The 2025 NFL regular season is in the books, and change is already in the air. The offseason is a time of immense turnover, as players switch teams via free agency or trade, teams change their rosters by acquiring them through one of those avenues or in the draft, and plenty of clubs swap out their coaches as they look to improve from one year to the next.

We’re here today to talk about the latter group of teams. Nine NFL teams have fired their coaches and one, Mike Tomlin, has stepped down. 

• The Titans and Giants fired Brian Callahan and Brian Daboll during the regular season.
• The Falcons fired Raheem Morris right after their season ended. 
• On Black Monday, the Browns fired Kevin Stefanski, the Raiders fired Pete Carroll and the Cardinals fired Jonathan Gannon.
• A day later, the Ravens fired John Harbaugh after 18 seasons.
• Two days after that, the Dolphins fired Mike McDaniel.
• After a wild card round loss, Tomlin stepped down from his post as the Steelers head coach after 19 seasons. 
• Following a playoff loss to the Broncos in the divisional round, the Bills entered the coaching hunt after firing Sean McDermott. 

Five hires have since been made — including Harbaugh and Stefanski landing new jobs — but five vacancies remain. Let’s rank them in order of desirability.

1. Bills

The Bills have arguably the best player in the league at the most important position in the sport in Josh Allen. That alone makes this the most coveted job of this cycle, after the Bills fired Sean McDermott after their latest playoff loss to the Denver Broncos. Pairing yourself next to Allen has championship potential, so every head coach who hasn’t already accepted a job will almost certainly stop what they’re doing and see if they can align themselves with Allen. 

Outside of the elite QB, Buffalo does have other things going for it. James Cook is coming off a 2025 regular season where he led the NFL in rushing, the defense allowed a league-low 156.9 passing yards per game, and they are just about to move into a brand new stadium. That said, whoever is hired will need to help improve a horrid run defense and get the most out of a lacking pass-catching group to truly help Allen get over the hump in the postseason. 

Bills coaching search: Buffalo to interview Mike McDaniel with Josh Allen ‘significantly’ involved in process

Shanna McCarriston

2. Raiders

The Raiders are here for four reasons: Brock Bowers, Ashton Jeanty, the No. 1 pick in the draft and $100 million in cap room. (You could say five reasons and include Maxx Crosby, but there are already rumors swirling that the Raiders are finally willing to listen to trade offers for the star edge rusher, so he may not be long for Las Vegas.) There is just not much talent on this team outside of those players. 

There is a loooong way to go before the Raiders can be remotely competitive, and it doesn’t help that they play in the AFC West, which is one of the most competitive divisions in football. Like the Titans, though, they can take a jump next season if they hit on their coach and whichever quarterback they presumably draft with the No. 1 pick, and spend their free-agent money to upgrade the talent level on the roster.

One drawback here is the ownership situation, where Mark Davis seems to flail wildly from one plan to the next in quick succession. The Vegas job is not exactly stable, and doesn’t come with a lot of job security, as evidenced by all the changes the Raiders have made over the last several years. 

3. Browns

The Browns have a good defense built around Myles Garrett, who is just an inhuman monster coming around the edge. They drafted a pair of star rookies in tight end Harold Fannin Jr. and linebacker Carson Schwesinger. They have multiple first-round picks in this year’s draft thanks to last year’s Travis Hunter trade. 

What the Browns don’t have is much other talent on offense (Quinshon Judkins will be coming off a dislocated ankle and fractured fibula), an answer at quarterback or any cap space to solve their various issues. Cleveland is set to begin the offseason more than $12 million over the cap, according to Over the Cap, and it still has the albatross of Deshaun Watson’s contract weighing down its books in both 2026 and 2027, at least.

The Browns also have an ownership and management situation that is, shall we say, not all that desirable. The Haslam family has run one of the most unstable organizations in the league, and Andrew Berry hasn’t exactly put together a great roster. (The combination of the Haslams and Berry was responsible for the disastrous Watson trade.)

4. Cardinals

Arizona lost 14 of its final 15 games this season and looked incredibly listless in doing so. The Cardinals have an uncertain quarterback situation with Kyler Murray seemingly not long for the team, and they really have no viable path to solving that situation this offseason unless it becomes a three-quarterback draft or the Jets decide to pass on someone like Dante Moore (if he enters) or Fernando Mendoza at No. 2 overall. 

Arizona is set to have only around $21 million in cap room (and only $9.8 million in effective cap space), per Over the Cap, so it’s not like there are a lot of resources here to solve the various roster issues. 

They do have players like Trey McBride, Michael Wilson, Paris Johnson Jr., Josh Sweat, Budda Baker, Garrett Williams, Walter Nolen and Will Johnson, but there are still a lot of holes here and not that much to build around.