At the end of the 2024 regular season, 7 teams would not be entering the 2025 season with their Head Coach from the year before.
Today, only two open spots remain after some shocking news today in the return of a legendary coach, as well as one coach looking to make his mark on a franchise.
Through the last couple of weeks, the Patriots, Jets, and Bears found their Head Coaches. New England brought back a former player, and former Tennessee Titans Head Coach Mike Vrabel. The Bears brought in arguably the hottest candidate in the hiring cycle this year and last year, Lions Offensive Coordinator Ben Johnson. And the Jets brought in Johnson’s former counterpart in Detroit Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn.
Two more vacancies have now been filled.
The Jacksonville Jaguars announced they would be hiring former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Offensive Coordinator Liam Coen in an interesting turn of events. Coen recently interviewed for the position, but turned it down and signed a contract extension with the Buccaneers to stay in Tampa. Hours later the Jags announced that they would be parting ways with their current General Manager Trent Baalke, and after that, Coen was again interviewed and later was tagged as the new head coach per sources. Many believe that Baalke was the main decider of Coen accepting the job. Jaguars Owner Shahid Khan noted previously that if the Head Coach candidate did not want to work with Baalke, adjustments would be made. Those adjustments were made and Coen now is the leader of the Jacksonville Jaguars who finished 4-13 in Doug Pederson’s last year at the helm before being fired.
In an even more surprising turn of events, the Las Vegas Raiders have now filled their head coaching vacancy bringing back one of the most accomplished Head Coaches in recent NFL History. The Raiders are turning to former Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carrol who stepped down as Head Coach of the team last year, and was going to become a professor at a school he saw a lot of success at as well, USC. Many believe that one of the new minority owners of the Raiders helped in this decision, that being one of the greatest names in the sport, Tom Brady. Carroll will have quite the project in front of him taking on the Las Vegas franchise who finished 4-13 in Antonio Pierce’s first full year as head coach. Carroll will have a premium draft pick to start off his tenure in Las Vegas to either grab a quarterback the team desperately needs, or to possibly trade back and get more draft capital for the coming years.
This now leaves TWO Head Coaching jobs available in the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys, and the New Orleans Saints.
The Dallas Cowboys have been rumored to sign journeyman coach Brian Schottenheimer, while also having conversations with University of Colorado Head Coach Deion ‘Prime’ Sanders.
The Saints have been the quietest franchise when its come to filling their Head Coaching job, there have been no talks of major candidates interviewing there, or someone possibly taking the job. This could indicated interim Head Coach Darren Rizzi is keeping the job after he took over when Dennis Allen was fired during mid-season.
With two spots left, who will take over the remaining franchises in hopes of turning the teams around and possibly making a playoff push?
Photo Credit: ESPN, The NFL, Seattle Seahawks
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