And just like that, the season is over.

A Super Bowl more memorable for reaction to the halftime show rather than the product on the field drew the curtain on the 2025 NFL campaign. Whilst the Seattle Seahawks players were still picking confetti out of their hair, their offensive coordinator was busy assuming the final head coach position, the last of ten openings in the league this year.

After an impressive first twelve months in charge of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Liam Coen is firmly entrenched in Duval County and scheming ways to have his franchise take the next step in 2026. But where would he rank amongst the hires if he were on the market this season? Let’s take a look:

This is the category Coen would have fallen into this time last year; a group of unknowns full of potential and ambition as they take the lead role of an NFL franchise for the first time. Of the ten hires this offseason, six of them are first-time head coaches: Joe Brady (Buffalo Bills), Mike LaFleur (Arizona Cardinals), Jeff Hafley (Miami Dolphins), Todd Monken (Cleveland Browns), Jesse Minter (Baltimore Ravens) and Klint Kubiak (Las Vegas Raiders).

Like Coen, Brady, LaFleur and Kubiak have an extensive track record on the offensive side of the ball. In fact, all four coaches’ resumes are remarkably similar, with each one being OC’s at two different franchises before being hired as a head coach. If this were twelve months ago, you could put this quartet of playcallers in any order you chose.

But Coen has 13 NFL wins under his belt from just one season in charge, and is a proven commodity. Success in one season does not guarantee it in the next, but it’s a season that none of the new offensive head coaches have achieved and at the very least sits the Jaguars HC above his new peers.

Monken, at 60, feels different from the three above, with an outrageous level of experience. He was head coach at Southern Miss for three years in the early 2010’s, but appears to be an uninspiring hire by a franchise familiar with him from his time as OC in 2019. It may be unfair, but if he was hired by the Jags last season, Shah Khan would have been public enemy number one in Duval County.

The only one from this group you can make a case for would be Jeff Hafley, who spent four years as a head coach in college football with Boston College. Hafley was widely regarded as a success in Chestnut Hill, dragging the Eagles to ACC respectability. He left with a creditable 22-26 record, apparently wanting to focus on coaching rather than recruiting – and his impressive two year stint a DC with the Green Bay Packers has only added to his growing reputation. I’d naturally still err towards the head coach with NFL experience, but it’s a close one.

Two teams’ coaching searches ended in appointing names who were in the top job elsewhere last season. John Harbaugh spent eighteen seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, racking up 180 wins in the process. Of those 18 campaigns, the Ravens went to the playoffs 12 times and won Super Bowl XLVII in 2012 after a memorable win over his brother Jim Harbaugh, then head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.

It would be remarkably insincere for even the most ardent Jaguars fan to claim that Coen’s one season in charge in Jacksonville could hold a candle to the CV that Harbaugh built in Baltimore. The New York Giants won the lottery when it came to the head coach carousel, and whether or not he has anywhere near the same level of success in the Big Apple as he did in Charm City, nobody can argue with the appointment.

The other new head coach in this category is a more nuanced argument. Can anyone really be fairly judged amongst their fellow HC’s if they’re working for the Cleveland Browns? Kevin Stefanski had an up-and-down tenure in North Ohio; do you praise him for two eleven-win seasons – the first to reach that number since Bill Belichick in 1994? Or do you hold him to account for 26 losses over the last two years?

A lot of that is determined by who you consider responsible for talent acquisition. The quarterback drama alone in Cleveland should be enough to get someone fired. The Atlanta Falcons evidently feel Andrew Berry was at fault, and Stefanski gets a second chance; ultimately, delivering the first playoff win to Browns fans in 26 years might JUST edge one season of success in Jacksonville.

The final two hires selected coaches who have previous experience in the hot seat, but spent 2025 either as a coordinator or on sabbatical. Robert Saleh seems to have gotten over the traumatic experience of coaching the New York Jets and is ready for another crack of the whip with the Tennessee Titans; an excellent defensive coordinator in two stints under Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco, there is no evidence from his time in Gotham to suggest the Jaguars need to worry about their AFC South rivals. Saleh will be looking to prove doubters wrong, but Coen’s stock as a head coach is far higher.

The final candidate on this list, like Harbaugh, has eighteen years as a head coach under his belt and a Super Bowl ring on his finger. But unlike Harbaugh, Mike McCarthy did not arrive at his new home amidst rapturous applause from the natives. Despite three 12-win seasons in a row with the Dallas Cowboys, McCarthy has the reputation of a coach who has failed to keep up with the times.

It’s fair to question the lack of success in both Dallas and Green Bay, considering the talent. McCarthy has been to the playoffs twelve times behind the arms of Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott, but never got back to the big game. Perhaps the new Pittsburgh Steelers head coach is being held to a higher level of account than Harbaugh, considering the near-identical career records. Regardless, you won’t find one single person in Jacksonville who would swap their leader for him.

Jim Harbaugh, New York GiantsKevin Stefanski, Atlanta FalconsLiam Coen, Jacksonville JaguarsJeff Hafley, Miami DolphinsJoe Brady, Buffalo BillsJesse Minter, Baltimore RavensMike LaFleur, Arizona CardinalsKlint Kubiak, Las Vegas RaidersRobert Saleh, Tennessee TitansMike McCarthy, Pittsburgh SteelersTodd Monken, Cleveland Browns

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