{"id":15528,"date":"2026-01-27T08:19:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T08:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.365scores.com\/news\/?p=15528"},"modified":"2026-01-28T11:18:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:18:31","slug":"2026-nfl-coach-cycle-grades-new-hires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.365scores.com\/news\/2026-nfl-coach-cycle-grades-new-hires","title":{"rendered":"The 2026 NFL Coaching Cycle: Grading New Hires and the Best Choices to Fill the Final Openings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2025 NFL<\/a> season is down to Super Bowl LX in less than two weeks, and the coaching matchup is actually a great lesson for the rest of the league as there were 10 head coach positions to fill for 2026, tied for the second most in the 32-team era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can definitely conclude that the 2025 season was the end of an era as some of the longest-tenured coaches such as Mike Tomlin (19 years in Pittsburgh), John Harbaugh (18 years in Baltimore), and Sean McDermott (9 years in Buffalo) are no longer with their teams.<\/p>\n\n\n

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If you read any of our articles about NFL coaches in the last few years, then you know asking for change in Pittsburgh<\/a> has been a long time coming. Our 2025 season previews for the Ravens<\/a> and Bills<\/a> both talked about the Five-Year Rule<\/strong>, which has stood for 75 years now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Five-Year Rule: No team has won its first Super Bowl by starting the same quarterback for the same coach for more than five seasons. With McDermott and Harbaugh out, the clock resets for Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen with their new coaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But just look at this year\u2019s Super Bowl matchup. It\u2019s Year 1 together for the duos of Mike Vrabel-Drake Maye (Patriots) and Mike Macdonald-Sam Darnold (Seahawks). It\u2019s also notable because in 2023, just two seasons ago, these teams were coached by legends like Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both teams let go of those legends in 2024, and now just two seasons later, they are in the Super Bowl again with Vrabel and Macdonald.  Based on the way Belichick and Carroll have fared at North Carolina and Raiders (Carroll fired after one year), it was the right move. Coaching is a young person\u2019s game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But make note of another important piece of the success for the Patriots and Seahawks this year. Mike Macdonald was a flashy new hire in 2024 of a first-time coach and defensive guru from Baltimore. But for his second season, he improved the offensive coordinator position by bringing in Klint Kubiak from the Saints, and things have really taken off on that side of the ball with a career year from Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then with Vrabel, he\u2019s a retread who took a year off after the Titans fired him. In getting a second shot, he made a smart hire of making Josh McDaniels his offensive coordinator. McDaniels may be a poor head coach, but his resume as an OC is practically unrivaled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s two defensive coaches in the Super Bowl, but they may not be here if not for the smart hire they made to run their offenses. That\u2019s important. That\u2019s the kind of detail we\u2019re going it look into below as we grade the new head coaching hires for 2026 and give our thoughts on who the teams with a vacancy should be targeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Updated: All 163 NFL head coaches hired since 2003 pic.twitter.com\/eGj0E9gvj0<\/a><\/p>— Scott Kacsmar (@ScottKacsmar) January 27, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>