The NFL offseason is officially in full swing following the Eagles dismantling of the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. The Bears, Patriots, Jets, Jaguars, Raiders, Cowboys and Saints all entered the market for a new head coach in 2025 as they look to turn around the fortunes of their franchises.
This year’s coaching cycle has been an odd one to say the least. Entering the hiring cycle, it was widely reported that Mike Vrabel was the top candidate on every team’s list after taking a year off in 2024 from coaching to act as an advisor to the defence for the Cleveland Browns. Vrabel apparently blew everyone away in New York in his first interview, and Woody Johnson pegged him as the must have candidate to lead the Jets in 2025.
Not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to hire Vrabel, the Patriots unceremoniously fired their heir apparent to Bill Belichick, Jerod Mayo, after a lacklustre season, and did everything they could to skirt around the Rooney rule by bringing in any “candidate” of colour who lived near the stadium for an “interview.” The Patriots technically checked all the boxes by having in person interviews with minority candidates, but the process definitely left a sour taste in the mouth. At the end of the day though, they did land with the biggest fish in the pond, inking Vrabel to be their next head coach.
Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan also kept his team in the news cycle throughout the process. He fired former head coach Doug Pederson and his staff right after the season, but shockingly opted to retain GM Trent Baalke. Khan didn’t give Baalke any ringing endorsements however, stating during a press call that if the right coaching candidate requested it, he would fire Baalke. Trent Baalke was on that call, kicking off the Jags’ offseason with some tension.
The awkwardness continued throughout the first two weeks of the coaching cycle as Baalke was turned down by all of the top coaching candidates. After Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Liam Coen reportedly declined a second interview in Jacksonville, instead coming to a verbal agreement to become the highest paid coordinator to stay in Tampa Bay, Khan finally stepped in and did something about the situation and fired his GM.
That led to Coen, whose coordinator contract was contingent on him not doing a second interview with the Jaguars, essentially ghosting the Bucs organization by sneaking back into the Jags facility. At that point the second interview was a formality as there was no doubt that Coen was the man that the Jaguars coveted to be their next head coach. However the questionable decisions continued as Jacksonville proceeded with an interview with Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham while Coen was in the building – again, just to check the boxes of the Rooney rule.
I cannot sit here and say that I have a solution for the manipulation of the Rooney rule, and I’ll be the last person to say that it should be scrapped entirely as I think it is essential for more POC coaches to take on larger roles in the NFL. However the NFL needs to take a long hard look at the finer points of the rule to try to prevent these sham interviews from becoming a more prevalent thing in the annual hiring cycle.
Now to the meat of the article – grading all of the hirings from this past offseason.
Chicago Bears – Lions OC Ben Johnson
Ben Johnson has been the belle of the ball for the past couple seasons, opting each time to return to Detroit to learn more about building a roster and a winning locker room under head coach Dan Campbell. Unlike Houston Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, who was interviewed for head coaching positions last year only to be fired this offseason, the shine has never come off of Johnson, as his innovative and creative offence has continued to shock defences throughout the 2024 campaign.
While no one was certain Johnson would leave the Lions this year after exiting the playoffs earlier than anticipated, Johnson couldn’t pass up the opportunity to coach quarterback Caleb Williams in his sophomore season. The match makes perfect sense – Johnson helped turn Rams cast-off Jared Goff into one of the top performing quarterbacks in the league. In Johnson’s three years as offensive coordinator for Detroit, the offence ranked in the top four in the league each season and averaged over 29 points per game.
In Chicago, Williams was clearly asked to do too much in his rookie season, and showed early and often he wasn’t ready to take on that level of responsibility. Johnson will reign in a lot of those issues, and, more importantly, bring an actual game plan for the offensive line. Entering the 2024 season, I wrote that I expected the Bears young line to take a big leap forward – they have talented pieces, but just had not been able to put it together as a unit. Under offensive coordinator Shane Waldron the line actually regressed – they looked completely lost within their blocking scheme (if you can call it that) snap to snap, and things only moderately improved after Thomas Brown was promoted to offensive coordinator following Waldron’s firing..
Meanwhile, the Lions have had one of the best run games in the NFL for the past three seasons. While they have more talent along the line and at running back position than Chicago does, the scheme also has every player working in cohesion and utilizes each player’s unique abilities. The things that Johnson was drawing up for right tackle Penei Sewell are things that should only be reserved for a game of Madden, but they continued to work within Johnson’s gameplan.
Johnson started off his tenure in Chicago with the most unexpected hirings across the NFL, naming 28 year old Declan Doyle as his offensive coordinator. Doyle, who is one of the many coaches promoted this offseason from the Sean Payton coaching tree, was the tight ends coach in Denver last season after spending the first 4 seasons of his NFL coaching career in New Orleans. Despite his youth, and only being in NFL coaching circles since 2019, Doyle has earned the praise of his peers for his intelligence and will be working closely with one of the best offensive play callers in the league.
On the other side of the ball, Johnson named former Saints head coach Dennis Allen as defensive coordinator. For multiple seasons the Saints defence was the only part of the team that was keeping them in games. Although Allen eventually flamed out as a head coach, he’s a great defensive hire and will bring some experience to the locker room for the rookie head coach.
Obviously the biggest question mark here is whether Johnson, who is quite mild mannered in any interviews he does, can be a big enough presence to take over as a first time head coach. That question alone is the only reason this hiring is not getting an A+. Johnson has all the tools to be one of the best head coaches in the league, and prospects for Caleb Williams in his second season have risen dramatically with this hire.
Grade: A
Dallas Cowboys – Cowboys OC Brian Schottenheimer
With all the other news regarding the coaching cycle, the Dallas Cowboys started the offseason without any major headlines. Owner Jerry Jones said all the right things about Mike McCarthy despite the fact that his contract was set to expire, and the Cowboys even declined other team’s interview requests for him. Everything looked as if a new deal was imminent.
However late into the hiring process, talks went awry between the Cowboys and McCarthy. After not being able to agree on the length of the new contract, time ran out and McCarthy walked.
Jones has made it clear over his years as the Cowboys owner that he truly believes this is the best organization in football, but has continued to fail at proving that to be true. While Jones has taken many of his expiring contracts down to the wire only to pull off a last second deal (Dak Prescott being the latest example), he clearly had no plan in place when that strategy failed with McCarthy.
The Cowboys were too late to take a run at Bill Belichick, who has shown interest in the job in the past but instead opted to take a college job at UNC when he assumed that the position wouldn’t become available. They also didn’t bother to schedule interviews with any of the top candidates, including Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn or Liam Coen.
Rumours circulated about interest in Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, but nothing seemed to materialize other than a single interview. The only other names linked to the position were Jason Witten, a former Cowboys tight end with no head coaching experience, and Kellen Moore, who the Cowboys moved on from as their offensive coordinator not that long ago. The Cowboys did interview former Jets head coach Robert Saleh, and Seahawks assistant Leslie Frazier, but they never seemed to really be up for the job.
Jones feels like he doesn’t need to spend big on coaches, so instead of doing a serious coaching search, he took the easiest and cheapest route and promoted offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to the role.
Schottenheimer, whose father Marty was a fantastic head coach during his day, could end up being a fine head coach. He has a rapport with Dak Prescott already, and knows how to maximize the talents of CeeDee Lamb. However, despite being in the league since 1997, he’s never been a top candidate to take over as a head coach despite interviews in the late 2010’s. He had to return to the college coaching ranks in 2015 and was forced to work his way back up to the NFL, albeit in lesser roles.
The Cowboys also opted to announce the hiring of Schottenheimer at 10pm on a Friday evening – hardly something an organization who is proud of their decision does. Schottenheimer’s introductory press conference was also…weird. Jones spent the majority of the time praising himself, talking about how big of a risk he was taking hiring Schottenheimer while failing to really institute any confidence in Schottenheimer’s abilities.
Again – Schottenheimer is well liked within NFL circles, has almost three decades of experience, a good coaching pedigree and familiarity with the Cowboys and Jones in particular. He also started off his tenure with a solid hiring of former Bears head coach Matt Eberflus. Eberflus struggled as a head coach, but is a great defensive mind and should settle in nicely in his new role. Schottenheimer still needs to piece together his offensive coaching staff and look to fill holes in the roster via both free agency and the draft, but there’s a path where this isn’t the worst decision Jones has ever made.
However, the lack of a serious search and settling for someone who was already in the building to save the billionaire a few bucks really lowers the grade here.
Grade: D-
Jacksonville Jaguars – Tampa Bay Buccaneers OC Liam Coen
If anyone is looking for a head coaching job, I recommend applying to be Baker Mayfield’s offensive coordinator. When the Bucs hire their next OC, Mayfield will be on his eighth coordinator in eight seasons, with many of them taking on head coaching jobs after working with the former number one pick.
Liam Coen stepped into the role for 2024 after Dave Canales took on the head coaching role in Carolina, but the Bucs offence didn’t miss a beat. Tampa Bay averaged 29.5 points in Coen’s only season as coordinator. Coen will look to rejuvenate the career of Trevor Lawrence, who himself will now be working with his fourth head coach in five seasons. The Jaguars offence has regressed under the leadership duo of former head coach Doug Pederson and offensive coordinator Press Taylor over the past couple of seasons and it was clear the organization needed a change.
Coen was highly coveted in the head coaching cycle due to his intriguing offensive mind that operates a well rounded offence, and is yet another branch off of the Sean McVay tree. The Bucs finished the season top five in both rushing and passing yards in 2024, and Mayfield improved across the board after his breakout 2023 season earned him a three year, $100 million contract.
In Jacksonville, Lawrence has repeatedly been asked to do too much in the Jaguars offence, so bringing some balance to that side of the ball will be a welcome reprieve.
There are of course concerns regarding the hiring of Coen that go beyond his awkward “Duuuuvaalllll” at his introductory press conference.
Despite how badly the Jaguars needed to move on from former GM Trent Baalke, you can question whether hiring a first time head coach in Coen and essentially handing him the reins to the entire franchise is the best move. In an ideal world, the Jags wouldn’t have waited two weeks into the offseason to fire Baalke, gotten ahead of the GM search and brought in the GM and head coach together to ensure that they understand their respective roles.
With Coen leading the charge, you can assume that he’ll have more say in the personnel decisions than most freshman coaches should get. It should also be noted that Coen isn’t having an easy time filling out the rest of his staff – the Bucs have denied any interview requests for any of their current staff to interview with the Jags after Coen’s shaky departure from the organization.
At the end of the day though, Coen is a great hire. He might have benefited by one more year or two as a coordinator to give him time to truly grow into his role as a head coach, but the Jaguars were smart to hire him while they still could. If the wins start coming in Jacksonville, all the awkwardness of the hiring process and press conference will soon be forgotten.
I believe in Coen’s ability to amplify the offence, and getting Baalke out of the building along with taking the job boosts the grade up as well.
Grade: A
Las Vegas Raiders: Pete Carroll
There aren’t many teams in the NFL who would even get a passing grade for hiring a 73 year old head coach who is one year removed from the coaching scene. But the Raiders organization is such a train wreck that this one actually makes perfect sense.
With Tom Brady reportedly leading the coaching search following the dismissal of Tom Telesco as GM, the Raiders firmly set their sights on hiring Ben Johnson. Despite the interviews going well and Brady reportedly being thoroughly impressed, the lack of a quarterback on the roster with no clear path to acquire one for 2025 led Johnson to choose the Bears.
While they didn’t land their desired hire, they did land a promising GM to replace Telesco with the signing of Brady’s former college teammate John Spytek. Spytek comes over from the Tampa Bay front office. While it’s almost impossible to predict what front office personnel will become good GMs, Spytek was often the face the Bucs organization would put in front of the media after drafts. If he brings over the Bucs roster building ability to Vegas, that is a solid base to build the team upon.
The upsides to hiring Carroll are obvious. Despite his age, Carroll’s youthful enthusiasm when it comes to football is contagious. He’s a true professional in the locker room – something that the Raiders have severely been lacking. Carroll brings a history of winning – he’s one of only three coaches to have won both a Super Bowl and NCAA Division I title. In fourteen years in Seattle, he racked up a 137-89-1 record and made the playoffs ten times. Meanwhile, the Raiders have made the playoffs twice since 2002.
Carroll will give the new regime in Vegas a chance to breathe. There’s no immediate pressure to win, especially in that gauntlet of a division. But they have someone in place who they know will instil a professional mentality with their players. Everyone involved recognizes that Carroll isn’t a long term answer, giving Spytek and Brady an opportunity to scour the NFL circles for young, up and coming coaches who can eventually replace Carrol when they’re ready.
The Raiders roster is in shambles, and the reputation of the organization is amongst the worst in the league, but the steps they have made so far this offseason at least shows that they recognize the massive overhaul that’s needed to bring the team back to relevancy. Pete Carroll may not win many games, but Raiders fans might be looking back in ten years and be thankful for the organizational shift he helped bring to Vegas.
Grade: B+
New England Patriots: Mike Vrabel
The Athletic’s Dianna Russini went on Ryen Russilo’s podcast and said that Mike Vrabel was every team’s number one choice as their new head coach, and, when the position opened up for a brief moment, the New England Patriots was the top destination for most of the coaching candidates. Well, the two prettiest people at the dance ended up going home together as Robert Kraft pulled the plug on the Jerrod Mayo experience and rushed in to snatch up Vrabel.
Vrabel, a former Patriot linebacker from 2001-2008, spent the last season moonlighting for the Browns after a terrific run with the Tennessee Titans. Vrabel finished his tenure with a 51-45 record in Tennessee, three playoff appearances and took them to the AFC Championship game despite often playing with a roster lacking in both depth and top end talent. While it was shocking to see such a qualified coach get let go after the 2023 season, Vrabel reportedly wore out his welcome with upper management for the Titans and they reached their breaking point with his hard nosed approach.
Vrabel might be a little rougher, but he is a leader of men amongst a locker room full of egos. Players will run through walls for him, and he can upgrade the Patriots defence overnight. The Patriots have enough talent on that side of the ball that it isn’t hard to fathom the 49 year old getting that unit right as soon as next season, as long as the injuries don’t mount up like they did in 2024.
While Vrabel isn’t known for having the most advanced offensive mind, he’s above average at his offensive coordinator choices, highlighted by the hirings of Arthur Smith and a then unknown Mike Lafleur. In New England Vrabel started off his tenure by hiring Patriots staple Josh McDaniels as his offensive coordinator, which was met with mixed reactions.
McDaniels was a terrible head coach for both the Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders, and is now on his third stint as offensive coordinator for New England. Finding a new voice in the organization would have probably been nice, but McDaniels has performed much better as a coordinator than he ever has as a head coach. He’ll be entrusted with the development of 2024 3rd overall pick Drake Maye, who is already the best quarterback Vrabel has ever worked with.
Vrabel will be running the defence for the Patriots, but he hasn’t been subtle about poaching his staff from his former team. Terrell Williams has been named as defensive coordinator, and it appears Vrabel is filling out his staff with more familiar faces to run what was the best defence during his tenure in Tennessee.
While the Patriots have a lot of work to do in the offseason, they lead the league in available salary cap and can go big name hunting in what’s perceived to be a weaker free agent class, where getting the top name at positions of need is key.
Vrabel is the type of coach that will immediately change the fortunes for a franchise. He’s one of the best coaches across the entire league, and despite the Patriots questionable tactics, this is a home run hire.
Grade: A+
New York Jets – Detroit Lions DC Aaron Glenn
The poaching of the Lions staff continued as the Jets hired their former cornerback Aaron Glenn to be the next head coach of the Jets. The Jets were initially criticized for hiring another defensive minded head coach after four failed years of Robert Saleh, but Glenn has continually introduced himself as a head coach who can work on both sides of the ball. He’s already announced that he’ll take the Dan Campbell approach to coaching by not calling plays on either side of the ball, instead trusting his coordinators so he can focus on game management as a whole.
Glenn has tagged Steve Wilks to be his defensive coordinator for the coming season for what, at least on paper, is a promising Jets defence. Wilks has been a bit of a nomad throughout his coaching career, spending multiple seasons as a defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator across seven NFL teams. He was hired as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals in 2018, but only lasted one season as a head coach in Josh Rosen’s terrible rookie campaign. Wilks was promoted to interim head coach for the Carolina Panthers in 2022 but wasn’t retained the following year despite a respectable 6-6 record through 12 games with a depleted roster. Wilks last worked in the NFL as the San Francisco 49ers DC in 2023, but he brings plenty of experience to the position.
Glenn then went back to the well to hire Lions passing game coordinator Tanner Ergstrand as the new Jets offensive coordinator, possibly giving that group some cohesion and familiarity to start off the new regime.
Glenn seems like a great hire. He’s ready to deal with the New York media, and might even have the chops to tell the sons of Woody Johnson that they won’t be making their personnel decisions based on Madden ratings. Glenn is clearly well aware of the challenges that face him over the coming seasons, but has the fortitude to face them head on.
New York has a new GM in place in Darren Mougey, a new promising coaching staff that seems to be coming together, and a true leader of men in charge of the locker room. They still have plenty of holes along the roster, and will have to figure out if Aaron Rodgers fits into their new vision, but Glenn represents a breath of fresh air in what has been one of the stinkiest locker rooms for the past decade.
Grade: A-
New Orleans Saints – Philadelphia Eagles OC, Kellen Moore
The New Orleans Saints were looking like the lonely guy at the bar at closing time as they watched every other team fill their head coaching positions, while they were turned down for interviews left, right and centre. Thankfully, 36 year Kellen Moore was already in town with the Eagles for the Super Bowl, so he gave them the time of day to go through the interview process, and eventually accepted the role 2 days after his team hoisted the Lombardi trophy.
Moore’s offence looked disjointed in the early goings in Philadelphia, but following the team’s bye week, they quickly established themselves as one of the league’s best units. The Eagles averaged 27.2 points per game (7th best in the NFL), and 36.3 points per game in the playoffs (1st in the NFL), as his balanced run/pass attack befuddled the opposition.
Granted, it certainly helps to have all-world running back Saquon Barkley and one the league’s best offensive lines at your disposal, something he won’t have anything close to in New Orleans. But Moore has been a dark horse head coaching candidate for several seasons now, so the timing isn’t all that strange.
Fixing the New Orleans leaky defence will be a tough task, and the Saints aren’t exactly overflowing with talent up and down their roster at the moment. Nevertheless, Moore joins an NFC South division that feels like it’s always up for grabs, and with the right additions to his coaching staff and a strong draft, New Orleans could be a frisky team in 2025 if everything falls into place.
The latest rumours have former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley as a candidate to become the Saints new defensive coordinator, while it remains to be seen who the team has their eyes on for the OC role.
New Orleans conducted multiple interviews with Giants OC Mike Kafka, Dolphins DC Anthony Weaver, and their interim head coach Darren Rizzi. So given the options Saints fans had to choose from, the hiring has to be viewed as a positive.
Nevertheless, given how long the process played out, and how many coaches publicly turned the role down, you just can’t give the Saints full marks for how this offseason has played out.
Grade: B-
-Devon Gallant
Twitter: @DevGallant
Photo: Anthony Quintano. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.