There are seven NFL head coaching openings (it was eight before the Patriots hired Jerod Mayo). I wanted to look at the rest of the openings and rank the worst and the best.
7. Carolina Panthers
The Panthers have last year's #1 overall pick Bryce Young, which is good on the surface just based on the contract, even though C.J. Stroud was the better pick. Everything else is terrible. The offensive line is terrible, the skill players are terrible and the defense is decent, but Brian Burns will have to be paid soon. And worst of all, their owner is too involved and impatient for any coach to feel comfortable.
6. Tennessee Titans
The most surprising firing was Mike Vrabel's dismissal. This is also a mind-boggling firing because there are not many coaches who are better than Vrabel, and they are all employed with other teams as head coaches. So they probably should've kept Vrabel but they want to go into a new vision (mainly the 49ers vision, with their new GM being from the San Francisco organization). Also, their team doesn't have great personnel and has a rookie quarterback and the jury is still out on him in Will Levis. This could work out or be terrible.
5. Las Vegas Raiders
There is an obvious hire here, and that is Antonio Pierce. He did more than enough to earn this job. The players love AP, including star players Davante Adams and Maxx Crosby who have emphatically said they want the team to fully hire the interim coach. They have some cornerstone pieces and a good amount of cap space, but they need to figure out the quarterback position. Let's see who they hire.
4. Washington Commanders
I have seen a lot of people have this as the best opening of the whole cycle. They have a new flashy GM and a new flashy ownership group that will do anything to win. But there are not a lot of solid pieces on offense or defense for that matter that make you go wild. They have a lot of cap space and the #2 overall pick but I'm not ready yet to say that this is the best opening, they have a lot of holes to fill and they will need the right combination to fix that.
3. Seattle Seahawks
This is probably the job with the most stability after Pete Carroll's surprising move up in the organization. Was that stability because Pete Carroll was a great coach or was it because the Seahawks are a top-tier organization, I believe we will find out in the next few years. There are some nice offensive and defensive pieces but also none that pop off the screen other than maybe DK Metcalf. They need a quarterback badly or this could be a worse job than I thought.
2. Los Angeles Chargers
Two words: Justin Herbert. This is the only job where they would inherit a top-5 quarterback and some nice pieces. The problem is that the ownership is great, there is not much of a fanbase for the Chargers in LA. The roster is expensive and there will have to be some hard roster cuts. But the hardest position to get right is the quarterback and the Chargers have already got that settled. That has to count for something.
1. Atlanta Falcons
This might be a shocker but I like the offensive and defensive pieces for the Falcons. They have used 3 straight top-ten picks on offense (Bijan Robinson, Drake London, and Kyle Pitts). They have a decent amount of cap space and a top-ten pick again. They need to shore up some positions and get the quarterback right, whether that would be Justin Fields or someone in the draft. I believe the owner is lenient and stays out of the way as well, which is always a plus. Hit on the quarterback and this is an A+ job in a bad division.
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