former college head coaches who have already made the jump to the NFL, which shows they can both run a team and can handle the challenges of a professional locker room. Two examples that could draw interest this cycle are David Shaw, the long-time Stanford coach who’s back in the NFL as the passing game coordinator for the Detroit Lions, and Jeff Hafley, the former Boston College coach now serving as the defensive coordinator in Green Bay.
“Don’t discount the importance of leading a team, even in college,” the former general manager said. “That matters. And if they can show they can handle NFL players too, that’s huge. Players are more likely trust them, and [owners] will see them as much less of a threat.”
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Who’s This 12 months’s Vrabel?
Ralph Vacchiano: Final yr, Mike Vrabel was clearly the prize of the offseason teaching carousel, regardless that he at all times appeared to be ticketed for New England.
There doesn’t appear to be a Mike Vrabel-like candidate this yr.
“I feel the searches shall be everywhere in the map,” an govt from a crew that isn’t anticipated to be on the lookout for a brand new head coach instructed me. “If we had been looking I’m unsure I’d have a favourite proper now. There are most likely a dozen guys and so they’re all largely the identical.”
Among the many coaches anticipated to be probably the most in-demand this offseason, based mostly on conversations with a number of NFL sources, are Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores and Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.
Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka is perhaps getting an open audition to be consired for the crew’s head coach emptiness. (Photograph by Wealthy Graessle/Icon Sportswire through Getty Pictures)
What’s notable is all of them, aside from Kafka, have been a head coach in both the NFL or school earlier than, though Kafka is serving because the Giants’ interim head coach for the remainder of the 2025 season. However whereas the manager mentioned “Expertise issues — or a minimum of it ought to,” not each crew shall be on the lookout for somebody who’s achieved it earlier than.
“If you happen to seize a ‘sizzling assistant’ who has by no means led a full crew earlier than, it’s a crapshoot,” the manager mentioned. “After all it will possibly work. It’s labored loads. However you by no means know the way a man can deal with the entire thing till he’s sitting in that huge chair.”
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Do not Overlook Mike McCarthy
Ralph Vacchiano: There’s a Tremendous Bowl-winning former NFL head coach who shall be in the marketplace this offseason, who could possibly be very enticing to a crew that thinks it’s able to win.
Properly, sure, there’s Invoice Belichick. However Mike McCarthy is on the market, too.
The 62-year-old former Packers and Cowboys coach did interview with the Saints and Bears final season, however didn’t seem like a finalist for both job earlier than he pulled himself out of rivalry. There have been rumors that he didn’t interview properly — a tag that dogged him again in 2020, too, when he interviewed with the New York Giants, earlier than he ended up with the Cowboys.
Tremendous Bowl-winning head coach Mike McCarthy is spending the 2025 season on the sideline after getting fired by the Cowboys final offseason. (Photograph by Sam Hodde/Getty Pictures)
Nevertheless it’s arduous to compete together with his résumé. He’s received a 174-112-2 file over 18 seasons, with 11 seasons of double-digit wins and 12 journeys to the playoffs. And it’s not like he’s been out of the league some time. He was nonetheless teaching the Cowboys in 2024.
“[McCarthy] gained 12 video games, three years in a row in Dallas. And his offenses are at all times arduous to cease,” one NFC govt instructed me. “I don’t care what points anybody thinks there are with him, you may’t match that sort of success.”
“He’s somewhat outdated in a league that tendencies younger,” one other govt instructed me. “However he is aware of the right way to win. If you happen to’re on the lookout for a coach, I don’t know why you wouldn’t a minimum of convey him in [for an interviews] and decide his mind.”
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Do not Overlook Candidates Not on Elite Groups
Eric D. Williams: A senior NFL personnel govt aware of the pinnacle teaching hiring course of cautioned groups from bringing on a stylish offensive or defensive coordinator with out taking a deeper dive on that individual’s means to steer a crew.
“Simply keep in mind this: Simply because you’re a coordinator on an excellent crew doesn’t make you a powerful head teaching candidate,” the senior personnel govt instructed me. “The coordinator job and the pinnacle teaching job are two utterly completely different jobs and ability units.”
In keeping with the senior personnel govt, head teaching candidates to observe for within the subsequent head teaching cycle embrace Payments offensive coordinator Joe Brady, Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde, Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula, Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken and Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith.
“It’s probably the most tough determination in sports activities,” the personnel govt instructed me. “You study the physique of labor and who they’ve discovered from. You get data from non-agenda co-workers, conduct the interview and cross your fingers.”
Different league sources I spoke with additionally mentioned to not rule out former head coaches now performing properly of their new jobs, like 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores and Commanders run sport coordinator Anthony Lynn.
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May Belichick Get One other Look?
Eric D. Williams: One other league supply instructed me groups could be sensible to contemplate the return of probably the most profitable coach in NFL historical past again to the league: North Carolina head coach Invoice Belichick.
“If I had been working a crew, I’d need to rent Belichick for a three-to-five-year run,” the supply instructed me.
Invoice Belichick has solely had one head coach interview since he parted methods with the Patriots in 2024 and has struggled at UNC, however may he return to the NFL? (Photograph by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire through Getty Pictures)
And what about Belichick’s struggles at North Carolina?
“I don’t assume it applies a lot to the NFL and they’ll most likely end 6-6 or 7-5 within the common season,” the supply instructed me. “It’s not prefer it’s an excellent roster. He can coach in addition to ever if he has the gamers.”
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports activities. He beforehand spent a decade protecting the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Instances and The Athletic. You’ll be able to comply with him on Twitter at @gregauman.
Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports activities. He spent six years protecting the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and earlier than that, 16 years protecting the Giants and the NFL for the New York Day by day Information. Comply with him on Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for greater than a decade, protecting the Los Angeles Rams for Sports activities Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma Information Tribune. Comply with him on X at @eric_d_williams.
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