The final time the NFL welcomed in 10 new head coaches was 2022, and 4 brief years later, eight of these 10 have already been fired. So at the least this 12 months’s group of 10 can’t probably be worse, proper?
Time will inform, after all. But for now, right here’s the FOX Sports rating of the 10 new head coaches employed in the 2026 cycle, full with a really early grade for every.
Did the (*10*) unintentionally decide the incorrect coordinator off of Sean McVay’s workers?
The NFL world was buzzing at the begin of this cycle about the potential for Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula to be the subsequent nice coach off the McVay tree. Instead, the 38-year-old LaFleur leapfrogged him. Maybe the (*10*) noticed one thing others did not in his two unremarkable years as the Jets offensive coordinator directing eventual draft bust Zach Wilson?
Or perhaps they simply beloved the Rams’ offense a lot they have been prepared to overlook the incontrovertible fact that McVay, not LaFleur, referred to as the performs?
None of that’s to say LaFleur can’t be a superb head coach. He spent seven years working for Kyle Shanahan in numerous stops and three years at the facet of McVay, so a few of their genius may have rubbed off. Still, it’s a curious selection, particularly contemplating a few of the candidates the (*10*) selected not to rent.
Grade: D-
Terry Pegula insisted he made the resolution to fireplace Sean McDermott after seeing the scene in the postgame locker room in Denver. He felt he had a workforce able to reaching a Super Bowl, and he wanted a pacesetter who may put them over the prime.
That made sense … till he put his supposed title-ready workforce in the arms of a 36-year-old, first-time head coach who was on the workers he felt simply failed the franchise.
Joe Brady simply had his arms in a profitable but unfulfilling period of Bills soccer. Now the head coach, can he get the Bills to a Super Bowl? (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images through Getty Images)
I suppose Brady, in his two-plus years as the Bills’ offensive coordinator, had nothing to do with their playoff failures? He was a favourite of quarterback Josh Allen, who clearly needed the offensive system to stay the identical. That’s why so many thought the Bills have been going to rent ex-Giants coach Brian Daboll, who was the offensive coordinator in Buffalo that helped flip Allen right into a star.
Instead, the Bills performed a sham of a search and anointed Brady who, to be truthful, is well-respected round the league and has had loads of head teaching interviews over the previous three offseasons. It’s nonetheless a threat, although, for a franchise that might have benefited from bringing in an exterior candidate — which is what it seemed like Pegula initially meant to do.
Grade: D
The Dolphins tried the offensive whiz child route with Mike McDaniel, and the outcomes have been simply OK. But it too typically appeared that management was missing in that locker room. It’s why they wanted to pivot to a “CEO” kind of coach.
And that matches Hafley, who has expertise working a program from his 4 years as the head coach at Boston College. Unfortunately, he had a fairly mediocre run there, with an total document of 22-26 and one journey to a minor bowl. College coaches additionally don’t typically translate nicely to the execs, both, although Hafley has spent 9 years as an NFL assistant.
He did his finest work the previous two seasons as the defensive coordinator in Green Bay, the place he helped flip the Packers’ protection right into a championship-caliber unit. But it’s his management that may doubtless outline his tenure in Miami, not his defensive scheme.
Grade: C
The 46-year-old Saleh doesn’t deserve all the blame for what occurred throughout his time as head coach of the New York Jets, however he can’t disavow all of that 20-36 document. It’s true he was saddled with a foul quarterback (Zach Wilson), however he made loads of dangerous selections that helped smash his tenure, too.
Maybe he’s realized from them. That’s what the Titans are relying on. And there are many examples of coaches who thrived after they obtained a second probability. But typically a failure simply proves {that a} coach can’t deal with the huge job.
Robert Saleh inherits a greater QB scenario in Tennessee than he did in New York. Will his Titans tenure go higher than his Jets one? (Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images)
We’ll see if that’s true. If nothing else, Saleh is a powerful presence and everybody who has performed for him lauds his management. He’ll carry a brand new perspective to the Titans, for positive. He’s additionally a superb defensive thoughts, so there doubtless received’t be many points on that facet of the ball.
Oddly, he employed one other failed New York coach to run his offense — ex-Giants coach Brian Daboll, who had a Saleh-like document of 20-40-1. He’s well-respected, too, and can be an enormous assist for promising younger quarterback Cam Ward. Perhaps this can be an amazing redemption story for each exiled New Yorkers, although the odds really feel lengthy.
Grade: C+
It takes somebody with a powerful abdomen to be the head coach of the Browns, but it surely additionally in all probability takes somebody with extra expertise than Monken. At least Monken brings a powerful monitor document for growing quarterbacks, although, which is what the Browns want proper now greater than something.
They have an amazing protection. They’ve even obtained some promising expertise at working again and receiver. But if they’ll’t develop a quarterback — whether or not it’s Shedeur Sanders, Dillon Gabriel, or another person — none of it issues. And Monken has had a string of success, working a top-10 offense in Tampa (2016-18) with Jameis Winston, serving to flip Lamar Jackson again into an MVP in Baltimore (2023-25), and even growing a prolific offense behind Stetson Bennett at the University of Georgia.
The draw back is the Browns’ messy search may need price them revered defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. And Monken, at age 59, hasn’t been a head coach in the NFL earlier than. But if he can repair the quarterback mess, at the least the Browns will take the most necessary first step.
Grade: C+
He is the sizzling offensive assistant this 12 months after his masterful work with the Super Bowl-bound Seattle Seahawks and quarterback Sam Darnold. But plucking the younger, offensive star is usually a boom-or-bust proposition, as not each nice coordinator makes for a top quality head coach.
The Raiders have had three head coaches in the previous 4 season. Will first-timer Klint Kubiak lastly be their long-term answer? (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
The Raiders can afford to take that probability, although, assuming they’re affected person with the 38-year-old. They are a number of years away from contending and Kubiak’s main job will doubtless be to develop quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the presumptive prime decide of the 2026 NFL Draft. What Kubiak did in Seattle certainly caught the Raiders’ consideration, however don’t low cost his teaching lineage. He’s labored beneath his father, Gary Kubiak, in addition to Kevin Stefanski and Kyle Shanahan. Plenty of offensive information has been handed down to him.
Whether he can deal with the huge job stays to be seen. But if he can develop the new quarterback, he’ll be off to a heck of a begin.
Grade: B-
*The Raiders can not formally announce the rent till after Super Bowl LX
It’s arduous to argue in opposition to hiring a coach with a résumé like the one McCarthy has. He is, fairly merely, one among the NFL’s greatest current winners. He went 125-77-2 throughout his 13 years in Green Bay. He had three 12-win seasons in 5 years in Dallas. He’s been to the playoffs 12 occasions in 18 years total and received a Super Bowl. Who wouldn’t need that?
The solely downside right here is the match. McCarthy is 62 years previous and has 18 years of expertise and doesn’t appear to be the form of coach who would need a rebuilding undertaking. And whereas the Steelers don’t suppose they’re rebuilding, maybe they need to be. They have hovered round mediocrity for greater than a decade and been looking for their subsequent franchise quarterback since at the least 2018 after they drafted Mason Rudolph.
Hiring McCarthy makes it really feel like they’re prepared to run it again, maybe with deteriorating 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. Now, if they may someway land a younger franchise QB, McCarthy may very well be excellent for him. Don’t low cost his affect on Rodgers’ early profession. But with out that place resolved, this teaching rent may rapidly show to be too previous and too stale.
Grade: B
At the starting of this hiring cycle, no up-and-coming assistant was talked about as a lot as the 42-year-old Minter. He figured to be a prime candidate for a number of groups, till the market all of a sudden turned flooded with skilled coaches.
Though it requires a little bit of hypothesis, he deserves to be ranked close to the prime, particularly since he in all probability inherits the better of the 10 openings. On a loaded roster with Lamar Jackson at quarterback, he’s obtained the finest shot of profitable straight away.
Jesse Minter has been an ace defensive coordinator at a number of stops. Will that translate to being an amazing head coach? (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Can he? Well, his pedigree as an assistant is powerful. He’s an apple off the Harbaugh tree, having labored with each John in Baltimore and Jim in Michigan and with the Los Angeles Chargers. He constructed school soccer’s finest protection when Michigan received the nationwide championship in 2023, and he turned a foul Chargers protection right into a top-10 unit over the previous two seasons. So he can coach. And many NFL executives suppose he’s prepared for the huge chair.
Given the one he’s sitting in, it could be arduous for him to screw this chance up, although the Ravens’ protection took a significant step again in 2025.
Grade: B+
The Falcons are a workforce loaded with offensive expertise that appeared wasted and misused beneath Raheem Morris. It’s an enormous purpose why, perhaps greater than every other membership, they wanted an offensive-minded head coach. And Stefanski is one among the finest, regardless of what occurred throughout his final two ugly seasons in Cleveland (8-26).
He was undermined there by a sequence of disastrous quarterback selections. Before that, he was a miracle employee. Consider that the Browns have been to the playoffs twice in the previous 23 years — each occasions beneath Stefanski. He remarkably received 11 video games twice in Cleveland — its solely two 11-win seasons since Bill Belichick hit that mark there in 1994 — and was the NFL Coach of the Year each occasions.
Stefanski helped develop Baker Mayfield right into a viable NFL quarterback (they went to the playoffs of their first season collectively), and he had his different profitable/playoff season in a 12 months when he had to juggle 5 totally different beginning quarterbacks. So don’t blame him for a way the Browns fell aside. Look at what he did earlier than the collapse. He’ll do the identical in Atlanta with whomever his quarterback is.
Grade: A
He’s the home-run rent of the offseason and the Giants had to hit it given their depressing, embarrassing document over the previous 14 years. They tried a line of promising, inexperienced coaches and it simply didn’t work. They wanted somebody who had carried out it earlier than, and would immediately restore credibility to their franchise.
Harbaugh, after all, had an extended and profitable run in Baltimore, going 180-113 over 18 seasons, making the playoffs 12 occasions and profitable a Super Bowl. But greater than his teaching success, he boasts a presence and credibility the Giants have been lacking since Tom Coughlin. He can stand in entrance of a workforce that’s usually perceived as gifted however underachieving, and the gamers know that what he says and does will work — as a result of it has. He will instantly restore self-discipline and confidence, and he has a historical past of being nice with younger quarterbacks.
He is the one coach who may make the Giants’ desired turnaround extremely fast.
Grade: A+
