The first domino in this offseason’s coaching carousel dropped late Wednesday night, with the New York Giants closing in on a deal to hire John Harbaugh as their next coach. But there’s still a lot to sort out on the carousel.
Mike Tomlin threw a wrench into the coaching carousel on Tuesday when he announced his decision to step down as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, giving us nine teams this offseason who are searching for a head coach. But many coordinator vacancies need to be filled in the coming weeks, with the Philadelphia Eagles joining the list of teams to part ways with their offensive coordinator earlier this week.
[The Big Picture: How John Harbaugh Brought Credibility and Hope to Giants Overnight]
As the coaching carousel continues to move, FOX Sports’ Eric D. Williams, Ralph Vacchiano and Greg Auman gathered some intel on what to expect with some of the notable vacancies across the league.
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Who should replace Mike Tomlin? Execs look at veteran coaches
Eric D. Williams: With the bombshell coming out of Pittsburgh this week that longtime head coach Mike Tomlin was stepping down after 19 seasons as that team’s head coach, Steelers owner Art Rooney begins the quest to hire that franchise’s fourth coach in 57 years.
Finding Tomlin’s replacement will not be easy. The defensive-minded head coach led the Steelers to a Super Bowl and did not have a losing season during his time there. But of course, the feeling from fans, understandably, in Pittsburgh of late is that Tomlin underperformed, not winning a playoff game in a decade.
Still, the pressure will be significant for Tomlin’s replacement. One league executive I spoke to said Pittsburgh native and Super Bowl champion Mike McCarthy may be a good fit as an experienced head coach to replace someone with as much success as Tomlin had.
“Mike McCarthy makes sense if they go the vet route,” a former NFL personnel executive told me. “Chris Shula or Jesse Minter if they go the young, defensive route like Chuck Noll and Mike Tomlin. I could also see Brian Flores being a fit there.”
Is Mike Tomlin stepping down the start of a Steelers rebuild?
And what about a Sean McVay type to revamp a stale offense?
“They need a leader first, no matter what side of the ball,” the former NFL personnel man told me.
Another NFL source backed Flores for the job, while my colleague, FOX Sports NFL reporter Ben Arthur agrees with the selection of Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula. Flores spent a year on Tomlin’s staff in 2022 as linebackers coach and senior defensive assistant, and the last three seasons as the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings.
Another league source gave me a fun wild-card option for the Steelers’ next head coach.
“To win next year? John Harbaugh,” a league source told me. “But it won’t happen. Longer term, Flores would be my pick.”
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Mike Tomlin headed for the TV booth?
Eric D. Williams: Tomlin still has two years remaining on his contract with the Steelers. He could take a year off from coaching like Sean Payton, when he worked as an NFL analyst for a season with FOX Sports after leaving the New Orleans Saints and before taking the head coaching job with the Denver Broncos in 2023.
Payton was still under contract with New Orleans at the time, so the two sides negotiated a trade — with the Broncos sending first and second round picks to the Saints, receiving Payton and a third-round pick in return.
Any team interested in Tomlin’s services would have to broker a similar deal with Pittsburgh.
“I think he wants to spend time with his family and do some of the kinds of things he hasn’t been able to do for the last, you know, many, many years,” Steelers owner Art Rooney told reporters this week. “And so, if something like that comes up, we’ll deal with it when it comes up. But right now, that doesn’t seem to be on his radar.”
If a team wants to hire Mike Tomlin, they’ll likely have to trade for him just like the Broncos did to get Sean Payton in 2023. (Photo by C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images)
A league source that I spoke with expects Tomlin to take a year off from coaching to spend time with family, while potentially pursuing a job in TV. And the expectation is that Tomlin will have his pick of suitors interested in his services.
“I don’t think there’s a ‘Denver Broncos’ out there for Tomlin this coaching cycle that would be willing to give up draft compensation for him like the Broncos did for Payton,” the league source told me. “Assuming he’s still interested in coaching, I could very easily see Tomlin’s path being similar to Payton’s, where he takes a year off and then is in the hiring cycle after that year.
“But it honestly would not surprise me if Tomlin’s path mimics Bill Cowher’s path. While his name will always come up in the hiring cycles in the immediate years after his departure in Pittsburgh, Tomlin ends up doing TV longterm.
“If I were betting, I think the latter scenario is the more likely scenario. He’s accomplished everything he possibly could have as a head coach. Why not turn the page to the next phase of his career by moving into TV?”
An NFL coach, meanwhile, believes the split will do Tomlin and the Steelers well.
“Mike had a good run with the Steelers,” an NFL coach told me. “Definitely a mutual split. Both parties could use a fresh start. Mike will lead another team whenever he’s ready to.
“The Steelers will hire whoever they believe is the right fit for their organization, and they’ve been pretty damn good at doing that.”
Could the Eagles turn to a familiar foe at OC?
Ralph Vacchiano: Brian Daboll lost his job with the Giants in part because he never could figure out how to fix their struggling offense. Maybe he’ll have better luck fixing the offense for one of the Giants’ biggest rivals instead.
It is “possible” that Daboll, the ex-Giants coach, will interview for the Philadelphia Eagles’ vacant offensive coordinator job in the coming weeks, an NFL source told me. The ties are certainly there. Eagles coach Nick Sirianni once called Daboll “one of my biggest mentors”, and Daboll was also the offensive coordinator at Alabama when Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts played for the Tide.
Former Giants head coach Brian Daboll has aemergeds a candidate for the Eagles’ offensive coordinator job. (Photo by Ishika Samant/Getty Images)
Daboll is also still a well-respected coach and a highly regarded offensive mind, according to multiple league sources. He is not opposed to becoming a coordinator again, a source familiar with his thinking told me, though he is scheduled to interview with the Tennessee Titans for their head coaching job.
The Eagles are expected to “think big,” as one source put it, as they search for an experienced offensive coordinator after the offense struggled under first-time coordinator Kevin Patullo. They are expected to also pursue former Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who was a runner-up for the job in 2024 when the Eagles hired Kellen Moore.
Other possibilities include former Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski and former Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, if they don’t get another head coaching job this cycle.
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Where will the Buccaneers turn to at OC?
Greg Auman: John Harbaugh’s deal with the Giants might take his former offensive coordinator, Todd Monken, off the table as an option for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who had Monken for an in-person visit Wednesday.
Todd Bowles has hired three straight young coordinators who had never called plays in the NFL — Dave Canales and Liam Coen left after one year to become the head coaches in Carolina and Jacksonville, respectively, while Josh Grizzard was fired last week after his only season with the Bucaneers.
It makes sense that Bowles would now choose a more known commodity and an established play-caller who has run NFL offenses, knowing his job is on the line in 2026. Toward that end, the Bucs will be meeting Friday with former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, whose old team beat Tampa Bay in Week 17, part of why the Bucs missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker.
Former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel has emerged as a possible candidate for top offensive coordinator jobs this offseason. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
McDaniel is also up for head coaching jobs, but would value a great offensive coordinator opportunity above a not-great head coaching spot. The Bucs have plenty of competition, not only in the eight teams still seeking a head coach, but in playoff-caliber teams like the Detroit Lions, Los Angeles Chargers and Eagles, who have fired their offensive coordinator so far this offseason.
If they can’t land Monken or McDaniel, one option who checks a lot of boxes is former Atlanta Falcons coordinator Zac Robinson. He’s called plays the last two years in Atlanta, worked with Baker Mayfield in 2022 with the Rams, and would bring in an offensive scheme similar to what Coen and Grizzard have run the last two years. In four games against the Bucs, he helped the Falcons to a 3-1 record in the last two years, averaging 29 points and beating them last month when Tampa Bay needed a win to help their playoff chances.
The wild card? Rams assistant Nate Scheelhaase, who interviewed with Tampa Bay a year ago and might have been their choice if they hadn’t kept Grizzard with an eye on continuity. This would be another young, unproven coach who hasn’t called plays in the NFL, but his upside is as much as any candidate out there, such that he’s in the mix for head coaching jobs as well.
Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him on Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on X at @eric_d_williams.
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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