{"id":674806,"date":"2026-01-13T20:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T20:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/674806\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T20:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T20:15:15","slug":"ranking-the-nfl-head-coaching-openings-from-least-to-most-attractive-after-mike-tomlin-steps-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/674806\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking the NFL head coaching openings, from least to most attractive after Mike Tomlin steps down"},"content":{"rendered":"

The problem for head-coaching candidates<\/a> in practically every offseason is the group of available jobs is usually bad. There\u2019s a reason those teams fired their coaches.<\/p>\n

But there are also many examples of teams making the right hire and turning around quickly, whether it was DeMeco Ryans a few years ago with the Houston Texans, Liam Coen for the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>, Mike Vrabel with the New England Patriots, Ben Johnson joining the Chicago Bears this past offseason or many other examples. Just about any situation can be turned around with the right hire at coach, along with some key personnel moves.<\/p>\n

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As of the Monday after the season, there were six head-coaching openings in the NFL.<\/a> Three more have been added to bring the number to nine, including the Miami Dolphins firing Mike McDaniel <\/a>and the stunning news that Mike Tomlin had stepped away from the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>. Here\u2019s my ranking of the openings, from least attractive to most attractive:<\/p>\n

9. Miami Dolphins<\/p>\n

On the bright side, the new head coach can live in South Florida and also come in with a new general manager. After that, there’s not much to get excited about. The Dolphins are about to go into the salary cap and quarterback danger zone with the team likely moving on from Tua Tagovailoa. The Dolphins were already in bad cap shape and moving on from Tagovailoa is going to make it worse. Many of the teams looking for an opening are seen as poor organizations but the Dolphins are too; they haven’t won a playoff game since the 2000 season, which is the longest drought in the NFL. Miami’s roster is bad. The quarterback situation is bad. The cap situation is bad. The recent history of the franchise is bad. Good luck.<\/p>\n

8. Arizona Cardinals<\/p>\n

The Cardinals lost 14 of their last 15 games. Injuries impacted their season, but not that much. It was simply a bad football team. And what\u2019s the main selling point? General manager Monti Ossenfort will stay, and in this era of GMs and coaches coming in a package deal, that might not be a positive. Kyler Murray\u2019s time with Arizona<\/a> seems to be over, and even if he returns, that\u2019s not a great thing either. There\u2019s no quarterback, the team\u2019s best player is a tight end, the defense was bottom six in points and yards allowed, and the franchise has just one playoff appearance (a one-and-done loss) since the 2015 season. Maybe the possibility of drafting a quarterback third overall<\/a> will be appealing, but it\u2019s not like this is a great quarterback class. Arizona has been a dead-end job for many years, and there\u2019s not much reason to believe that will change soon.<\/p>\n

7. Cleveland Browns<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t think candidates will realize that the Browns just fired a two-time NFL Coach of the Year in Kevin Stefanski<\/a>, who was stuck with Deshaun Watson, Joe Flacco, Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders<\/a> and a rotating cast of other quarterbacks? Acquiring Watson was probably the worst trade in NFL history, and the GM who was on the job when it was made, Andrew Berry, remains. Jimmy Haslam has a horrendous track record as a team owner. The hope for the Browns is a strong 2025 rookie class that had immediate contributors throughout. But it\u2019s hard to ignore the Browns\u2019 history.<\/p>\n

6. Tennessee Titans<\/p>\n

If you like Cam Ward, who showed improvement in the second half of the season, that\u2019s a selling point. Just about everything else is not. It\u2019s the same bad ownership situation that moved on from Mike Vrabel, the presumptive NFL Coach of the Year this season, due to a power struggle with a GM they fired a year later. A few young players did well this season, but the roster isn\u2019t close to contention. The AFC South isn\u2019t a walkover anymore either. If a hot candidate prefers this job, it\u2019s because of absolute belief in Ward being a star, and even that is a risk.<\/p>\n

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5. Las Vegas Raiders<\/p>\n

The Raiders are a flailing organization. They hired the oldest coach in NFL history and traded for a 35-year-old quarterback last offseason just to go 3-14. There never seems to be any plan. The search for Pete Carroll\u2019s replacement will be led by general manager John Spytek and limited owner Tom Brady, the latter of which was a great quarterback but has no track record of helping lead a coaching search. But he\u2019s a big name, which is what team owner Mark Davis likes. The one selling point to the new coach would be having the first overall draft pick and a choice of quarterbacks<\/a> to start fresh with. Brock Bowers is a great talent, Ashton Jeanty should be a good running back with a little help, and Maxx Crosby is either a fantastic defensive star or a prime trade piece. There are some things to like, but it\u2019s the Raiders. Everyone knows how bad this franchise has been for decades.<\/p>\n

4. New York Giants<\/p>\n

The Giants are an underrated dysfunctional organization. It\u2019s overlooked because they have four Super Bowl trophies, but the recent history is awful. Since winning the Super Bowl at the end of the 2011 season, they have not won the NFC East once and have just two playoff appearances. But there have been a couple of good consecutive drafts, which provides promise. The Giants are also dying to give a head coach more than a few years, after cycling through four coaches in 10 years, which has to be appealing. Jaxson Dart was a first-round pick in 2025 and presumably the team\u2019s quarterback of the near future, so a coaching candidate would have to buy into developing him. But there is good young talent around Dart. And the appeal of winning in New York, for a franchise the NFL loves highlighting, is nice. Not many of the teams looking for a new coach are appealing, so the Giants\u2019 opening probably looks better than it actually is.<\/p>\n

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3. Atlanta Falcons<\/p>\n

This is a job you can talk yourself into. Watching the Falcons blow out the Bills, and then beat the Rams late in the season, it is confounding how they had a record under .500. That\u2019s a reason head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot were fired.<\/a> The Falcons did it smartly, not having a lame-duck GM pick the new coach. That will make the job more appealing to some candidates. There is obvious talent on the roster, and the Falcons play in the NFL\u2019s worst division. The one stumbling block is the quarterback situation. Michael Penix Jr. has been up and down and is coming off another season-ending injury that leaves his availability for next season\u2019s opener up in the air. Kirk Cousins could return, but he\u2019ll be 38. Quarterback is a big factor, but everything else is pretty good. And regardless of how head-coaching vacancies are often talked about, quarterback is not the only selling point candidates look at.<\/p>\n

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2. Pittsburgh Steelers<\/p>\n

If you want to rank this job first after Mike Tomlin stepped down, it’s fair. A team that has had three coaches since 1969 offers patience and stability that is unique in pro sports. The Steelers haven’t had a losing season since 2003. But it’s not a perfect situation. The defense is clearly aging. We could see that through the season. It seems unlikely that 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers returns to the Steelers, if he plays at all, which puts Pittsburgh on the quarterback carousel without any great avenue to land a top-end starter. The Steelers have a decent bit of projected salary cap space, but what are the viable quarterback options this offseason? And in this quarterback draft class, finding a great long-term answer at No. 21 overall is a long shot. If quarterback was the only concern, it would be a more attractive job. But it seems like a team that’s on the verge of a rebuild, which is odd for a team that just won 10 games and a division title. So it might be a rocky first couple seasons. But this job is still very good because of a long track record of success from one of the best organizations in the NFL, and more than enough patience to work through the quarterback situation until it’s fixed. Maybe even enough time to work through more than one quarterback era, like Tomlin had.<\/p>\n

\"Mike<\/p>\n

Mike Tomlin stepped down as Pittsburgh Steelers head coach after a loss on wild-card weekend. (AP Photo\/Gene J. Puskar)<\/p>\n

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)1. Baltimore Ravens<\/p>\n

It’s unusual for a team that is a perennial contender, with a two-time MVP, to change head coaches. Especially one that had its previous coach for 18 seasons. But a miserable season in Baltimore brought about a major change, with the Ravens parting ways with John Harbaugh.<\/a> Many of the most appealing candidates will look at the opportunity to work for a rock-solid organization, which should still be in a Super Bowl window with Lamar Jackson, and put Baltimore at the top of their list of openings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The problem for head-coaching candidates in practically every offseason is the group of available jobs is usually bad.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1586,390,1303,254,117,215,797,127,391,54,3607,563,1033,7,6496,253,125,13,562,294,4827,895,393,6563,251,4836,1255,838,249,56,6,57,1257,424,17,394,3235,1369,3452],"class_list":{"0":"post-674806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-ashton-jeanty","11":"tag-atlanta-falcons","12":"tag-baltimore-ravens","13":"tag-bills","14":"tag-brock-bowers","15":"tag-cam-ward","16":"tag-chicago-bears","17":"tag-cleveland-browns","18":"tag-demeco-ryans","19":"tag-deshaun-watson","20":"tag-dillon-gabriel","21":"tag-football","22":"tag-head-coach","23":"tag-houston-texans","24":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","25":"tag-jaxson-dart","26":"tag-joe-flacco","27":"tag-kirk-cousins","28":"tag-kyler-murray","29":"tag-lamar-jackson","30":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","31":"tag-maxx-crosby","32":"tag-miami-dolphins","33":"tag-mike-mcdaniel","34":"tag-mike-tomlin","35":"tag-mike-vrabel","36":"tag-new-england-patriots","37":"tag-new-york-giants","38":"tag-nfl","39":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","40":"tag-quarterback","41":"tag-rams","42":"tag-shedeur-sanders","43":"tag-tennessee-titans","44":"tag-the-dolphins","45":"tag-tom-brady","46":"tag-tua-tagovailoa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}