the 2025 coaching carousel
Ranking and Predicting the 2025 NFL Coaching Carousel.
Mike Vrabel
New England patriots
PREDICTION: Mike Vrabel (former titans hc)
The Patriots have far and away the most appealing job opening. Primarily because they have a blue chip quarterback entering his second year while being highly regarded within the league as a rookie. Drake Maye is the ultimate selling point for a potential head coach. Quarterback confidence can only be offered by three teams (New England, Jacksonville and Chicago).
Other appeals to New England include arguably the league’s best owner and an NFL high $123M in projected salary cap space. There’s certainly a mountain to climb as the roster is the worst in football and the quarterback, while promising, still needs to develop properly.
Robert Kraft must prioritize Drake Maye’s development above all else. His rookie year was eerily reminiscent of Sam Darnold’s - a third overall pick showing promise with the worst personnel and coaching possible. The Jets made the wrong hire with Adam Gase to further their QB’s development, Kraft can’t afford the same.
Mike Vrabel has the experience and connections to build a staff that could get Kraft’s team back to their winning ways.
2. jacksonville jaguars
PREDICTION: BEN JOHNSON (lions oc)
Whether you agree or not, the Jaguars having the second or third best opening shows how steep the drop off is from New England to the field. Jacksonville has huge cons involving ownership and a bottom of the league front office. There’s talent here though. Most coaches and executives still feel strongly about Trevor Lawrence’s ability to win games.
Other perks with Jacksonville for a guy such as Ben Johnson would be the market and attention, as well as the division. Bears faithful and the national media are LOUD when the team is struggling. They’ve also lost all patience. Jacksonville provides you a nice geographical location as well as a calm media presence. The division is also the most favorable in the league for a new coach to enter.
3. chicago bears
PREDICTION: kliff kingsbury (commanders oc)
The Bears feel like a pretty significant wildcard this offseason. Ryan Poles has expressed that fans will be surprised by some of the names, which seemingly excites the GM. Caleb Williams is quite possibly the only draw with this job. He showed more potential than people want to give him credit for, and a new coach should be confident in his ability to take the next step.
The negatives within the organization are the same as Jacksonville’s, a doubtful front office and poor ownership. They also provide an intense and overly negative fanbase and media presence, so a poor first year for the coach and quarterback could bury someone who isn’t up for the massive challenge.
Kingsbury is the only offensive mind that has familiarity with Williams. He has head coaching experience and just impressed the entire league through his work with Jayden Daniels which certainly caught the attention of the Bears. It’s the prediction I feel the least confident in, but I think he’s their most likely choice after losing Vrabel and Johnson if the above happens.
Pete Carroll is a strong guess as well, but age may hurt him at 73 years old along with Chicago’s probable emphasis on an offensive coach.
Lions DC Aaron Glenn
4. new york jets
PREDICTION: aaron glenn (lions dc)
How could the league’s laughing stock not be last on this list? The Jets have the obvious overarching negative of terrible ownership as well as the league’s longest playoff drought. The job has some positives believe it or not.
The Jets have a nucleus of young talent to work with. Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Breece Hall, Quinnen and Quincy Williams, as well as 4 promising young offensive lineman with Olu Fashanu, Joe Tippmann, John Simpson and Alijah Vera-Tucker. The players can be used to change your culture or traded, which gives a new Jets regime a far better starting point than past newcomers. Their GM vacancy is a massive attraction for a head coach as well as there is pairing potential which makes them unique in this cycle.
Despite Woody Johnson’s gigantic pitfalls, he’s known to give GM’s and Coaches a fair term length. Joe Douglas was with the Jets for 5 years, Robert Saleh for three and a half. Mike Maccagnon before that operated as GM for four seasons alongside Todd Bowles. Very rare are the two year or less terms seen for Adam Gase and 2014 GM John Idzik.
Glenn has a good relationship with Jets Ownership and a massive endorsement from Bill Parcells which will have impact. He’s also received massive votes of confidence from Sean Payton, Dan Campbell, and numerous well respected players. They also need a respected culture builder such as Glenn.
Pete Carroll
5. las vegas raiders
PREDICTION: pete carroll (former seahawks hc)
The Raiders have a few things going for them. For starters, they have two cornerstone rookies on the offensive side of the ball involving Brock Bowers and Jackson Powers-Johnson. On defense they have a front 7 with massive potential. The coaches in this division are titans, which is a huge negative. Andy Reid, Sean Payton, and Jim Harbaugh are three potential hall of famers at the top of their games all with young franchise quarterbacks.
An unknown coach or guy who has already failed like Brian Flores don’t cut it in the AFC West. Pete Carroll is on the level of those coaches and can immediately bring the Raiders back to competence.
The Raiders need to figure something out at quarterback though, as they have nothing there. With Carroll, you don’t need Mahomes to compete, but you’ll need to have a good plan to get him onboard.
Vegas also has the 6th pick in the draft and the league’s second most projected cap space. Ownership, quarterback, and division prowess are the red flags here.
6. new orleans saints
PREDICTION: joe brady (bills oc)
The problems here involve the team’s retention of Mickey Loomis, as well as concerns with ownership. Loomis has been with the Saints now since 2000, and has been their general manager since 2002. He holds all the power and influence within their organization and that hasn’t changed despite the team’s shortcomings and Loomis’s questionable team building abilities.
The biggest cons though are their lack of good players and their inability to add some. The best players on the Saints are nearing the end of their careers. There’s no quarterback in place and that likely won’t change. They have the ninth overall pick in the NFL draft and are LAST in the league in projected cap space at roughly -$50m.
It’s one of 32 NFL head coaching jobs you can possibly have, so of course it has appeal. There’s been some smoke around Brady and the team, there is also reason to believe they’ll look for an offensive mind while also branching away from the Sean Payton era. That would eliminate Aaron Glenn, who very well may end up with this job. Brady also has a certain level of popularity among Saints fans due to his masterful work with LSU’s 2019 National Championship team.
