This year’s HC cycle became the rare carousel to generate more attention around the coaches who did not land jobs than the ones hired. Bill Belichick and Mike Vrabel being left out will assuredly generate stories ahead of the 2025 hiring period, and it will be worth monitoring if Pete Carroll is connected to another coaching job.
But eight teams — up from five in 2023 — made the decision to change coaches. Dan Quinn‘s hire filled the final vacancy. While the Commanders’ process generated extensive fallout, teams are now moving forward with staff assembly following their HC hires.
The Commanders look to have gone through a bit of back-and-forth about their interest in Lions OC Ben Johnson. Pushing back on the notion the two-year Detroit play-caller was their top choice all along, Washington will give Quinn a second chance. But the former Dallas DC may well have been Washington’s third choice; the team made an aggressive push to land Mike Macdonald as well. The Seahawks finished that 11th-hour competition by giving the young Ravens DC a six-year deal.
Only Seattle and Washington waited until after the conference championship games to hire their coaches. Macdonald, who is half Carroll’s age, becomes the NFL’s youngest HC (36). (New Patriots leader Jerod Mayo, 37, held that title for several days.) A Ravens defense that carried major questions in the pass-rushing department led the NFL in sacks while leading the league in scoring defense as well. Quinn re-established his value over three years in Dallas, restoring that unit as one of the game’s best. While Quinn has the Super Bowl LI collapse on his resume and went 0-for-3 in playoff berths over his final three seasons in Atlanta, Washington’s new ownership group will bet on the experienced staffer.
Although the Commanders’ search produced a number of headlines, the Falcons introduced this year’s top “what if?” storyline. The only team serious about hiring Belichick, interviewing him twice, the Falcons steered clear of the six-time Super Bowl-winning HC. While Arthur Blank went into the hiring period prepared to hire the 24-year Patriots leader, it appears other Falcons higher-ups — in an effort potentially connected to their own statuses — helped sway the owner toward the Raheem Morris hire.
Morris, whom Falcons CEO Rich McKay hired during his time as Bucs GM in the early 2000s, will make the historically rare move of returning to coach a team years after operating as its interim HC. Morris left Atlanta on good terms in 2021 and comes back after a successful run as the Rams’ DC. Though, Belichick will undoubtedly be tied to Morris during the latter’s second Atlanta stay.
It took a six-year contract for the Panthers to bring in Bucs OC Dave Canales, who parlayed his first coordinator season into a head coaching gig. The Panthers trading the No. 1 overall pick and David Tepper‘s reputation as an impulsive meddler played into Carolina’s search, but the team had long been connected — despite Frank Reich‘s struggles — to pursuing an offense-oriented leader. Carolina also pursued Johnson for a second year but did not wait to make an attempt to interview him in-person. Following his work with Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield, Canales will be charged with developing Bryce Young.
The Titans also went offense with their hire, adding five-year Bengals non-play-calling OC Brian Callahan to succeed Vrabel. Zac Taylor‘s longtime lieutenant probably would have landed a job earlier had he called plays in a Joe Burrow-piloted offense, but the Titans will turn to the 39-year-old candidate to develop Will Levis. Brian Callahan will also technically oversee his father this coming season, hiring well-regarded Browns O-line coach Bill Callahan to the same position. This will be the Callahans’ first time on the same staff.
Las Vegas and New England each went with in-house solutions. The Raiders became the first team in seven years to elevate an interim HC to the full-time position. Mark Davis listened to his players, after expressing regret about not removing Rich Bisaccia‘s interim tag in 2022. But the second-generation owner also passed on interviewing other viable candidates for the job, only going through with required interviews to comply with the Rooney Rule. While Pierce accounted himself well as a leader during the season’s second half, his experience level is quite thin compared to just about every other HC hire in modern NFL history.
Using a Rooney Rule workaround by including language in Mayo’s contract about succeeding Belichick, the Patriots also passed on a true search. Robert Kraft intervened last year, extending Mayo after the Panthers had sought a meeting, and will give the keys to the recent Patriots linebacker. Mayo’s time in coaching does not match Pierce’s, though the former has spent more time as an NFL assistant. The franchise is largely keeping the Patriot Way going, promoting from within to fill the HC position and elevating an in-house staffer (Eliot Wolf) to fill the de facto GM post, only with Belichick no longer involved.
The highest-profile hire came out of Los Angeles. The Chargers became the team to lure Jim Harbaugh back to the pros. The Bolts gave the accomplished HC a $16MM salary — over five years — and signed off on allowing final say. Harbaugh has won everywhere he has been and held leverage in the form of another Michigan extension offer and a second Falcons interview being scheduled. The Bolts did not let him leave for that meeting and gave Harbaugh significant input into Tom Telesco‘s GM replacement (Joe Hortiz). Harbaugh’s final NFL snaps came with the Chargers, and after hiring three first-time HCs under Telesco, the team will make a bigger bet to turn things around.
Which team ended up doing the best with its 2024 hire? Why did Belichick fail to land a job? Will he and Vrabel be back in 2025? Vote in PFR’s latest poll and weigh in with your thoughts on this year’s HC market in the comments.
I will have to confer with the Wizard of Oz aka the Oracle in the Sky aka The Rooney and that will tell me who was the best hire
Also, wouldn’t this be a better question to ask during the next season
Cripes, it took Dave Canales half the year to straighten out the Bucs offense and also Racaad White bloomed mid season
Agreed. Pierce is the only one that we’ve seen in action with his current team, and it wasn’t a whole season-not to mention the lack of an offseason program. This is all based on completely on personal estimation at this juncture, which I suppose may have been the point of the poll to begin with. I’m uncomfortable voting based on just that. Even with prior results available for some of these guys (Harbaugh, Morris, and Quinn), those were with different teams and different staffs.
Exactly
A lot of casuals voted I see…
It’s seems rather amusing that a guy chased out of the college ranks because of a cheating scandal is considered the best choice here. Perhaps more HC candidates in the future should try to get something like that on their resume.
Following in the footsteps of Belichick in New England would be a tough gig for any coach but Mayo’s familiarity with the organization should be a plus. It’s a new era in Washington but the new ownership group went with a bland, conservative option. I can understand why Commander fans would be disappointed with that lack of initiative.
If the NFL voided the wins during the 3 cheating seasons under Bill B, He would never catch Don Shula. But since no teams wants his cranky backside, Don is laughing none the less! Nothing but a glorified coordinator.
BB triggers you for some odd reason. Are you a Doofins fan?
Nope. I have no problem calling out BS w/in the game. Bill is 20+ games under .500 w/o Tom. NE fans just ignore that fact. There were 8 openings this year and only Atlanta shown interest before going in a different direction. Wonder why….
Fair, Arty, but consider that, in that scenario, Brady would lose out on some hardware himself.
I agree w/ that. I do think that under inflated balls were about as bogus as the tuck rule. I never heard of either and been watching the game since the 1970’s. But video taping opponents is a different charge. And since the league found NE guilty on everything; hence fines, suspensions & loss of picks, those scandals need to be on Bill’s resume, not ignored.
LAC more or less by default.
I have no idea who made the best choice, But I know who made the worst choice. The Bears who kept Eberflus and fired half of his HR nightmares and minions.
“HR nightmares and minions”? Please, tell us more
Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last year you should know that 2 of Eberflus coaches were fired for cause because of inappropriate behavior by HR and half of the rest were let go for general incompetence I’m guessing.
Harbaugh is the big name on the list, so I guess I’m not completely surprised he is in the lead. However, it does surprise me how easily some people are overlooking the potential pitfalls with him. Canales and Callahan are walking into situations with notoriously impulsive owners, and if not for that fact, I could see Harbaugh having the shortest tenure on this list.
Love him or hate him, Jim Harbaugh is exactly the coach that the Chargers needed. They needed a coach who would lit a fire on players’ butts and not afraid to chew out someone on media if needed. They needed a fire breather of a coach, and Jim is exactly that…..
The fire breather coaches like Paul Brown and Vince Lombardi would probably find the players of the current generation much different than those they coached back in the 50s and 60s. The respect for authority today isn’t what it was back in that era so I’m skeptical that scream and holler approach would have much success today.