Packers Discussion: What do you think about the NFL’s recent hires?

SB Nation

It’s probably going to be a slow weekend for Green Bay Packers news, but the NFL coaching cycle has been churning all month. Since we have a little time here, I wanted to ask you all what you think of

the recent coaching hires that have been made. Here are some of my thoughts.

New York Giants HC John Harbaugh

It’s hard to talk about the Giants’ job without bringing up the fact that the primary owner of the team, John Mara, has been diagnosed with cancer. If the team is in win-now mode, it’s hard to imagine that there was a coach on the market better equipped to lead a team to the Super Bowl in the next couple of years than Harbaugh, despite his lack of playoff success.

Harbaugh is a CEO style head coach, which means that he’s going to need good coordinators and assistants under him — which is possibly one reason why some teams shied away from the opportunity to pay him $20 million a year for five seasons, a raise from his Baltimore Ravens rate, only to probably also turn around and pay one of the highest assistant pools in the league (on top of the buyouts for the last staff).

It also seems like Harbaugh gets to set the tone in the front office now, too, based on how dodgy general manager Joe Schoen has been when the question has come up. I think quarterback might be the biggest hurdle in Harbaugh’s way, but that’s not something he can really control for 2026.

Atlanta Falcons HC Kevin Stefanski

I know that Stefanski is just 45-56 in his head coaching career, but you’ve got to give him some credit for the crapshow that Cleveland has been from a personnel standpoint. The Deshaun Watson trade (and deal) might end up being one of the worst in sports history. Honestly, considering the circumstances, I think Stefanski winning two NFL Coach of the Year honors speaks to what decision-makers think of him. I’m not surprised he was second off the board after Harbaugh.

Atlanta has some good pieces in place to make that offense go. Kirk Cousins’ dead cap is still higher than his cap hit, which will make him hard to trade this offseason. If Michael Penix isn’t 100 percent, Cousins did look much better in 2025 than 2024 (a low bar). Throw in Bijan Robinson, Drake London and potentially Kyle Pitts, and I get why there would be optimism about the 2026 squad. I also thought the Falcons’ front seven played a lot better last year than I would have expected coming into the year.

Miami Dolphins HC Jeff Hafley

An in-the-booth defensive coordinator is so different from a sideline play-calling head coach that I’m not sure how much of what Hafley did in Green Bay translates, one way or another, to what he’ll do in Miami. I honestly don’t have a strong prediction here, but it’s not surprising to me that he did well with teams in interviews. He’s always been good on the mic.

Tennessee Titans HC Robert Saleh

I sort of think the Pete Carroll, Dan Quinn, Gus Bradley coaching tree is mostly dead in the NFL. Hafley had a couple of new spins on it, with the amount of simulated blitzes he ran in 2024 and the disguise coverages he played whenever he didn’t have Micah Parsons over the last two years, but the rest of the guys in the tree mostly play the same stock zone defense.

Saleh says he wants to call defenses in his second stint as a head coach, something he didn’t do with the New York Jets. Ultimately, the drop-7 and play Cover 2 and Cover 3 style defenses really need a premier pass-rushing unit to make it work (the Seahawks’ pass-rush never got enough credit during the Legion of Boom era!), and I don’t see Tennessee being great there. I got nothing against Saleh. Hope he proves me wrong, but I’m not sure I like this one.

I am a little surprised that they didn’t go with Matt Nagy, not because I think Nagy would be a good head coach (the Chiefs basically processed him out), but because he has ties to general manager Mike Borgonzi, and it seemed like every NFL insider pushed the Nagy angle hard and early for the job. Saleh and Nagy were the two finalists, after Hafley was hired by Miami a day before he was scheduled to interview with Tennessee.

Baltimore Ravens HC Jesse Minter

If the Shanahan-McVay tree is the dominant coaching tree on the offensive side of the football, the Fangio and Macdonald trees (which sort of try to do the same thing but come from different roots) are going to be the equivalent on the defensive side. Everyone wants to be able to play two-high coverages because of the passing game, but also stop the run from two-high coverages. If you can bait the run and still capture it efficiently, it’s the best path to playing defense in the NFL.

I’m not sure how Minter will do with a team of his own, but I expect the Ravens to be good on defense for years to come. His offensive coordinator hire will be very important.

Pittsburgh Steelers HC Mike McCarthy

I should be less surprised about this than I am. This is the team that leaned into the Yinzer angle the last time they needed a first-round quarterback, too. No disrespect to McCarthy and what he did in Green Bay, but he doesn’t have the same offensive edge that he used to have.

People forget that McCarthy was almost like a Kliff Kingsbury type of figure when he came to the Packers, as they were one of the first teams to shift West Coast Offense concepts into the shotgun (there were still teams that genuinely played 0 season-long snaps in the shotgun when McCarthy was first hired to Green Bay) and lean into the hurry up no huddle offense.

Chuck Noll coached the Steelers from 1969 to 1991. Bill Cowher coached the team from 1992 to 2006. Mike Tomlin held the job from 2007 to 2025. Gun to my head, I think McCarthy does not have a tenure that lasts as long as those guys, even with a patient franchise. Hopefully, though, McCarthy raises the floor of the team and develops them a quarterback before he hands off the reins.

–

Feel free to shoot over thoughts on the coordinator hires, too, if you have more to share.