The top NFL head coaching candidates, ranked

Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports

The league’s head coaching candidates, ranked by how promising they would be.

The NFL coaching carousel is spinning as struggling teams around the league are trying to change their fortunes. Some teams are looking for stout, veteran leadership after experiments with young coaches went wrong, while others want to find the next Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan, a young coach to lead their team for the next decade.

Of all the names being thrown about we’ve selected 10 of the best candidates to take over a team, and ranked them based on the impact they could have either returning to the NFL — or taking on a bigger role.

No. 1: Jim Harbaugh

You don’t need to like Jim Harbaugh to respect his ability as a head coach. Where there are serious questions about a lot of people on this list, Harbaugh’s rank is based on the fact he’s a safer, proven option where others might have questions.

Harbaugh went 44-19-1 as head coach of the 49ers from 2011-2014. He took over a middling team that hadn’t made the playoffs in eight years, and immediately transformed them into one of the best teams in the NFL. Then he proved this wasn’t a fluke by doing the exact same thing at Michigan.

The man knows how to change the football culture of an organization, and is probably best suited in an organization where he can mold the entire team. We don’t yet know whether he’s actually willing to leave Michigan, or if taking NFL interviews is another power play to put pressure on his current employer — but if he returns to pro football then it’s difficult to see anyone better in this hiring cycle.

No. 2: Bill Belichick

On the one hand: It’s Bill Belichick. A first-ballot selection for Canton, and arguably the greatest head coach in NFL history.

On the other hand: Did you see the Patriots the past few seasons?

In many ways, the struggles in New England the past few years were brought about in whole or in part by Belichick the GM, and not Belichick the head coach. When you consider that their entire 2019 draft class is either playing somewhere else — or is out of the league entirely — and when you add in missing on the first round quarterback as they did with Mac Jones, it is hard to be competitive. And certainly Belichick deserves a ton of credit for some of the other personnel moves he made along the way. After all, you do not build two different dynasties in the free agency/salary cap era without making some good decisions.

But what will it look like for Belichick when he is prowling a new sideline? Will the “Patriot Way” work somewhere else? What happens if he steps into a new head coaching role and suddenly has a new GM above him?

So while he is again perhaps the greatest head coach in history, there are some questions that need to be addressed when pondering his future.

Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images

No. 3: Ben Johnson

EVERYONE wants to interview Ben Johnson. The 37-year-old offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions has become the hottest young coach in the NFL — and someone who is garnering comparisons to the likes of Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan as a wunderkind about to take the league by storm.

Johnson is only in his second year as offensive coordinator, but has over a decade of experience in the NFL. He’s been critical in reforming the Lions along with Dan Campbell, helping to turn a questionable group of offensive talent into an absolute juggernaut. Jared Goff is playing the best football of his career, Amon-Ra St. Brown has become a legitimate T1 receiver in Johnson’s system, and it’s thanks to the offensive coordinator’s modern tweaks to one of the league’s oldest schemes: The Erhardt-Perkins offense, which was run by the likes of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

Johnson seems to innately understand how to take offensive players and put them in a position to succeed. If you’re a young team with under-utilized players it becomes easy to see why people are in love with this young coach.

No. 4: Elijah Evero

The knee-jerk reaction is to see a coach from the Panthers and assume this would be a disaster, but the devil is in the details. Evero was garnering head coaching attention last year while in Denver, and he only strengthened that resume in Carolina.

For the myriad issues the Panthers had, defense really wasn’t one of them. Evero took a middling unit and turned them into the No. 4 ranked defense in yards allowed in the NFL in 2023, and one of the best pass defense units in the league — despite being without his best corner in Jaycee Horn for much of the season, and not having a true pass rusher outside of Brian Burns.

If a team is looking for a defensive coach then Evero is a truly great option and could turn into a dynamic head coach.

No. 5: Mike Vrabel

Former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel knows how to do one thing, and that’s win football games. In six seasons with the Titans Vrabel went 54-45, and helped bring the Titans back from the doormat of the AFC South to having the one seed in the AFC playoffs. He’s a known culture builder and has kind of modernized the Patriot Way, in terms of how his teams are built and play. He’s also shown that he can build out some good coordinator branches, hiring Matt LaFleur as his offensive coordinator and Arthur Smith, both of whom became head coaches (results vary). He also hired Shane Bowen, who is a fantastic defensive coordinator who has helped elevate a Titans’ defense that always plays physical up front.

If a team were looking for an experienced head coach who knows how to win games and build out coordinating trees, Vrabel should be the first guy you call.

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

No. 6: Raheem Morris

If you want a coach who’s going to get the best out of every player on the team, Raheem Morris is an underrated name to call. Morris helped draw blood from a stone as the Rams’ defensive coordinator, finishing 22nd in Defensive DVOA in 2023 despite having Aaron Donald and a myriad of UDFAs and 7th round picks on the roster. Morris is a certified players’ coach, one who players such as CB Jalen Ramsey have gone to bat for openly. Morris also has a lot of head coaching experience, having coached three years in a sinking Tampa Bay ship from 2009-2011 and being the interim head coach for the Atlanta Falcons in 2020. He also has extensive coaching connections, having worked under Sean McVay, Dan Quinn in Atlanta (also worked with Kyle Shanahan while he was there) and Jon Gruden. The coaching pool he could hire assistants from is vast and wide, with varied approaches coming from everywhere. He also has something that most, if not all of the other coaches have on here: experience as an offensive and defensive assistant.

It’s time Morris got his fair shot as a head coach, and if he does he would bring a lot more to the table than people realize.

No. 7: Mike Macdonald

At just 36, it might seem very early for Mike Macdonald to be getting head coach interviews.

(Want to feel old? He is not the only 36-year-old candidate on this list.)

But there are a few things that make Macdonald a very intriguing candidate. First, he has multiple years as a coordinator under his belt, starting with one season at Michigan and now with the Baltimore Ravens, where he is wrapping up his second year as their DC. Second, there is what he built in Baltimore. Last year the Ravens were the third-best scoring defense in the NFL.

This season? They topped the league.

Macdonald has built a fascinating defense that can get after the opposing passer with a combination of simulated pressures and other schematic elements that cause confusion in the opposing backfield. The Ravens lead the NFL with 60 sacks as a team, but blitzed on just 21.9% of snaps this year. Only seven teams had a lower blitz percentage.

A team that has a stable quarterback situation and needs help on the defensive side of the ball might look in his direction. Like, say, the Los Angeles Chargers?

No. 8: Frank Smith

Much like Slowik and Callahan below him, the time might be too early for Frank Smith. The 42-year-old offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins has only been in that spot for two years, and before then he was a run game coordinator and offensive line coach at most of his stops. People will also knock him for the fact that head coach Mike McDaniel is the one calling plays not Smith. However, if you want to get some of that electrifying offense the Dolphins run, Smith would be a good hire. Since 2022, the Dolphins have finished no lower than sixth in offensive DVOA, and the group of McDaniel and Smith has helped revitalize QB Tua Tagovailoa’s career. In terms of offensive line, when the Dolphins’ line was healthy, they were actually pretty good. According to FTN Fantasy the Dolphins were fourth in Adjusted Line Yards this year despite a revolving door up front, and the growth of RT Austin Jackson from potential bust into good starter is a feather in the cap.

So yeah, it’s fair to say McDaniel has most of the juice here. But Frank Smith is good in his own way, and would be a fine hire.

No. 9: Brian Callahan

Cincinatti Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan has a good case for making the jump to head coach. It’s fair to say he found a great spot with Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins — but he still executed with the talent at his disposal.

Callahan is perhaps best known as being the son of Bill Callahan, who led the Raiders to a Super Bowl in 2003. Brian is more than just his dad’s lineage though, and is credited for working extensively with Matthew Stafford in Detroit as quarterbacks coach, as well as causing Derek Carr to take major leaps forward in the same role with the Raiders.

No. 10: Bobby Slowik

At first blush, this might seem very early for Bobby Slowik to make the jump to head coach. The 36-year-old candidate has just one year under his belt as an offensive coordinator, this past season with the Houston Texans. Prior to that he spent a season as the passing game coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers, a season before that as a “pass game specialist” in San Francisco, and four more seasons with the 49ers as an assistant on both sides of the ball.

Prior to his stint in San Francisco, he was working as an analyst for Pro Football Focus.

That is a rather thin resume.

But there is no denying the success he has enjoyed this season, particularly in helping rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud. The Texans are into the Divisional Round and Slowik has been a huge part of their story this season. And it is that experience with Stroud that might make him attractive to certain teams, particularly those who might be developing a rookie quarterback next season. If you are the Washington Commanders or the Atlanta Falcons, for example, he might be high on your list.

And he has interview requests from Atlanta, as well as the Seattle Seahawks, another team that might be looking at developing a new quarterback soon.

Maybe Slowik is this year’s version of Ben Johnson, and he will take some interviews before heading back to Houston for next season. The Texans are building something right now and perhaps he wants to be a part of that for the next few years.

Or maybe the right offer comes along and he cannot say no.