Readers can have a love/hate relationship with grades. Some say they hate them for being premature and often wrong, but they’re consistently among the most popular types of articles we run here at NFL Trade Rumors. That includes coaching hire grades, even though those are particularly hard to get right. 

The NFL has not cracked the secret to hiring good coaches, as evidenced by the dizzying annual rate of turnover — 10 jobs opened up this past year, tying an NFL record. So it follows that no one has cracked the code to grading new coaches. In the name of transparency and accountability, these are the grades I’ve doled out over the past three years: 

Year	Coach	Team	Grade
2025	Mike Vrabel	Patriots	A-
2025	Ben Johnson	Bears	A
2025	Aaron Glenn	Jets	B
2025	Liam Coen	Jaguars	B-
2025	Pete Carroll	Raiders	B+
2025	Brian Schottenheimer	Cowboys	D
2025	Kellen Moore	Saints	C+
2024	Jim Harbaugh	Chargers	C
2024	Dan Quinn	Commanders	B
2024	Raheem Morris	Falcons	A
2024	Dave Canales	Panthers	B
2024	Jerod Mayo	Patriots	C+
2024	Antonio Pierce	Raiders	C
2024	Mike Macdonald	Seahawks	A-
2024	Brian Callahan	Titans	B+
2023	Sean Payton	Broncos	A+
2023	Shane Steichen	Colts	B
2023	DeMeco Ryans	Texans	B+
2023	Jonathan Gannon	Cardinals	C+
2023	Frank Reich	Panthers	B+

 

It’s not all bad. Vrabel, Johnson and Payton got high marks and all excelled this season, though I wasn’t exactly going out on much of a limb to praise those hires. Macdonald was more of an unknown and that’s a grade that’s aged well. My skepticism for Gannon, Pierce and Mayo has proven to be justified. Not as much yet for Harbaugh, who is 22-12 with two playoff appearances — albeit no wins yet. 

Plenty of other grades are rougher. I loved the hires of Reich, Morris and Carroll, and two of the three were fired after just one season in which their team earned the No. 1 pick. Morris wasn’t quite that bad but certainly not “A” caliber in his two seasons. I haven’t been a particularly harsh grader, but the only D I’ve given out in three years was to Schottenheimer, and based on his first year, he probably doesn’t deserve that. 

We’ll see how well this next batch of grades turns out…

Giants HC John Harbaugh

Grade: A-

Harbaugh’s record speaks for itself in many ways, which is why after the Ravens let him go he was in high demand from every team with a vacancy (and some without). In nearly 300 games over 18 years with the Ravens, Harbaugh compiled a record of 180-113, ranking 14th all-time in NFL history for coaching wins. His teams made the playoffs in 12 out of 18 seasons and he won a Super Bowl following the 2012 season. 

Famously, Harbaugh was primarily a special teams coordinator when he was hired by the Ravens, without a background majoring in either offense or defense like 99 percent of other head coaches who are hired. That proved to be a strength as he was able to reach different facets of the organization to keep everything moving in one direction as opposed to some coaches who fall into silos. Leadership and culture-setting might be squishy traits to identify up front in coaching candidates, but you know them when you see them in action. Those were two of Harbaugh’s best attributes as the Ravens’ head coach. 

Don’t mistake that for a lack of proficiency in the X’s and O’s department, however. In two decades, Harbaugh has had to help the Ravens reimagine themselves multiple times without straying too far from the core organizational identity that has made them one of the most successful franchises of the 2000s. Some of the league’s best defenses right now, like the Super Bowl Seahawks under second-year HC Mike Macdonald, operate on principles and a system that Harbaugh helped rejuvenate a few offseasons ago when NFL offenses looked more explosive than ever. 

The natural question is if Harbaugh was so great, why would the Ravens move on? Sometimes it just becomes time for a change and a new voice, and that seems to be what Baltimore owner Steve Bisciotti decided after several years of failing to return to the mountain top despite having two-time MVP Lamar Jackson at quarterback. Even in a tough season this past year, though, the Ravens won eight games and were within a whisker of qualifying for the playoffs. Harbaugh’s teams always had a high floor throughout his career. 

Even though he’s 63, it feels safe to bet on Harbaugh bringing that high floor to the Giants, who desperately need it after a decade of wandering in the wilderness after the retirement of former HC Tom Coughlin. The ceiling depends on a ton of other factors, including how well Harbaugh can bring a new coaching staff together, how he integrates with a holdover front office spearheaded by embattled GM Joe Schoen, and — maybe the biggest question — the true potential of young QB Jaxson Dart. 

Falcons HC Kevin Stefanski

Grade: B-

Solid is the best adjective to describe Stefanski. Boring might be another. He has an even-keeled demeanor and runs perhaps the most uneventful press conferences of any of his peers. The hallmarks of his scheme on offense are running the ball and multiple tight end formations. There was certainly a segment of the fanbase in Cleveland that was ready to see him go after six seasons. 

But it is undeniable that Stefanski was the most successful Browns head coach since Marty Schottenheimer in the late 80s, and that includes a stint from Bill Belichick. He snapped a playoff drought that was 17 years old and owns the only Cleveland playoff win in the last 30 years. He earned Coach of the Year honors following both of his playoff appearances with the Browns, showing how hard the NFL honors voters think it is to win in Cleveland. A 45-56 career win-loss record might not stand out at first glance, but in 77 seasons, only three of the other 21 men who have coached the Browns have managed to win more games. 

Even though he was fired, Stefanski has probably come out better in the end after landing with the Falcons, where he has more to work with from a roster standpoint than he did with the Browns who have been hamstrung the past couple of seasons by the disastrous trade for QB Deshaun Watson. Stefanski’s hands aren’t clean in that failure of a decision but he’ll benefit from a clean slate regardless. 

If we set aside the last two years in which the Browns have been forced to embrace a rebuild with limited resources, Stefanski’s record climbs to 37-30. His offenses go from the bottom of the barrel in the past two years to more middle-of-the-pack. That’s probably a more accurate representation of what the Falcons are getting, although the further you look back, the riskier it is to project forward. The NFL moves quickly and evolves faster. 

Stefanski won’t be calling the plays in 2026, a duty which will fall to OC Tommy Rees who followed him over from Cleveland, but he’ll presumably be heavily involved as Atlanta tries to develop QB Michael Penix Jr. into a franchise-caliber starter. It’s similar to how Stefanski inherited Baker Mayfield when he took the Browns’ job, though Penix is more physically talented and less cantankerous. Like Mayfield, Penix can probably benefit from Stefanski’s system, which is built to take pressure off of the quarterback. 

It’s also helpful for Stefanski that he’ll inherit DC Jeff Ulbrich, who has a long track record of coordinating strong defenses. In his first year with the Falcons, Atlanta broke a franchise record with 57 total sacks, turning a longtime weakness into a strength. In the previous six years, the Falcons had failed to reach 30 sacks four times. 

While the roster and coaching staff is in a stronger place, it remains to be seen whether Stefanski will have the benefit of working with a better front office than he had with the Browns. Atlanta’s front office is a big-time wildcard going into next year, with former QB Matt Ryan taking over as the president of football operations despite no real scouting or personnel experience. He’ll be joined by GM Ian Cunningham who was the No. 2 front office guy in Chicago the past several years but Falcons owner Arthur Blank made it clear that Ryan is making the final decisions. 

Even if Ryan has some aptitude for the job, it’s fair to expect some growing pains. Unfortunately the person most likely to experience consequences for those mistakes isn’t Ryan. It’s Stefanski. 

Dolphins HC Jeff Hafley

Grade: C

When teams switch head coaches, they usually end up flipping 180 degrees with their next hire. Miami is a great example this year. After moving on from former HC Mike McDaniel, a quirky and unconventional offensive mastermind who led teams that were criticized for a shortage of toughness and an excess of finesse, the Dolphins hired Hafley — a defensive coordinator known for his energy and ability to recruit, motivate and develop players. Hafley’s message in his introductory presser was, to paraphrase, “I’m bringing toughness back to Miami.” 

Before the last two seasons running the Packers’ defense, Hafley was the head coach at Boston College for four years, giving him some previous head coaching experience that may have helped set him apart from the other candidates the Dolphins considered. Whether or not that gives him any real leg up as he prepares for his first year as the head coach of an NFL team remains to be seen. There is a long and poor track record of college head coaches transitioning to the NFL because the job requirements at the lower level are different in so many ways. Hafley has acknowledged he was willing to take a demotion on paper by leaving BC for Green Bay because he just wanted to get back to coaching football, something his responsibilities as the head guy for a college team were taking away from. 

Judging Hafley solely as a first-time head coach with a defensive coordinator background, there are some positives. His unit was borderline top five his first year, borderline top 10 in his second as the Packers faded down the stretch due to an accumulation of injuries, not the least of which was a torn ACL for OLB Micah Parsons. They did an exceptional job with takeaways in his first year, not so much his second. 

However, the situation he’s landing in with the Dolphins is questionable. Miami faces a big rebuild. Not only do the Dolphins not have an answer they like at quarterback, they have the next worst thing: an incumbent quarterback they’ve become disillusioned with who has a massive salary. Tua Tagovailoa is due $54 million in guarantees next year, money no other team will trade for and that the Dolphins are on the hook for even if they cut him. 

Hafley could give Tagovailoa another season with a clean slate but the more likely option is the Dolphins cut him, swallow over $99 million in dead money on the cap in some fashion (an NFL record), and try to chart a new path forward. They have to do this while also rebuilding an offense and defense that have fallen into disrepair. This is why Hafley’s background as a developer of talent was attractive. 

Still, there will be plenty of challenges for him to weather, and they’ll hit right away. Ownership groups can say they’re open to a rebuild during interviews in January. It’s another thing to stick with it a year or two later as the losses mount. 

Titans HC Robert Saleh

Grade: B

It took just a year with the 49ers for Saleh to wash the stigma of his failed Jets tenure off and earn another chance as a head coach. It certainly helped that the Jets have gone just 6-23 since surprisingly letting him go after Week 5 in 2024, and that Saleh turned in a phenomenal coaching job in San Francisco this past season. A 49ers defense that operated without the benefit of DE Nick Bosa and LB Fred Warner for most of the season and started a host of other backups and young players finished 13th in the NFL in scoring defense, good enough to help an injury-riddled 49ers team make the playoffs in what was supposed to be a transition year. 

That’s yet another example of Saleh’s biggest strength as a coach — his defensive acumen. His defenses have been consistently good over a span of several years that includes multiple teams and lots of changing personnel. His defensive units are resilient, too. This past year wasn’t the first time a Saleh-led defense absorbed injuries and kept on ticking. It’s a testament to Saleh’s skill as a teacher on that side of the ball. 

Highly energetic, Saleh has connected fairly well with players over the course of his career. He’s a strong communicator and can be a charismatic personality. However, in his time with the Jets under the microscope of the New York media, he would lose track of the big picture and become too focused on trying to control the narrative at times. It hurt his ability to lead the whole team and not just the defense. 

Being in a much smaller media market with the Titans will be good for Saleh. The other fatal flaw for him with the Jets was never figuring out the quarterback position, though of course he was far from the only person who ought to shoulder blame for the Jets’ many years of quarterback futility. Part of the allure for Saleh with the Titans was the presence of 2025 No. 1 pick Cam Ward, who has clear physical talent and an aura of a player who could be great. Saleh is betting on another failed New York coach, former Giants HC Brian Daboll, to help Ward reach that potential. 

Some people have chafed at comparisons between Saleh and Vrabel, as the decision of Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk to fire Vrabel after the 2023 season remains inexplicable. There’s no getting around the fact that Saleh and Vrabel have similar strengths and styles as coaches. If Saleh is successful in implementing his vision, his Titans will feel a lot like the Titans under Vrabel. However, Saleh has a ways to go to become as detail-oriented in all facets of being a head coach as Vrabel. 

Ravens HC Jesse Minter

Grade: B+

The Ravens are usually one of the teams that’s ahead of the curve and charting a course that other organizations try to mimic. This year, though, they’re chasing the cutting edge. Seattle is in the Super Bowl and led led by a former Ravens assistant, Macdonald, who runs the same defense as the Ravens and has been able to find an offensive play-caller to maximize the talent on that side of the ball. With Macdonald out of reach, the Ravens hired Minter, who is in virtually the same archetype. 

Minter and Macdonald have very, very similar backgrounds, and in fact the two men are good friends. They overlapped on the Ravens’ coaching staff from 2017 to 2020, with Minter succeeding Macdonald as defensive backs coach. Both worked their way up from the college ranks in Georgia — Minter working at Georgia State as the defensive coordinator for four seasons and Macdonald spending four years as a low-level assistant for the Georgia Bulldogs. 

Both returned to the college level in 2021 for DC gigs, Macdonald with Michigan and Minter with Vanderbilt. After Macdonald returned to Baltimore to take the Ravens’ DC vacancy, Minter replaced him at Michigan upon a recommendation from Harbaugh to his brother, Jim Harbaugh. He followed the elder Harbaugh to the Chargers in the same role in 2024. Like Macdonald, Minter has a reputation as a smart and innovative defensive mind. 

Normally, it’s not great business to be the team that’s trying to replicate the model another team used to reach success. The copycat is seldom as good as the original and the results are far more inconsistent. The Ravens have earned some benefit of the doubt as an organization, however, and the infrastructure in place should help ease the transition for a first-time head coach like Minter. 

Minter’s offensive coordinator hire is going to be massive, as it is for every non-play-calling head coach. This is the coach who will be tasked with getting the most out of Jackson and the bar is already ludicrously high. The only thing the two-time MVP doesn’t have is a Super Bowl ring. Minter tabbed Bears OC Declan Doyle for the job, a first-time play-caller who’s one of the youngest coaches in the league at a fresh 29 years old. He comes with a lot of praise for being part of Chicago’s success under HC Ben Johnson this past year, but the Ravens are making a huge bet on someone with a thin resume so far. 

Steelers HC Mike McCarthy

Grade: B-

The Steelers have only made a handful of hires in the last half-century, and they broke that mold by electing to bring on McCarthy. At 62 years old, he’s over two decades older than his three predecessors — Mike Tomlin, Bill Cowher and Chuck Noll — were when they were hired. Notably he also has a background on offense instead of defense, which is something Pittsburgh was keenly aware of. 

In a vacuum, McCarthy’s record stacks up as well as any other coach in this hiring cycle and is quite respectable in the context of the whole league as well. McCarthy is 15th all-time in NFL history with 174 wins, just six behind John Harbaugh. His winning percentage of .608 is inside the top 40 all-time for coaches, and he’s one of six active coaches with a Super Bowl ring. 

Beyond that, McCarthy was hired because of his reputation as a quarterback developer, an attribute the Steelers have missed the past several seasons as they’ve navigated the post-Ben Roethlisberger era. However, instead of Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers or Dak Prescott at quarterback, there’s no telling who McCarthy will have under center when the 2026 season kicks off. 

In Dallas, McCarthy had to work without the benefit of Prescott under center for 25 games across his five years in charge, and overall the results were decent. McCarthy’s record was 12-13 in non-Prescott games. That includes: 

2020: 4-5 with Andy Dalton, 0-1 with Garrett Gilbert, 0-1 with Ben DiNucci

2022: 4-1 with Cooper Rush

2024: 4-4 with Rush, 0-1 with Trey Lance

If you throw out the games in which McCarthy had to go beyond No. 2 on the depth chart, it bumps up to 12-10. It’s also worth noting the results with the backup mirrored the results with Prescott. In 2020 and 2024, McCarthy went 2-3 and 3-5 with Prescott. In 2022, the two were 8-4. 

Still, there will be a lot riding on the Steelers finding a quarterback at least as talented as Prescott if they’re expecting better results from McCarthy than from the last several years under Tomlin. Even though the organization didn’t initiate the breakup with Tomlin, it does feel like there will be some urgency from ownership to see results. The fanbase reached that point years ago and there will be little to no honeymoon period for McCarthy. 

If the Steelers were willing to break precedent by hiring McCarthy, I do think they would be open to breaking it again when it comes to how patient they’ve traditionally been with coaches. I doubt that translates to a one-and-done season being on the table unless things are truly disastrous but it’s absolutely possible McCarthy doesn’t make it to the end of his five-year contract. Considering the average tenure of the three coaches before him was 19 years, that’s still saying something. 

Bills HC Joe Brady

Grade: C+

I don’t think the Bills made a mistake by firing HC Sean McDermott, though if you strip away some of the context he has impressive credentials that will likely earn him a head coaching opportunity in a year. Sometimes a change is needed. Over nine years in Buffalo, McDermott showed he could win plenty of games in the regular season, but not those critical final one or two in the playoffs. Nine years is a big enough sample size to go off of. 

Where I think the Bills erred is by pinning all of their failures in the past decade on McDermott, which is exactly what they’re doing by retaining GM Brandon Beane and promoting Brady from offensive coordinator to replace him. Beane joined the team alongside McDermott and owns each of his wins and each of his losses to this point. Ownership can blame McDermott for various coaching decisions, but they can’t (credibly) blame him for a lack of offensive weapons this past year or a thinned-out defensive depth chart. They can’t blame McDermott for only drafting two Pro Bowl players in the last seven drafts. 

Brady is a perfectly viable head coaching candidate in his own right, which is why he’s been drawing interviews from other teams dating back to his first year as an NFL play-caller in 2020 with the Panthers. The 36-year-old was named interim OC in 2023 and has run the offense the past two seasons, during which the Bills were No. 2 and No. 4 in scoring and No. 10 and No. 4 in total offense, respectively. Brady works well with QB Josh Allen, whose window the Bills are obsessed with not wasting, and has a reputation for both designing a good offense and connecting well with the players. 

But by promoting a coach who has been with the team for the past four years, the Bills are doubling down on the idea that McDermott was the biggest problem holding them back. If the idea is that nine years of the same thing necessitated a shakeup, is changing just one piece of the puzzle (admittedly a big one) enough? Is Brady really going to be an upgrade over McDermott when it comes to the million little details the head coach holds together for the whole team to operate smoothly? Can he replicate the defensive success McDermott helped facilitate? 

We will see. There aren’t many coaches who will enter 2026 under more pressure than Brady. 

Browns HC Todd Monken

Grade: C+

It snuck up on the NFL world when the Browns pulled the trigger on Monken as their next head coach, whether it should have or not. He was linked to the job from the beginning and we identified the pairing as a strong match in our mock coaching landing spots article. Frankly, the Browns were limited in their options this hiring cycle, as coaches who had options and could afford to say no did just that. Monken wasn’t one of those given his age and how long he’s been on the candidate circuit. 

The hire itself is not necessarily a bad one, though. Monken shares a lot of attributes with former Cardinals and Buccaneers HC Bruce Arians, another older coach who didn’t get his big shot until he was well into his golden years. Like Arians, Monken has a background as an offensive play-caller and decades of varied experience. The soon-to-be 60-year-old shares Arians’ aggressive, attacking mentality — Arians’ credo used to be “no risk it, no biscuit. 

Monken is more flexible and tactical in his approach than Arians, however, as while he wants to attack down the field, he’s more willing to bend his scheme to fit his players. Both coaches are gruff, no-nonsense teachers who care about players but won’t coddle their message. 

Unfortunately, Monken faces some severe headwinds in Cleveland when it comes to finding success. The roster is in bad shape despite a decent draft and offseason this past year. The core of the team that made two playoff berths from 2020 to 2023 is aging out and the Watson trade/contract have handicapped the ability to replace them. Cleveland is a year into a rebuild that could take two or more seasons to see through. 

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was once seen as one of the worst in the NFL, and there are signs that he might be starting to slip back into old, bad habits. Letting go of Stefanski was understandable, but not cleaning house with GM Andrew Berry, who bears equal responsibility for the state of the team, was questionable. Berry’s status could be in question in the future, and that kind of instability will affect the head coach too. There’s also already some buzz that Haslam overruled recommendations from his search committee to hire Monken instead of someone like Rams assistant Nate Scheelhaase, a young assistant who might have been able to grow into the role as the team rebuilt. 

The ink on Monken’s contract might not even have been dry when he inherited his first crisis. The Browns interviewed DC Jim Schwartz for the head coaching vacancy but ideally wanted to land someone with a background on offense to pair with Schwartz, who has helped the team to some strong seasons on defense the past few years. Schwartz, who’s infamously a little high-strung, did not take the rejection well and is pushing to be let out of his contract. This doesn’t reflect poorly on Monken in any way, but it’s just one of several examples of the challenge he’s going to face. 

If I had to rank which coaches from this hiring cycle could be one-and-done — and history says at least one and probably two of this group will be fired by this time next year — Monken would unfortunately be toward the top of the list. He’s well aware of what’s at stake, too, as this isn’t his first rodeo in Cleveland. He was the offensive coordinator in 2019 under HC Freddie Kitchens when he and the whole staff went one-and-done. 

Raiders HC Klint Kubiak

Grade: B+

Kubiak will be the tenth coach to lead the Raiders since owner Mark Davis assumed primary control of the team in 2011, coming on board on a deal that should become official after the Seahawks are done playing the Super Bowl. He’ll also be the fourth different one in as many years as Las Vegas pivots yet again. This time, though, I think there are some reasons to be guardedly optimistic. Kubiak interviewed with a bunch of teams and was one of the top candidates available with a background on offense. He had some options available to him and picked the Raiders. 

Granted, he wouldn’t be the first young coach to arrive in Las Vegas with some buzz around his name. However, as far as first-time OCs-turned-HCs go, his resume is solid. Kubiak has called plays for three different teams, two in the past two years, and the results have steadily improved. In 2021 with the Vikings, his offense ranked 14th in scoring and 12th in yards. A few years later in 2024 after stints with the Broncos and 49ers as an assistant, Kubiak was at the controls for a Saints offense that was red hot to start out before an injury to veteran QB Derek Carr sandbagged the final results. This year, his Seahawks are in the Super Bowl with the No. 3 scoring offense and No. 8 total offense. 

Those are solid numbers, but what might be more encouraging about Kubiak’s outlook is how he got there. The son of longtime Texans and Broncos HC Gary Kubiak, Klint is steeped in the Shanahan-style system that every team seems to want a piece of. He’s been around it his whole life and it’s literally in his blood. Some of the hallmarks of that offense are how the play-calling and design can make life easier for quarterbacks and offensive linemen, who have some of the hardest jobs on the football field.

That shows up time and time again on Kubiak’s resume. The quarterbacks for Kubiak’s play-calling years have been Kirk Cousins, Carr and Sam Darnold. Cousins made a Pro Bowl while throwing for over 4,000 yards and 33 touchdowns against just seven picks in 2021. Darnold joined him as one of Kubiak’s Pro Bowl QBs this year after a quality follow-up to his career-best 2024 season. 

Kubiak has also been able to elevate the offensive line play at each of his past two stops. It was a huge concern for the Saints after they moved on from former OC Pete Carmichael and brought in Kubiak in 2024. Before Carr went down, the Saints led the NFL in lowest sack rate allowed and were a respectable 14th in rushing for the whole season. Kubiak had similar strong results for the Seahawks, as the offensive line was viewed as a potentially fatal weakness coming off the 2024 season. It’s still a work in progess from a talent perspective, but Kubiak’s scheme helps shield it. 

It’s no wonder the Raiders found all of this incredibly appealing. Las Vegas is about to onboard a rookie quarterback with the first overall pick, Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, who has a lot of positive traits but did not play in the most complex systems during his college career. The Raiders’ offensive line might have been the worst in football last year. Kubiak appears to be a candidate who can elevate both aspects, which is a solid foundation for the Raiders to build on as they reshape the rest of the roster over the coming seasons. 

The unknown with Kubiak is the same as it is with any other first-time head coach. The demands of being an offensive coordinator are a lot different than the demands of being a head coach and leading the entire team, particularly if a candidate intends to keep running the offense. 

Cardinals HC Mike LaFleur

Grade: C+

Arizona was the last team to make a hire, making a run at Kubiak before he chose the Raiders ahead of the Cardinals’ vacancy. The Cardinals then went back to their second choice in LaFleur who had his final interview in the middle of last week. Clearly there was a type for the Cardinals this year, and some Cardinals beat reporters have noted that owner Michael Bidwill has regretted not making a stronger run at HC Sean McVay before the Rams got him out of Washington. 

So instead, Bidwill turns to yet another member of McVay’s staff. LaFleur becomes the seventh current NFL head coach to have served on McVay’s staff in Los Angeles at some point, joining his older brother and Packers HC Matt LaFleur. He’s been immersed in the McVay/Shanahan ecosystem, working alongside 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan with the Browns, Falcons and 49ers before he landed his first play-calling gig with the Jets in 2021. After he was fired in 2022, he joined the Rams in his current role. 

At 39 years old, LaFleur’s resume is a little thin at this point. The best thing he has going for him is his proximity to other successful coaches who clearly hold him in some level of high regard. His two years in New York don’t jump off the page. The Jets finished 28th and 29th in scoring and 26th and 25th in yards. The Rams have been good while LaFleur has been on staff, including No. 1 in scoring and total offense this past year. McVay calls the plays, though. 

There is some context to LaFleur’s Jets stint. The team struggled mightily at quarterback those two years, the first two years of former No. 2 pick Zach Wilson’s career. The offense looked much better when almost anyone besides Wilson was under center, something that proved damning for both Wilson and LaFleur as time went on. 

LaFleur did clash with some players and that was a contributing factor in his departure. But even at the time, it seemed like Saleh was reluctant to make the move, at least more reluctant than some people above him in the organizational hierarchy who ended up getting their way. Since then, LaFleur’s stint running the offense has looked better than the alternatives and was arguably just as good as anything the Jets have put on the field since 2015. 

However, LaFleur is joining a team now that might be almost as dysfunctional as the Jets. His pedigree is strong but his inexperience looms large here, as does the tough sledding against an NFC West that includes the Rams and McVay, the 49ers and Shanahan and the reigning conference champions, the Seahawks and Macdonald. It’s hard to have high hopes for a coach whose first order of business is probably going to be finding an alternative to QB Kyler Murray.