On Sunday morning, ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke down a lengthy list of NFL head coaches and whether their jobs are safe or whether they could be finishing out their tenures as the regular season closes.
Schefter said the jobs of Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott and New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn were “safe.”
In the “leaning safe” category, Schefter listed Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Todd Bowles of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Raheem Morris of the Atlanta Falcons, Jonathan Gannon of the Arizona Cardinals and Shane Steichen of the Indianapolis Colts.
However, he did note that Harbaugh’s job status could be “up in the air” if the Ravens lose to the Steelers on Sunday in the de-facto AFC North title game and subsequently miss the playoffs.
The lone two coaches expected to be let go after this season were Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski and Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll.
Harbaugh has largely been tremendous with the Ravens after arriving in town in 2008. He’s led his teams to the playoffs 12 times, and that’ll be 13 if Baltimore wins on Sunday evening. Only one of his teams (2015 Ravens) has ever had a losing record, although this year’s team would join them with a defeat against Pittsburgh.
Overall, Harbaugh has gone 180-112 with six AFC North titles and four AFC Championship Game appearances. He also led the 2012 Ravens to the Super Bowl, which they won 34-31 over the San Francisco 49ers.
The biggest knock on Harbaugh is his playoff resume outside of his Lombardi Trophy. For as good as his teams have been in the regular season, the playoffs have been a struggle at times. The Ravens have won more than one playoff game in a single season just twice under Harbaugh, and Baltimore notably failed to make the Super Bowl in both seasons the team entered the postseason as a No. 1 seed (2019, 2023).
Still, Harbaugh has been excellent overall, even if struggles this year lead to speculation about his job.
Stefanski should be lauded for finding success in Cleveland, which hadn’t made the playoffs in 17 seasons prior to his arrival in 2020. However, the 2020 Browns went 11-5 and won their first playoff game since 1994. Cleveland then made the playoffs again in 2023 with an 11-6 record.
It’s been all downhill from there, though, as the Browns went 3-14 in 2014 and enter Week 18 with a 4-12 mark. Perhaps the Browns need a fresh approach, but the fact of the matter remains that Stefanski helped turn around one of the worst teams in the league. If his time in Cleveland is over, it may not be long before he finds another job.
If Carroll is let go, then it will be one-and-done for the 74-year-old in Vegas, which has a league-worst 2-14 record.
Carroll is a great head coach who found great success in college at USC and in the pros with the Seattle Seahawks, so his tenure brought promise.
The Raiders also had some hope this year after making some big offseason acquisitions, including quarterback Geno Smith via trade from the Seattle Seahawks and running back Ashton Jeanty via the sixth overall pick in the NFL draft.
However, Las Vegas’ offensive line has been problematic all year, and Smith has struggled as well. The Raiders enter the final week of the season dead-last in scoring, and more changes could be on the way this offseason. If Carroll is let go, the Raiders will have fired a head coach each of the past three seasons (Josh McDaniels in 2023, Antonio Pierce in 2024).
We’ll see what teams decide soon enough as the regular season ends on Sunday, leading to teams typically making their calls shortly thereafter on “Black Monday.”
