While many teams had success in the 2025 NFL season, many did not meet their expectations, especially the ten teams that decided to fire their head coach either in the middle of the season or at the season’s end. Now that the 2026 offseason is officially underway and all the vacant head coaching positions have been filled, it’s time to look at and grade the new head coaches for these teams as they prepare for free agency and the draft.
Cleveland Browns: Todd Monken
The Browns had a very mixed season last year, as they had a very stagnant and turnover-heavy offense. They did, however, have an elite defense, allowing the fourth fewest yards per game. The Browns also had both the Defensive Player of the Year in Myles Garrett, who also broke the single-season sack record this past season with 23 sacks (and did it in fewer snaps than either of the previous record holders), and the Defensive Rookie of the Year in Carson Schwesinger (though that award should have gone to Nick Emmanwori in my opinion). But despite their elite defense, the Browns only managed to have a 5-12 record, leading the decision to fire head coach and two-time Coach of the Year winner Kevin Stefanski, after a combined 8-26 record after their last playoff appearance in 2023. Throughout this article, there will be a clear pattern of how teams will almost always hire an offensive-minded head coach after firing a defensive-minded one, and vice versa. Unfortunately for Browns fans, they are also a prime example of how bad ownership can ruin a team.
Considering the performance of the defense last season, and how both of the past two Super Bowls have been won by defensive dominance, it would make sense to hire a defensive head coach or promote defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. But the Browns decided to not opt for either of those decisions, and instead hired the Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator, Todd Monken, to be their head coach. As I said previously, this hire shows how bad ownership can impact a team. While general manager Andrew Berry seems to be improving his drafting skills (though I understand Browns fans not trusting him after the Deshaun Watson trade), and I think Monken is capable of being a good head coach and could play a major part in the development of now sophomore quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, this hiring was botched by the owners of the Cleveland Browns, Dee and Jimmy Haslam.
Since the Haslams bought the team in 2012, the Browns have had extremely limited success. In that 14-year span, they have only won one playoff game, and had a two-season stretch in 2016-17 during which they only won a single game. During this head coaching search, the Haslams continued their use of a “data-driven” hiring process, which they have used since 2016 when Paul DePodesta was brought on to be their chief strategy officer (DePodesta is now president of baseball operations for another terrible team in the Colorado Rockies). This entailed having candidates write essays and take personality tests, which I highly doubt any strong candidate would want to do if they could easily get a head coaching job elsewhere at a team that is already in a better position. While I do think that data is very important and as its place when it comes to decision making in the game of football, the Haslams have to realise that if the data has gotten them to this point and this terrible of a decision, then they need to stop looking at the data or at least look at it differently. At the very least, they need to understand that making decisions based solely on data without considering the situation at hand is not the way good football teams operate.
But the Haslams made this situation even worse by reportedly trying to force candidates to work with defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, even when those candidates had different people in mind for the position. This insistence of keeping Schwartz ultimately scared away several head coaching candidates, as they were only able to have a second interview with four of the ten candidates they interviewed, with one of those four being Schwartz himself. While I don’t think Todd Monken is a bad hire, this is just not how you hire a head coach. When you have a defense that is as good as it was, and you are in a division where there are a good number of high-end offensive players like Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow, it makes a lot of sense to promote Schwartz, especially when he is showing interest in taking that job. But the Haslams and the Browns screwed it up so badly that their decision led to Schwartz resigning as defensive coordinator. While Todd Monken will probably not be the main problem with the team, there is no realistic way that the Browns will be a good team, leading me to give this hiring an F grade.
Buffalo Bills: Joe Brady
Of the teams that moved on from their head coach, the Buffalo Bills were absolutely the most successful in the 2025 season. While the New England Patriots ended Buffalo’s five-season reign over the AFC East, they were still able to clinch a wild card spot in the playoffs. The Bills managed to beat the champions of the AFC South, the Jacksonville Jaguars in the wild card round of the playoffs. The Bills ultimately lost to the Denver Broncos in the divisional round, which prompted Bills owner Terry Pegula to fire head coach Sean McDermott and promote general manager Brandon Beane to be president of football operations, along with his general manager duties. Like the Browns, this move shows how poor ownership can affect teams negatively. While I was not the biggest fan of McDermott, it was clear based on the reaction of Bills players when the news came out that he was fired, that he was a leader of men and had full control of the locker room, which in my opinion, is the most important skill for a head coach to have. While I can understand Pegula’s decision to fire McDermott at face value, as he was continually unable to get them to the Super Bowl despite being in the playoffs for the past seven years, but when you realise the reason for their poor performance and Pegula’s explanation for the firing, this decision gets more and more suspect.
The main reason for the Bills’ failure, in my opinion, is due to poor roster construction. Aside from quarterback Josh Allen, running back James Cook, and a top 5-10 offensive line, the Bills don’t really have any talent on that side of the ball, especially with receivers, as their top receiver, Keon Coleman, only had 719 yards for the season. Their defense also wasn’t very good last year either, as they struggled to generate pressure on the quarterback, only getting a total of 36 sacks as a team last year (for context, Browns defensive end Myles Garrett got a record 23 sacks on his own this past season). This lack of pressure on the quarterback made the secondary’s job harder as well, which shows in the fact that they gave up about 21 points per game, which in turn made it harder for the offense to win games. While this, at face value, could be blamed on the coaching staff for not implementing an effective system, it does not consider the fact that the only player that is still on the roster who joined the team before Beane did in 2017 is long snapper Reid Ferguson. This means all the players on the roster that are not performing well have been acquired by Beane, making the decision by Pegula to promote Beane and fire McDermott even more confusing.
To replace McDermott, the Bills promoted their offensive coordinator, Joe Brady to be the head coach. While the Bills had a decent amount of offensive success, the scheme brought in by Brady does not seem particularly good, and their success is more due to Josh Allen being an elite quarterback. While having the same system when changing head coaches is good for continuity, I don’t know if this is the continuity the Bills want to have. While I have no problems with Brady as a coach, I don’t see how he can lead the locker room like McDermott did. This is at best a lateral move by Buffalo, and considering the decisions and reasoning surrounding this move, especially the promotion of Brandon Beane, makes me think the Bills can only get worse from this move, which leaves this hiring with a C+ grade.
Las Vegas Raiders: Klint Kubiak
In a word, the Raiders’ 2025 season was abysmal. This train wreck of a season started with hope, as the Raiders made some solid moves in the offseason, bringing in former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll to be their next head coach, and traded for Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith. If you’re starting to notice a pattern of the Raiders bringing in former Seahawks, you’d be correct, as they continued to do so throughout the season, including safety Jamal Adams, wide receiver Tyler Lockett, linebacker Jon Rhattigan, and offensive linemen Stone Forsythe and McClendon Curtis. None of these moves made them competitive, however, as they only won three games, making a four-way tie for the worst record in the league along with the Arizona Cardinals, Tennessee Titans, and New York Jets (it should be noted that of these four teams, the Jets were the only ones to not fire their head coach). This abject failure resulted in the Raiders firing Pete Carroll at the end of the season and earning the best award that no one wants in the NFL: the #1 overall pick in the draft.
To solve their coaching problems, the Raiders waited till after the Super Bowl to hire the offensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks and Super Bowl champion Klint Kubiak to be their head coach. As a Seahawks fan myself, I have been able to watch Kubiak’s offense for 20 weeks, and as far as I can tell, without a very high football IQ, it is a very refined and well run system. Along with a strong system, Kubiak seems to be bringing along Mike Macdonald’s style of coaching over from Seattle, which I think is a very good thing for the Raiders. Winning teams have a winning culture, and bringing in a culture akin to Macdonald’s is a step in the right direction.
There is one thing about this hiring that does give me pause, and it has nothing to do with my thoughts on Kubiak as a coach, but rather has to do with the ownership and general manager of the Raiders. The Raiders made a lot of bad moves last season, and while some of the blame for these moves can fall to Pete Carroll, the fact that the ownership and general manager John Spytek allowed these moves to happen worries me. The part of the ownership that worries me the most about this ownership is not the main shareholder in Mark Davis, but rather the minority owner and seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady. Brady was reportedly the main reason the Raiders went after Geno Smith instead of Sam Darnold, which clearly did not work out the way the Raiders wanted it to. To be clear, I don’t think Brady is a bad owner simply because of this move, but I think that if he continues to make bad decisions, it will be very detrimental to the silver and black for the foreseeable future. Being arguably the best quarterback of all time does not necessarily mean Brady will be the best owner, but I don’t think anyone in the organization will say no to him, despite his lack of any actual power as a minority owner of the franchise.
While I really like Klint Kubiak and think he can be a great head coach, there is just too much chaos surrounding this organization for me to think that this hire will end well. The Raiders have had three one-and-done coaches in three years, and while they did show patience with this hire, I don’t expect the ownership to be patient with Kubiak and expect him to immediately have this team competing, which is just not possible with the current state of the roster. While I expect Kubiak and Spytek to make some moves in free agency and the draft to improve the team, I still feel like there are too many uncertain factors around this organization for me to give this hire a grade any higher than a B+.
New York Giants: John Harbaugh
The New York Football Giants had an interesting 2024 season, as they showed a lot of promise, but were unable to win games, finishing the season with a 3-14 record and the fifth overall pick in the draft. They were also plagued by injuries, especially on offense, as wide receiver Malik Nabers tore his ACL early in the season, running back Cam Skattebo dislocated his ankle, and quarterback Jaxson Dart was in and out of games for concussions. The inability to handle injuries well, combined with the inability to finish games, is why the Giants elected to fire head coach Brian Daboll halfway into the season.
To replace Daboll, the Giants brought in the former Ravens head coach, John Harbaugh. Harbaugh has shown in his 18 years with the Ravens, but I’m not so sure about the quality of this hire. Harbaugh will certainly bring stability and order to the team, but I don’t know how much winning he will bring with him. In his last three years with the Ravens, they got progressively worse, going from losing in the AFC championship to losing in the divisional round to missing the playoffs altogether. While the Giants are in a very different situation than the Ravens, it should certainly be considered when evaluating Harbaugh as a coach.
This move feels very boom or bust, as I think with a strong draft, the Giants could be competing for a playoff spot in 2026, and could potentially even be able to win their division. But if they whiff on their picks, which is not a stretch considering Joe Schoen’s record as a general manager, the Giants could be in the basement of the NFL for another few years. While I am not completely sure what the Giants will look like in 2026, I am certain that they will be exciting to watch, and I will give this hiring a B grade.
