Here’s where we stand, with two days left in the regular season, and until the NFL’s 2026 coaching market gets rolling … And with one note: a relatively thin crop of candidates, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, could cause a team or two to stand pat.
• The Dolphins are positioned to move quickly after Sunday’s finale in Foxboro. As we reported on Thursday, Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman has come aboard as a consultant on the search and has been making calls to his contacts across the league to get up to speed on potential GM candidates. And there are a few moving parts here.
First, there’s the structure of the front office. Senior vice president of football and business administration Brandon Shore is expected to work alongside owner Stephen Ross and president Tom Garkfinkel during the search, as he’s transitioned into an elevated role. As I’ve heard it, the likely new structure will have three guys atop the football side—the head coach, the new GM and Shore, in a role like Mike Disner’s in Detroit, Tony Pastoors’s in Los Angeles or Brandt Tilis’s in Carolina (those guys are even on the org chart with the GM).
As such, Miami is expected to look for a GM with a strong player-evaluation background, since these sorts of structures generally have much of the non-scouting football departments (analytics, strength, training, medical, etc.) reporting to those in the type of role envisioned for Shore. Along those lines, you’d expect to hear names like Green Bay exec Jon-Eric Sullivan, who came up on the scouting side under the late Ted Thompson.
Then, there’s Mike McDaniel’s fate, and only Ross knows for sure what that is. Ross likes McDaniel, and my sense is he’d like to keep him, but will take in information from his top lieutenants on the decision, which is a coin flip right now. If McDaniel does stick, a GM with a standing relationship with McDaniel, like 49ers exec Josh Williams, could have an edge in that search.
For what it’s worth, the barometer for McDaniel making it to the end of the season with his job was not losing the locker room after former GM Chris Grier was let go on Halloween. It’s fair to say he’s met that standard, with the team 5–2 since, after a 2–7 start. —Albert Breer
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• Cleveland’s future remains uncertain, so we can start with the one thing that has already happened—that being chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta returning to baseball in the fall. For now, while the Browns are open to eventually finding someone like DePodesta again, they aren’t planning to fill his role, and are content with the state of his department.
That did, though, open up discussion of a restructure that might move GM Andrew Berry into a president-of-football-ops type of role—something that, at least at this point, looks like it won’t happen.
So with the team at the bottom of the AFC North for a second straight year, that leaves ownership to decide who to go forward with. And the plan is to meet after Sunday’s season finale in Cincinnati to discuss that, with a decision on the future of Berry and Kevin Stefanski coming thereafter. Berry, at this point, seems likely to stay. Stefanski’s future is murkier, though the Haslams still like their coach, and how he and Berry work together. —A.B.
• Speaking of the Browns, there was some league-wide chatter about the potential of a Kevin Stefanski trade—“smoke,” as one industry source put it—though the mechanics of a coaching trade are extremely difficult to pull off and, at least as of Friday, it didn’t feel imminent or even expected. That said, at the very least it shows how highly Stefanski might be positioned in this coaching cycle if he was a rising coordinator. The ball will be in Cleveland’s court to manage a situation in which they have an asset who is coveted by other teams. —Conor Orr
The future of Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski is murky after another down year in Cleveland. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
• Brian Flores’s free agency will in effect begin following the Vikings’ final game and I don’t expect it to be a foregone conclusion that he returns to Minnesota, though the Vikings would obviously like to keep him. While this is a depressed market in terms of head coaching candidates (and Flores could get head coaching interviews this cycle), this is a booming market to be an experienced, shut-down defensive coordinator with several teams expected to make changes at the spot this offseason. In addition, Flores’s prospects improve given that a few teams—the Rams, Chargers, Packers and Broncos—could be losing defensive coordinators to head coaching jobs. The highwater mark for defensive coordinators was set by Vic Fangio in Philadelphia. I wonder if Flores challenges that number this winter. —C.O.
• Another note on coaching salaries: While this is a little inside baseball, some in the industry are wondering whether this could be a market reset for coaches. Every few years, typically because of bidding wars for top-tier candidates, coaching salaries tend to balloon (this happened during the DeMeco Ryans chase, as well as the year Matt Rhule became head coach of the Panthers). Without a true No. 1 candidate on the market this offseason a la Ben Johnson or Mike Vrabel, does the cost for a head coach come back down to earth? —C.O.
• If the Broncos win on Sunday and clinch the No. 1 seed in the AFC, that will kickstart the dance card for Vance Joseph, Denver’s 53-year-old defensive coordinator. Expect to see Joseph interviewing for vacant head coaching jobs between Wednesday and Saturday of this coming week in alignment with the league’s rules for coaches in the playoffs. Joseph, Denver’s former head coach, has a strong résumé and boasts one of the league’s top defenses. —C.O.
• The Falcons’ recent surge—they’ve won three straight, and four of six after a five-game losing streak dropped them to 3–7—has cast some doubt on the long-held assumption in league circles that owner Arthur Blank was preparing to clean house.
In recent weeks, the consulting firm Sportology, which has helped Blank with his soccer teams, has been brought in to run a top-to-bottom health check on the team’s football operation. My understanding is that it’s actually better than some on the outside might think. And the prospect of Matt Ryan coming aboard in a Chris Spielman–type role could be in play.
All that isn’t to say everyone’s safe. But the winning streak will likely help coach Raheem Morris, in his second year, more than GM Terry Fontenot, who’s in his fifth year (Atlanta last made the playoffs in 2018). If there’s a GM change, Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham would be a name to watch, given the close relationship between Ryan and Chicago GM Ryan Poles, who was a lineman for the quarterback at Boston College 20 years ago. —A.B.
• The Titans’ ongoing restructure of their front office positions places GM Mike Borgonzi as a key figure in the Tennessee search.
Their plan is to set forth with a broad base of candidates, with former head coaches like Matt Nagy, Vance Joseph and Robert Saleh expected to get interviews, and first-timers like Rams DC Chris Shula and Packers DC Jeff Hafley slated to, as well. That said, there is some belief that the Titans might lean on experience in the wake of the Brian Callahan hire not working out, and Borgonzi has very strong ties to Nagy.
Borgonzi will lead a process that will involve president of football operations Chad Brinker, assistant GM Dave Ziegler, VP/football adviser Reggie McKenzie and VP of player personnel Dan Saganey for the first round, over Zoom, with owner Amy Adams Strunk likely to meet the finalists for the in-person round. —A.B.
Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi (right) is the pivotal decision-maker in a restructured Tennessee front office. / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images
• Since Brian Daboll was let go, Giants GM Joe Schoen has been researching and working over a list for him and ownership to consider, and that list now has around 10 names on it.
There are a couple names that have crossed my desk as ones linked to the opening. One is Hafley, who was the head coach at Boston College, owner John Mara’s alma mater, and is a New Jersey native—carrying a reputation as a strong strategist and culture builder. Another is Shula, whose steady demeanor would be a fit for the franchise and the market.
There’s been plenty of discussion of Schoen’s job status in the New York media as well. The only way I’d see a change there is if there were a coach the owners wanted who insisted on bringing his own GM. Otherwise, my bet would be Schoen stays. —A.B.
• Both the Titans and Giants dug in on Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, who agreed to a deal to remain in South Bend earlier this week. Neither actually spoke to him. But that wasn’t because they didn’t want to. And my strong sense is Freeman’s interest in eventually coaching in the NFL is very real. The NFL certainly has an interest in him.
So he’ll be one to watch in future years. —A.B.
• At this point, it’d be an upset if Pete Carroll wasn’t one-and-done in Vegas.
His staff, with arranged marriages to coordinators Chip Kelly and Pat Graham, never really jelled like it needed to, and there is an expectation that, with Kelly already gone, the rest of the group will be cleaned out after Sunday’s game against the Chiefs. The next steps will be interesting, with Tom Brady likely to have a big voice, alongside GM John Spytek, on what the franchise looks for.
Brady and Spytek’s Michigan connection to Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, especially given the success of Mike Macdonald in Seattle (Minter and Macdonald worked in Baltimore together, and Minter succeeded Macdonald at Michigan), are worth noting. —A.B.
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• The Cardinals are 1–12 since a 2–0 start, and GM Monti Ossenfort and coach Jonathan Gannon are in their third year together, without a playoff appearance on the résumé.
That likely means some level of change. But owner Michael Bidwill’s history is not to blow things up, and he likes both guys, with both having two years left on their contracts. At this point, most industry sources believe that Ossenfort will survive, while Gannon is on shakier ground. If Gannon survives, it’d likely be with staff changes, and how willing he is to make those could certainly be a factor in Bidwill’s decision. —A.B.
• The Colts were a team that came up in conversations over the last couple weeks. GM Chris Ballard is in his ninth season, with just two playoff appearances to his credit. Coach Shane Steichen is in Year 3, and hasn’t made it to the postseason yet—though my sense is that Steichen could land another head-coaching job quickly if Indy were to let him go.
This one’s a wild card, because controlling owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon is new, and doesn’t have a track record in these sorts of matters, which has led to some uneasiness internally as the staff has worked to break a six-game losing streak marked by a season-ending injury to quarterback Daniel Jones. —A.B.
It’s unclear how new Indianapolis Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon will approach the offseason after the team faded in the second half of 2025. / Grace Hollars-USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images
• The Buccaneers have come up the last couple years as a potential opening, but just signed Todd Bowles to an extension through 2028 in June. That said, the team is in the midst of a 1–7 slide, with a chance to miss the playoffs even with a win over the Panthers this weekend. And if a change comes, I’d expect the team will look at young offensive coaches, like the ones they lost (Liam Coen, Dave Canales), with Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak one name that could be of interest. —A.B.
• The Steelers, Ravens and Bills have generated conversation in recent weeks. Is there any reality to it? I don’t think these would be firings. But there is some thought that Mike Tomlin could look at a reset, with the Pittsburgh roster potentially going through one soon too, and take a year or two in TV before returning to the sideline. And interestingly enough, Shula’s name has been connected to the Steelers, in case there is an opening. —A.B.
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