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Coaching Carousel 2026

rossihunter2

rossihunter2

Staff Member
Moderator
With Black Monday around the corner only a couple of weeks away, it’s time to start this thread for 2026.

Vacancies already for:
Giants
Titans

Situations to monitor (some more likely than others):
Ravens
Bengals
Browns
Jets (again)
Dolphins
Raiders (again, again)
Cardinals
Falcons

Other situations to keep an eye on:
Bills (if they unexpectedly crash out)
Steelers

After all the big names in last year's cycle, this year's group of potential candidates is a lot less immediately inspiring.
Here's some of the names to keep an eye on:

Offensive Guys:
Kliff Kingsbury
Joe Brady
Klint Kubiak
Brian Daboll
Klayton Adams (probably a bit early for him)
Mike LaFleur

Defensive Guys:
Robert Saleh
Jesse Minter
Brian Flores
Jeff Hafley
Marcus Freeman (HC Notre Dame)
Chris Shula

EDITED LIST OF CURRENT VACANCIES (AND CONFIRMED HIRES):

Tennessee Titans - ROBERT SALEH
New York Giants - JOHN HARBAUGH
Atlanta Falcons - KEVIN STEFANSKI
Cleveland Browns - TODD MONKEN
Las Vegas Raiders - KLINT KUBIAK
Arizona Cardinals - MIKE LAFLEUR
Baltimore Ravens - JESSE MINTER
Miami Dolphins - JEFF HAFLEY
Pittsburgh Steelers - MIKE MCCARTHY (LOL)
Buffalo Bills - JOE BRADY
 
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As much as I'd like an offensive minded coach, I feel Jesse Minter would be th best coach and he's been great wherever he's been.
 
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Mike Lafleur is young and an interesting prospect to me. He was brought up under Kyle S and Sean McVay.

Moderate to no success when he followed Saleh to NY
 
Of course when we potentially need a new Head Coach, the list of big name candidates isn't there lol.
 
JO_75 said:
I'm just going to put this out here now... Jon Gruden. If we are talking about a Head Coach who can come in and win now with the talent we have, Gruden fits perfectly.
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Gruden had one great run with the Buccs over twenty years ago, and never again found that type of success. He utterly failed when he went back to the Raiders.

And he'll probably want a lot of control just like he had with the Raiders.
 
RaineV1 said:
Gruden had one great run with the Buccs over twenty years ago, and never again found that type of success. He utterly failed when he went back to the Raiders.

And he'll probably want a lot of control just like he had with the Raiders.
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The Raiders got better with Gruden every year after he took over. They went 4-12 in 2018 in his first season back, 7-9 in 2019, and 8-8 in 2020. Started out 3-0 in 2021 before the whole email thing happened and their interim Head Coach took them to the playoffs that year at 10-7. Raiders haven't made the playoffs since then or had a double digit win season since. I don't think Gruden at his age wants a rebuild, nor do I think he would want as much control as he did with the Raiders either. I think he would just want to worry about coaching if he were to come back, and we kind of can't afford to waste time waiting on a young HC to develop into a good one while wasting away Lamar & Derrick in hopes we got the next McVay or Macdonald. So it's a perfect match, Gruden gets a team who can win now and we get a coach who can help us win now before Lamar & Derrick get too old.
 
JO_75 said:
I'm just going to put this out here now... Jon Gruden. If we are talking about a Head Coach who can come in and win now with the talent we have, Gruden fits perfectly.
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you are literally the only person who ever talks about gruden
and you bring him up a fair amount lol

it's never happening
and it shouldn't ever happen

dude hasn't been a relevant high level coach for nearly 2 decades
and on top of that he was a creep
 
JO_75 said:
I'm just going to put this out here now... Jon Gruden. If we are talking about a Head Coach who can come in and win now with the talent we have, Gruden fits perfectly.
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Bruh don’t read Ravens Reddit
 
JO_75 said:
Of course when we potentially need a new Head Coach, the list of big name candidates isn't there lol.
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Every year big name candidates flop and the guy no one expected much from succeeds.

I'd really prefer an offensive coach. Kliff has an interesting scheme and his running game is always good. Klint seems to start seasons strong and then fade. I'd want them to talk to Klayton just in case he is the next McVey. (Does anyone know why spelling a C name with a K is such an advantage when coaching offense?)

I'm sure Minter will be good but the offense worries me. He's worked with Jim H for years so I'm worried he'd bring in one of Roman's assistants as OC.
 
Looking at the last 10 years of Super Bowl winners, there’s a remarkable trend showing a favourable amount of head coaches are offensive-minded.

SB 50 (2016): Gary Kubiak (O) vs Ron Rivera (D)
SB LI (2017): Bill Belichick (D) vs Dan Quinn (D)
SB LII (2018): Bill Belichick (D) vs Doug Pederson (O)
SB LIII (2019): Bill Belichick (D) vs Sean McVay (O)
SB LIV (2020): Andy Reid (O) vs Kyle Shanahan (O)
SB LV (2021): Andy Reid (O) vs Bruce Arians (O)
SB LVI (2022): Sean McVay (O) vs Zac Taylor (O)
SB LVII (2023): Andy Reid (O) vs Nick Sirianni (O)
SB LVIII (2024): Andy Reid (O) vs Kyle Shanahan (O)
SB LIX (2025): Andy Reid (O) vs Nick Sirianni (O)

The only defensive minded coach to win was Bill and he had Tom Brady.
 
rossihunter2 said:
you are literally the only person who ever talks about gruden
and you bring him up a fair amount lol

it's never happening
and it shouldn't ever happen

dude hasn't been a relevant high level coach for nearly 2 decades
and on top of that he was a creep
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I feel like from a dark horse candidate, Gruden would be someone who could be considered. Like I said, it's the perfect fit for both sides. He gets a team he can win now with while we get a coach who can win now instead of waiting for a young coach become good enough to take us to a Super Bowl before Lamar and Derrick are too old. I'm just saying lol.

If it's me, I'm looking at Klint Kubiak in Seattle as the one who I most likely desire the most. Maybe Chris Shula from the Rams, he as a DC can fix the defense while giving us a OC from the McVay coaching tree.
 
JO_75 said:
I feel like from a dark horse candidate, Gruden would be someone who could be considered. Like I said, it's the perfect fit for both sides. He gets a team he can win now with while we get a coach who can win now instead of waiting for a young coach become good enough to take us to a Super Bowl before Lamar and Derrick are too old. I'm just saying lol.

If it's me, I'm looking at Klint Kubiak in Seattle as the one who I most likely desire the most. Maybe Chris Shula from the Rams, he as a DC can fix the defense while giving us a OC from the McVay coaching tree.
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what makes you think gruden can win now?
he hasn't coached a team that made the playoffs since 2007 when he was coaching the Bucs

and even more damning, the raiders never made the playoffs under his tenure but did in the season he resigned while being coached by rich bisaccia

there's literally nothing to show that gruden's still a good coach and someone who can "win now" other than your personal opinion of him which i think probably has very little to do with football
 
JO_75 said:
I'm just going to put this out here now... Jon Gruden. If we are talking about a Head Coach who can come in and win now with the talent we have, Gruden fits perfectly.
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Going from Harbaugh to Gruden is wayyyy too much of a stretch imo. Gruden will be considered only by the desperate, like the Jets.
 
I honestly think Minter and Saleh are the best of this group. Though I could absolutely see LaFleur being successful.
 
RaineV1 said:
I honestly think Minter and Saleh are the best of this group. Though I could absolutely see LaFleur being successful.
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I think the biggest issue is we've seen no coach besides Bill Belichick has won or even appeared in the Super Bowl in the past 10 years besides Ron Rivera. That is it. Even if we go back 20 years, there is overwhelming data suggesting offensive HC dominate compared to defensive and ST.

It goes back to a point someone else made here--if we get a new HC, it is likely best to get one who can manage the offense well and be creative and find someone to manage defense as a DC. I trust in our ability to find defensive talent (except EDGE lately...) but offense has been hit or miss, especially at OL.

With that said, the only DC I would make a HC is Jesse Minter. None of the others do it for me.
 
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Grim said:
I think the biggest issue is we've seen no coach besides Bill Belichick has won or even appeared in the Super Bowl in the past 10 years besides Ron Rivera. That is it. Even if we go back 20 years, there is overwhelming data suggesting offensive HC dominate compared to defensive and ST.

It goes back to a point someone else made here--if we get a new HC, it is likely best to get one who can manage the offense well and be creative and find someone to manage defense as a DC. I trust in our ability to find defensive talent (except EDGE lately...) but offense has been hit or miss, especially at OL.

With that said, the only DC I would make a HC is Jesse Minter. None of the others do it for me.
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With the way things are looking MacDonald might buck that trend this year.
 
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