{"id":689608,"date":"2026-01-19T21:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/689608\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T21:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:25:13","slug":"nfl-coaching-hire-grades-john-harbaugh-kevin-stefanski-get-top-marks-but-what-about-new-lions-oc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/689608\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL coaching hire grades: John Harbaugh, Kevin Stefanski get top marks, but what about new Lions OC?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not every NFL team that\u2019s looking for a new head coach<\/a> will hit a home run in this cycle. They\u2019re all hoping for a Ben Johnson, Mike Vrabel or Liam Coen and the immediate turnaround those coaches brought to their franchises. It\u2019s far from a guarantee.<\/p>\n

We won\u2019t know for a while how each of the 10 teams that were looking for a head coach did with their new hires, but we can assign grades based on how each hire looks in the moment. We\u2019ll also do it for the buzziest coordinator positions that have opened up.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

This post will be updated for each new hire.<\/p>\n

Head coaching hires<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear: Getting Harbaugh was as good as the Giants<\/a> could have done. It\u2019s their best hire since landing Tom Coughlin in 2004. The Giants can only hope for similar results from Harbaugh.<\/p>\n

Harbaugh comes in with a 61.4% career win percentage and a Super Bowl ring. He hasn\u2019t had a ton of playoff success lately, but neither have the Giants. They haven\u2019t even been reaching the playoffs most seasons, as they stumbled through hires like Ben McAdoo, Joe Judge and Brian Daboll.<\/p>\n

Harbaugh immediately raises expectations in New York. There is a good, young core here. Harbaugh had only three losing seasons in his 18 years with Baltimore, and while there might not be that level of success right away with the Giants, this is the best coach they have had since the end of the Coughlin era, and it\u2019s not close. Harbaugh was the best coach on the market (unless you prefer Mike Tomlin, who seems set on sitting out at least a season<\/a>), the Giants were quickly identified as the favorite to land him and they got it done before any other team swooped in. For a franchise that has gotten a lot wrong lately, this was a major win.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Grade: A+<\/p>\n

NFL Coach of the Year might be a flawed award, but Stefanski has two of them. It\u2019s rare that a coach like that is available, and the Falcons saw an opportunity.<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to like this hire. Stefanski and the Falcons still has a quarterback situation to work through, but he\u2019s used to that after his seasons with the Browns. Stefanski steps into a situation with a talented team in a bad division. And he should be able to elevate the Falcons right away. This seemed like a great fit, with a coach who succeeded at times in a tough situation in Cleveland with a team that underachieved last season and could make a big improvement right away. It\u2019s easy to be impressed with this hire.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/p>\n

Coordinator hiresDetroit Lions<\/a> offensive coordinator: Drew Petzing<\/p>\n

Petzing has a good reputation, even though his three seasons coordinating the Cardinals\u2019 offense didn\u2019t have great results. Arizona was 19th, 11th and 19th in yards gained in his three seasons there.<\/p>\n

There is some context, however: The Cardinals had sub-optimal quarterback play, whether it was Kyler Murray or Jacoby Brissett. Brissett put up decent numbers when he took over for Murray, and receiver Michael Wilson had a fantastic second half of the season. There are questions over why Marvin Harrison Jr. never broke out that way in his first two NFL seasons. Petzing is close<\/a> to former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, and there\u2019s some schematic overlap there, so maybe that was a draw. Given how many proven offensive coaches there are on the market and the attractiveness of running a Lions offense that has immense talent, the hire of Petzing seems a little underwhelming. But now he has much more to work with.<\/p>\n

Grade: B-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not every NFL team that\u2019s looking for a new head coach will hit a home run in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[375,254,184,1035,85,113,7,7523,2909,8591,4827,3374,11369,838,56,6,13257,20197],"class_list":["post-689608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-arizona","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-baltimore","tag-ben-johnson","tag-cleveland","tag-detroit-lions","tag-football","tag-jacoby-brissett","tag-john-harbaugh","tag-kevin-stefanski","tag-kyler-murray","tag-marvin-harrison-jr","tag-michael-wilson","tag-mike-vrabel","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl","tag-stefanski","tag-tom-coughlin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115923880007508828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689608","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=689608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}