2024 NFL Head Coaching Hires: Grades & Analysis

When it comes to grading coaching hires in the immediate aftermath, a dose of perspective is needed. Two years ago, 10 NFL teams hired new coaches. 

• Bears HC Matt Eberflus
• Broncos HC Nathaniel Hackett
• Buccaneers HC Todd Bowles
• Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel
• Giants HC Brian Daboll
• Jaguars HC Doug Pederson
• Raiders HC Josh McDaniels
• Saints HC Dennis Allen
• Texans HC Lovie Smith
• Vikings HC Kevin O’Connell

Hackett and Smith were gone after just one season. McDaniels was axed this past year and Eberflus, Bowles, Daboll and Allen will all likely be on the hot seat in 2024. 

In 2021, there were seven new coaching hires: 

• Chargers HC Brandon Staley
• Eagles HC Nick Sirianni
• Falcons HC Arthur Smith
• Jaguars HC Urban Meyer
• Jets HC Robert Saleh
• Lions HC Dan Campbell
• Texans HC David Culley

Campbell, Sirianni and Saleh are the only three coaches left from that cycle, and the hires of Campbell and Sirianni earned plenty of subpar grades in columns like this one. Now Campbell is a potential coach of the year and Sirianni was in the Super Bowl just a year ago (even if he’s also on the hot seat in 2024). 

The point is, history tells us most of the eight head coaches who were hired this past cycle will be gone in a year or two or three — and we probably have no idea which ones will be successful. 

Keep that in mind when you see some of the grades assigned below: 

Chargers Hired Michigan HC Jim Harbaugh

Grade: C

The Chargers were widely considered one of the top jobs available in this cycle because of the presence of star QB Justin Herbert. So you could say landing in Los Angeles makes Harbaugh the top coaching candidate this year, and his reported $16 million a year compensation that puts him near the top of the coaching salary scale would support that assertion. 

It’s not quite that simple when it comes to coaching hires, as fit is massively important. But Harbaugh had interest from multiple teams for a reason. He’s been wildly successful everywhere he’s been, whether college or the NFL, winning at San Diego, Stanford, Michigan and with the 49ers. His teams are always known for having a tough, physical identity. He’s a unique personality, but he’s also shown an ability to relate to people from a lot of different ages and backgrounds. Harbaugh has also shown a knack for identifying ascending coaches and putting together a quality staff of assistants. 

However, I think there’s some downside that’s not being discussed enough. The last time Harbaugh was an NFL head coach was in 2014 when the NFL was very different. Harbaugh’s old-school, ground-and-pound offensive philosophy still worked well enough, particularly because he was one of the coaches who embraced the new wave of mobile quarterbacks. But by 2014, that offense was starting to become stale. Embroiled in a feud with the front office, Harbaugh left for Michigan in 2015. 

Harbaugh’s not completely rigid and inflexible when it comes to his offensive philosophy, as shown by how he pivoted to Colin Kaepernick ahead of Alex Smith. He also embraced more spread concepts after arriving at Michigan after realizing he needed to build up the line of scrimmage to be able to play his preferred style. Toughness and physicality remain key ingredients to a successful football team, and plenty of contending teams have built run-first offenses. But a certain level of competency in the passing game has become more of a prerequisite for success in the NFL than it was the last time Harbaugh was stalking a sideline in the league.

Reports have pegged Greg Roman as a potential offensive coordinator for Harbaugh with the Chargers. Roman was with Harbaugh at Stanford and in San Francisco, and he was also the OC with the Ravens for a few seasons. In terms of creating an effective and hard-to-prepare-for rushing attack, especially involving a mobile quarterback, Roman is one of the NFL’s best. What has doomed him at every stop along the way in the NFL is an inability to marry a complementary passing attack to his scheme. 

That makes the potential fit with Herbert fascinating, as multiple coaches and offensive coordinators have been hired and fired with the goal of maximizing Herbert’s obvious talent. Is his ability the key to making Harbaugh’s approach work in the NFL? It very well could be and I’m fascinated to see how it all plays out. Maybe zigging to an old-school, smashmouth style while the rest of the league zags will be a resounding success for Harbaugh and add yet another accomplishment to his lengthy resume. 

But I think it’s more of a risk than history or Harbaugh’s prodigious reputation might suggest. 

Commanders Hired Cowboys DC Dan Quinn

Grade: B

Washington came into this coaching cycle with a lot of buzz as perhaps one of the most in-demand jobs available. Proponents ticked off boxes like new owner Josh Harris, plenty of cap space and a wealth of draft picks, including the No. 2 overall pick in a draft with two or three top quarterback prospects. Add in the hire of GM Adam Peters from the 49ers, and the Commanders’ job was expected to be one of the prizes of the cycle. 

Instead, Washington was the last team to hire a coach. We likely won’t know the full picture for a while, if at all, but there’s a strong chance the Commanders didn’t get their No. 1 choice for the job. Or their second. 

Maybe not even their third…

If Washington had ended up with Lions OC Ben Johnson, I would have given the hire an A. There are a lot of reasons to think he’s ready to be an excellent head coach, one with the upside of other high-level offensive minds like Shanahan or McVay. However, it’s worth reiterating how hard it is to forecast coaching success. Even if Johnson seems like a much better bet than Quinn, history says both have a pretty equal chance of having success. 

So let’s set aside where Quinn ranked among Washington’s candidates and just focus on what he brings to the table. The headliners on his resume are his past head coaching experience with the Atlanta Falcons, which included a trip to the Super Bowl in 2016 and a 43-42 record overall. He’s also a proven defensive coordinator, with back-to-back No. 1 overall rankings in scoring and total defense with the Seahawks and three straight years with a top-ten scoring defense in Dallas. 

While Quinn has a background in the Seattle coaching tree, he’s been able to adapt as the league caught up to that system and still find success. He has a long track record as a teacher and a leader, with former players and colleagues who rave about his capacities in both areas. Even at the end of his tenure with the Falcons when things were slipping away, Quinn never lost the locker room. 

Quinn has been sought after as a coaching candidate the past few seasons but he has understandably been picky understanding his next head coaching job will be his last — and he’s fortunate to be one of the coaches considered for another top gig. He’s been looking for organizational alignment and resources to be successful, both boxes Washington appears to check. 

Two things will be key for Quinn to ensure a better outcome with the Commanders than with the Falcons. Atlanta went downhill after making the Super Bowl in Quinn’s second season. Losing OC Kyle Shanahan was a major factor, but the defense also degraded in a significant way. Because that was Quinn’s area of expertise, ultimately that was the bigger factor in losing his job. Quinn must identify what went wrong and how to not let it happen again. 

The other challenge will be his offensive coordinator hire. That’s not unique, as every head coach without a background on offense has to negotiate this dynamic. Quinn has to identify a candidate who can help whichever prospect they select have success transitioning to the NFL. Then he needs to make sure he has a pipeline in place for when his quarterback’s success leads to another team hiring away his OC as a head coach.

Falcons Hired Rams DC Raheem Morris

Grade: A

The Falcons were so high on Morris that they turned down former Patriots HC Bill Belichick. While it’s a complicated topic that could be an article all by itself, for all practical purposes the Falcons picked Morris over arguably the greatest coach in NFL history. And I think it was my favorite hire of this coaching cycle. 

Morris wasn’t one of the most hyped candidates entering the process, but he has a well-rounded resume I’m bullish will translate to success in his second stint in Atlanta (by the way, props to the Falcons for not letting pride and the fact they passed over Morris to hire former HC Arthur Smith stop them from admitting a mistake). He picked up more and more steam during interviews and was a finalist for multiple teams before landing in Atlanta. 

The big selling points for Morris are his proven experience on both sides of the ball. While the bulk of his work history is on defense — including the past three seasons in Los Angeles as defensive coordinator of the Rams — Morris also spent some time as the WR coach and pass-game coordinator in Atlanta under then-OC Kyle Shanahan. He’s the rare defensive coach who has significant experience on both sides of the ball. 

This is not even mentioning his first stint as a head coach with the Buccaneers. Morris was hired at 33 years old and was one of the youngest head coaches in NFL history. It showed at times in his Tampa Bay tenure. Morris went 3-13 in his first season, 10-6 in his second and 4-12 in his third and final year. Morris has acknowledged he was probably not ready to be a head coach but he got the job because he has natural leadership ability. Now he has the benefit of age and experience to go along with it. 

Staffing is an underrated key factor in having success as an NFL head coach, and Morris has the benefit of connections up and down the Shanahan coaching tree to pull from. He’s bringing Rams passing game coordinator Zac Robinson with him to Atlanta as offensive coordinator, who was one of the more sought-after play-calling candidates this year. Morris will have to keep the future in mind, as if Robinson does well he’ll likely put himself in position for a future head coaching gig. But he’s ahead of the curve in this area compared to some other candidates. 

It’s fair to wonder how much this moves the needle, but it’s worth noting everyone with the Rams raves about Morris. There was a concerted effort to put his name out there the past few weeks, with GM Les Snead, COO Kevin Demoff, HC Sean McVay and CB Jalen Ramsey all giving unprompted stump speeches about how Morris deserved a head coaching gig.

More tangible is the impressive work Morris did with the Rams’ defense in 2023. The final ranks don’t blow you away until you realize Los Angeles didn’t have more than a starter or two outside of DT Aaron Donald that most NFL fans could name. Morris did exceptional work to develop young players and put them in position to hold their own. 

The only real negatives to point to with Morris are his lackluster record as a head coach and potential structural issues down the road being a defensive coach instead of an offensive one. But I think there are a lot of reasons to feel positive about Atlanta’s future with him at the helm. 

Panthers Hired Buccaneers OC Dave Canales

Grade: B

Carolina entered its search for a new head coach understanding they likely weren’t going to be able to successfully woo the perceived “top” candidates. For the Panthers, success looked like finding someone who believed in last year’s No. 1 pick, QB Bryce Young, and had a plan to get him and the team back on track. They also needed a coach who could work in alignment with the GM and help give the team an identity. 

Time will tell how successful Canales is at turning around the Panthers but there are some promising indicators he might be up for the task. He’s enthusiastic, energetic and clearly can command a room. Former players in Tampa Bay and Seattle describe him as relentlessly positive, and he’s been a part of two major quarterback turnarounds in the past two seasons. He was Seahawks QB Geno Smith’s position coach in 2022 and turned that into the play-calling job for Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield last season. Now the Panthers hope he can do the same thing for Young. 

Another positive factor is Canales knows new Panthers GM Dan Morgan from their time together in Seattle. Both were hired in 2010 — Canales as a WR coach and Morgan as a scout — and the two worked together until 2018. This allows the Panthers to have the coaching staff and front office on the same wavelength for the first time in years. A lot of the team’s issues can be traced back to a lack of alignment. For example, the long list of players who have struggled for Carolina after or before having success with a different team. Getting the football staff on the same page would not be an insignificant development. 

The downside is the Panthers are rolling the dice on an unproven coach. Canales raised his profile considerably this year with his work in Tampa but the Panthers were the only team to request him for a head coaching interview. His lack of experience was probably one reason for that. Another factor is that in terms of X’s and O’s, Canales is probably at least a tier below other play-callers like Lions OC Ben Johnson or Texans OC Bobby Slowik. For example, the Buccaneers were near the bottom of the NFL in use of motion and struggled to run the ball effectively. 

Another year of success would have made Canales more sought-after commodity, however. The Panthers are rolling the dice that being a year early will pay off. They also hope to pair him with DC Ejiro Evero who is a proven commodity and a head coaching candidate in his own right. The good news for Canales is the bar has been set low and owner Dave Tepper will be incentivized to show more patience than he has to this point. 

Patriots Promoted LB Coach Jerod Mayo

Grade: C+

Despite allllll the drama and speculation about how things were going to play out in New England with the end of the Belichick era, in the end it was pretty straightforward. Belichick left, and then the next day Mayo took over after years of being the longtime heir-apparent. No search, no homecoming for Mike Vrabel, no potential trade kerfuffle, just as clean a succession as owner Robert Kraft could have hoped for given the circumstances. 

Now whether or not Kraft made a mistake by going with the relatively unproven Mayo compared to a more established coach like Vrabel remains to be seen. Kraft’s hiring record has earned him some benefit of the doubt. He’s seen Mayo up close for years and has conviction about the former linebacker’s leadership traits. Other teams have shown interest in Mayo in the past and Kraft has always done what it took to keep him in New England, even if he didn’t follow the traditional path of being the defensive coordinator. 

Besides Mayo’s intangibles, experience as a former player and any other qualifications Kraft may see, it feels like the biggest selling point on the new coach’s behalf is how immersed he’s been in the Patriots’ culture his entire career. Mayo is both a common thread to the great Patriots teams of the past and a fresh, young innovator who Kraft hopes will iterate the New England dynasty into the future. 

Mayo’s not Belichick, and he made that clear in his introductory press conference. He has plans to do things differently and embrace change with a young and energetic staff that can dive into problem-solving and relate better to the current generation of players. But given he spent his entire career in New England as both a player, coach and even briefly as a media analyst, has he had enough exposure to new ideas to really shake things up to the degree that they need to be? 

That’s the biggest question I have with Mayo. So far it seems like his offensive coordinator search has been focused on bringing in someone from the Shanahan tree, which would be a good start at injecting new ideas into the building. But the Patriots have their work cut out for them rebuilding the roster and coaching staff. At least to those of us on the outside, Mayo is a major unknown. 

Raiders Promoted Interim HC Antonio Pierce

Grade: C

Assigning a grade to the Raiders for this hire is difficult because it feels like it was the only choice owner Mark Davis could make without risking a full-blown locker room mutiny. Franchise player Maxx Crosby threatened to push for a trade if Davis didn’t keep Pierce. It’s clear the fallout from Davis’ last coaching decision — bypassing popular interim HC Rich Bisaccia in favor of hiring McDaniels, who was out after less than two seasons — dictated his options this time. 

The problem is that Pierce is not Bisaccia. The former special teams coach had decades more experience and a much more comprehensive body of work as the interim with the Raiders. He went 7-5 and helped guide the Raiders to a postseason berth at 10-7, while Pierce was 5-4 en route to an 8-9 finish. 

I don’t say that to diminish Pierce’s impressive run as the interim. It was clear the locker room had full belief in him once he took over and that’s a level of leadership that’s not a given in NFL coaching circles. He galvanized the squad down the stretch and it’s fair to say the Raiders punched above their weight given some of the holes on the roster. With Pierce running the show, the Raiders had a clear identity. That kind of stuff matters for coaches. 

But Pierce is dramatically inexperienced compared to a number of his peers. He’s never been an NFL coordinator and had just one season in that role in college at Arizona State. His head coaching experience was in high school and he had double-digit losses in two out of three years. It feels like Davis is chasing his decision with Bisaccia and also looking at the model the Lions have made with a player-friendly leader in HC Dan Campbell, who also didn’t have a traditional coaching background. Good teams don’t chase, they’re on the cutting edge. 

It will be vital for Pierce to hire enough experienced voices around him on the staff to help ensure this past year wasn’t just a flash in the pan. Things can go downhill fast in an NFL season and Pierce has the unique challenge of coaching in Las Vegas. 

The good news is Pierce seems to recognize that, and a big reason he earned the full-time role is he started early this past season consulting with mentors like former Bengals HC Marvin Lewis and former Giants HC Tom Coughlin. Keeping DC Patrick Graham is a win, as he did good work on his side of the ball this past season. The biggest question Pierce will have to answer is at quarterback, and ultimately that will probably dictate how things pan out for him more than anything. 

Seahawks Hired Ravens DC Mike Macdonald

Grade: A-

Seattle was willing to wait until late in the process to have a shot at hiring Macdonald and they hope their patience will be rewarded. Macdonald has been tabbed as the “defensive Sean McVay” due to his youth — he’s the NFL’s youngest current head coach at 36 years old — and cutting-edge scheme that helped the Ravens rank as the NFL’s top defense and earn the top seed in the AFC. The Ravens didn’t just win a lot of games, they obliterated some good teams. Obviously the end in the AFC championship was a gut punch, but Macdonald’s unit adjusted and held Kansas City to zero second-half points. 

The praise for Macdonald is nearly universal. Players and coaches rave about his intelligence, poise, attention to detail and communication skills. He’s had success at every coaching stop and what was particularly impressive about this past year in Baltimore is how many lesser-known or castoff players stepped up to have strong seasons, including players like OLB Jadeveon Clowney, S Geno Stone, DT Justin Madubuike and OLB Kyle Van Noy.

For Seattle which has to compete in the NFC West against both McVay and 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan, having a defensive mastermind who has shown he can go toe-to-toe with that coaching tree is potentially a massive game-changer. 

Now the catch is we have seen defensive wunderkinds before, most notably former Chargers HC Brandon Staley. Schematic knowledge is important for coaches but the job of a head coach is a lot different than the job of a defensive coordinator. That’s what the Chargers found out with Staley. 

There are a lot of reasons to believe Macdonald is set up to have success with the Seahawks. But the fact is Macdonald will be a first-time head coach and there is always a projection to be made for coaches who make that leap. 

Titans Hired Bengals OC Brian Callahan

Grade: B+

The first true outside hire of the cycle, Tennessee identified Callahan early on in the process and moved quickly to get him before he could take second interviews with other teams. The Titans loved Callahan’s experience with one of the AFC’s top teams over the past several seasons. Even though he wasn’t the primary play-caller, he had a big hand in designing the offense around Bengals QB Joe Burrow. 

Perhaps more importantly, Callahan helped adapt the scheme to help Cincinnati stay afloat when Burrow went down and they had to turn to unheralded backup QB Jake Browning, who never threw an NFL pass until this year after entering the NFL in 2019 as an UDFA. He went on to complete more than 70 percent of his pass attempts in half a season of work. For a Titans team that still has a significant rebuild ahead of it and a young quarterback in 2023 second-rounder Will Levis, those traits were particularly appealing.

At 39, Callahan is young enough to be viewed as an innovator but he also has a strong track record under his belt with quality organizations and different systems. He’s worked with Peyton Manning, Matthew Stafford and Derek Carr and is the son of longtime NFL OL coach Bill Callahan. While he won’t be able to hire his father for a little while as he’s under contract with the Browns, he should have a strong Rolodex when it comes to making staff hires. 

Like with any first-time head coach, there are questions about how Callahan will adjust to the unique challenges of the role after being a coordinator for a while. He’s also going to call the plays on offense, which means he’ll have even more on his plate as he adjusts to doing that for the first time. He could thrive, he could fall on his face. There’s really no way to tell ahead of time what will happen.