Story by
A Chiefs-less NFL playoffs created the AFC's head coach vacuum
- Story by
- A Chiefs-less NFL playoffs created the AFC's head coach vacuum
Mike Tomlin went 193-114-2 without a single losing season in 19 years as an NFL head coach. John Harbaugh won 180 regular seasons games in 18 years and, like Tomlin, has a Super Bowl ring. Sean McDermott had 106 total wins in nine seasons with the Buffalo Bills , more than the eight coaches that preceded him combined. Kevin Stefanski won AP NFL Head Coach of the Year honors in a third of his seasons at the helm.
All are very good coaches. All wound up fired or resigning after the 2025 regular season.
Advertisement
This offseason has seen a rising impatience with good coaches who'd lost the ability to be great. Rather than see if they could break through to a new plateau from their high floors, franchise owners across the NFL -- well, mostly the AFC -- bet on the momentum of a new hire to to shatter that ceiling. The AFC North alone lost 43 years of head coach experience because the three coaches that provided it had made it beyond the Divisional Round of the playoffs just once in the past decade.
The majority of the 10 coaches fired during or after the 2025 season found respectable levels of success in the league -- not you, Brian Callahan. Brian Daboll won a road playoff game by shifting Daniel Jones ' entire offense to a low-impact, high-efficiency machine. Mike McDaniel made Tua Tagovailoa a gunslinger for as long as he could. Stefanski got to the postseason after signing a 39-year-old Joe Flacco off the street in November. Pete Carroll was a train wreck in his lone season with the Las Vegas Raiders , but he's still Pete Carroll .
This doesn't mean these moves were unwise, just maybe a bit impatient. The AFC in particular has been brutal for team's resumes. One dynasty of regular conference title game appearances (the New England Patriots ) has given way to another (the Kansas City Chiefs ). Bill Belichick and Andy Reid were or are respective boogeymen for most of the coaches relieved of their duties this offseason. Yet Zac Taylor, in the midst of a three-year playoff drought and fielding one of the NFL's worst defenses in that stretch, remains employed. It's not a coincidence that Taylor is the only non-Belichick, non-Reid coach to guide an AFC team to the Super Bowl since Peyton Manning was still in the league.
Thus, when a playoff bracket opened up that didn't feature either of those coaches and the veterans who'd been waiting for their opportunity fell short, the scales of football justice tilted against them. The two coaches set to break that Belichick/Reid/... Taylor streak are Sean Payton and Mike Vrabel -- established, respected minds who moved on from stale situations and found success early in their new places. You know, the kind of head coach that suddenly became very available this winter .
Advertisement
Teams opted to venture into the breach despite a limited cache of rising young coaching stars. Instead of elevating playcallers like Ben Johnson, Mike Macdonald or Kellen Moore (hey, the Saints were interesting at the end of the season!), 2026's biggest names and early hires have been retreads. Harbaugh went to the New York Giants for a reported $100 million. Stefanski went from one confounding quarterback situation to another by inking a deal with the Atlanta Falcons .
McDermott and McDaniel will each garner multiple coaching interviews if they're inclined. Things are a bit more complicated with Tomlin, since he stepped down and the Steelers still hold his contract rights, but he'll have suitors Sean Payton-style when he wants to step back into the game.
At the very least, the rest of the NFL can thank the AFC's perennial playoff also-rans for juicing up an unimpressive pool of coach candidates. This cycle has a crop of relatively young head coaches with AP plaudits and Super Bowl rings to their credit. Maybe swapping out a guy like McDermott for someone like McDaniel is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Or maybe it's a change of course for a ship that was slowly foundering anyway.
In the end, McDermott was dealt the most favorable hand of his career in 2025. He earned a postseason without the Ravens , Bengals or Chiefs. But he couldn't fend off the New England Patriots to defend his AFC East title. He couldn't overcome the Denver Broncos in yet another heartbreaking last-second loss for a franchise defined by them. With limited avenues for improvement and several key veterans headed for free agency ( Matt Milano , Joey Bosa , 40 percent of the starting offensive line), Buffalo opted for a fresh start rather than waiting to see if he could pick up the pieces en route to another gallant playoff exit.
Advertisement
That left the Bills chasing a trend. They've entered a coaching search where two of the top candidates were hired before they could even enter the fray. They've made it clear there's little room to burn more of Josh Allen 's prime. Without an easy way to fix the roster, Buffalo bet big on fixing its coach.
That's been the AFC's defining move in a copycat league. It can't work for everyone. After nine years of stable results with McDermott, the Bills have to hope for an outlier.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: A Chiefs-less NFL playoffs created the AFC's head coach vacuum
