Story by
Grading all 10 NFL coaching hires in 2026 cycle, from John Harbaugh to Todd Monken
- Story by
- Grading all 10 NFL coaching hires in 2026 cycle, from John Harbaugh to Todd Monken
Grading all 10 NFL coaching hires in 2026 cycle, from John Harbaugh to Todd Monken appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
The NFL head coaching cycle moved quick this offseason, and now everything appears to be wrapped up as the Super Bowl approaches. The Raiders and Cardinals finished things up on Sunday, as Arizona hired former Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur and the Raiders announced their intent to hire Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak after he coaches Seattle in the Super Bowl.
Advertisement
The coaching cycle was full of top-tier jobs, including two with MVP quarterbacks in Baltimore and Buffalo . The hires ranged from new faces, like Jesse Minter and Jeff Hafley, to retreads like Mike McCarthy , Kevin Stefanski and John Harbaugh .
Who should feel good about their hires, and who will regret the move in the years to come? Let's go through the report cards for all 10 teams that made changes at head coach this offseason.
Arizona Cardinals : Mike LaFleur
The Cardinals struggled to find a good fit as the next head coach in Arizona , and it seemed like Kubiak may have been their top choice. However, LaFleur isn't a terrible place to land for a team hiring so late in the cycle. He has worked with both Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan in the past and has some playcalling experience during his time with the Jets , as bad as it was.
Advertisement
McVay's history of offensive coordinators leaving to become head coaches is excellent; All three of Liam Coen, Kevin O'Connell and Matt LaFleur were home-run hires for their respective teams. This isn't a sexy hire because of the Jets stint, but there's some upside here if LaFleur can make it 4-for-4 for the McVay tree.
Grade: B-
Atlanta Falcons : Kevin Stefanski
Stefanski's reputation took a bit of a hit during his final few seasons in Cleveland , but he was far from the problem with a Browns franchise that is going nowhere at the moment. He won two Coach of the Year awards with the Browns, one of them while navigating five different starting quarterbacks on a team that made the playoffs.
Advertisement
How he fits with Michael Penix Jr . is a bit of a cloudy issue with this job, but Stefanski isn't tied to the former top 10 pick and could likely move on to somebody else if 2026 doesn't work out. With plenty of skill players at his disposal and a defense that should be competent, this is a strong hire for the Falcons.
Grade: B+
Baltimore Ravens : Jesse Minter
Lexi Thompson-Imagn Images
Minter came into this cycle as one of the top available candidates, in large part to his role in turning the Chargers into a top 10 defense over the last two seasons. Once John Harbaugh was let go in Baltimore, Minter was the obvious fit there, and now it's a reality. The well-renowned defensive mind will now have even more talent to work with on that side of the ball, which should make this an elite unit.
Advertisement
The other side of the ball will likely be decided on the Declan Doyle dice-roll , at least in 2026. In the long term, however, combining a top 10 defense with Lamar Jackson is a recipe for winning. This one feels like a home run.
Grade: A
Buffalo Bills : Joe Brady
There's two different ways to look at this hire. On the surface, Brady has been a head coaching candidate for years after leading a very good Bills offense led by Josh Allen . Buffalo will maintain its continuity on offense and should be one of the top offenses in the NFL once again in 2026 and beyond.
On the other side, didn't Sean McDermott get fired simply because the Bills needed change in the building? Because this iteration of the franchise had hit a perceived ceiling in the postseason? McDermott wasn't a bad coach by any indication and he was coaching a defense that was overachieving relative to its personnel at the end of the season. Promoting Brady feels complacent, and sort of defeats the purpose of canning McDermott in the first place.
Advertisement
Grade: C
Cleveland Browns : Todd Monken
I really have no idea what the Browns are doing. Cleveland is in need of a complete reset, especially on the offensive side of the ball, so much so that it fired an established head coach in Stefanski even though most of the blame for the Browns' failures clearly falls on the roster-building by the front office.
A team in Cleveland's spot needs one of two things: a young, wunderkind coordinator that can inject some life into the building, or an established culture-setter that can implement basic winning habits and give the team a respectable floor. Cleveland got neither of those, hiring someone who is about to turn 60 years old and has never been an NFL head coach. Monken feels like a bridge hire who will be out of Cleveland in a few years when the Browns are in a little better spot.
Advertisement
Grade: D
Las Vegas Raiders : Klint Kubiak
Kubiak has been incredibly impressive with the Seahawks in 2025, and will get one last chance to show off against the Patriots in the Super Bowl. From there, he will become the head coach in Las Vegas , where he has essentially a clean slate and gets to start off with Ashton Jeanty , Brock Bowers and presumably No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza on offense.
Kubiak's offense grew stale in 2024 with New Orleans , but he has shown some real adaptability with the Seahawks. This Seattle team is running the ball well toward the end of the season, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba is used as creatively as any star player in the NFL. He should have some great things in store for a core on offense that is much more promising than 2025 would make it seem.
Advertisement
Grade: B+
Miami Dolphins : Jeff Hafley
The Dolphins are in need of a transition away from the Mike McDaniel-Tua Tagovailoa era, and they landed on former Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley. Hafley has experience as a head coach in power college football at Boston College, but he has only been back in the NFL for two seasons in Green Bay .
For a first-time NFL head coach, you want a quality that really sticks out. Hafley called a good defense in Green Bay, but is he an innovative mind on that side of the ball like Minter or Mike Macdonald? I'm not sure I see that. There's a chance that he is a great culture-setter who will galvanize this group, but there just isn't a track record here to get me inspired.
Advertisement
Grade: C-
New York Giants : John Harbaugh
Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images.
Harbaugh becoming available is a dream for a Giants team that has some talent, but is in desperate need of a stable leader that will get them all on the same page. Harbaugh has been exactly that in Baltimore for more than a decade, and he has a lot to work with in New York. A Harbaugh-coached team with an elite defensive line, a solid offensive line and a few cornerstone young players on offense should be at least competitive right away.
Harbaugh has his flaws; he wouldn't have been available if he didn't. At some point, he will have to overcome the reputation the Ravens have built for blowing big leads and not playing their best in the playoffs. But for where this Giants team is at heading into 2026, this is as good of a hire as you can have.
Advertisement
Grade: A+
Pittsburgh Steelers : Mike McCarthy
This is another hire where the candidate himself is fine on the surface, but the direction of the franchise as stated by the hire doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The Steelers have been a fringe playoff team ever since Ben Roethlisberger retired, and another embarrassing loss in the Wild Card Round seemed like it could be a good spot for a clean reset. The departure of Mike Tomlin made that even more clear.
Instead, the Steelers landed on another established floor-raiser in McCarthy, who will immediately make this a competent offense and get this team around .500 once again. What is that accomplishing for an old Steelers roster that has no answer at quarterback going into the future? McCarthy would have been a good fit in some spots, but I'm not sure much is changing for Pittsburgh with this hire.
Advertisement
Grade: C+
Tennessee Titans : Robert Saleh
Saleh got the short end of the stick during his stint with the Jets, where he was stuck with the worst quarterback situation in the NFL. However, he still led a competent Jets defense that magically fell off of a cliff when he was fired during the 2024 season. In 2025, Saleh did a remarkable job calling a 49ers defense that was riddled with injuries, keeping them afloat and even helping them win a playoff game.
The Titans' defensive personnel isn't anything to write home about, but another edge rusher or two could give Saleh a really good defensive line to work with. Brian Daboll will bring some experience and some pedigree to an offense that should improve with Cam Ward at the helm in his second season. This is an intriguing hire that could fail, like it did in New York, but Saleh absolutely deserved a second chance. This is a spot that makes sense for it.
Grade: B-
