The jam-packed 2026 coaching carousel: It goes up and down, and around
The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
The Athletic
4.6 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2026
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When we last checked in on the coaching carousel on Black Monday, it seemed like it could actually be a relatively quiet year for coaching moves. Since then, John Harbaugh was fired and Mike Tomlin stepped down. Just like that, the two longest tenured NFL coaches were back out on the market, and two potentially premium jobs opened up. Conor Orr from Sports Illustrated and The MMQB joins Robert Mays to take a ride on the coaching carousel on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
Rundown (timestamps are approximate)
4:21 Steelers
19:20 Ravens
34:44 John Harbaugh and the Giants job
42:33 Falcons
45:44 Titans
56:24 Cardinals
1:01:54 Browns
1:09:12 Raiders
1:12:00 Dolphins
1:18:46 Coordinators
Host: Robert Mays
With: Conor Orr
Executive Producer: Michael Beller
Video Producer: Katy Duffy
Audio Producer: Michael Beller
Social Producer: Scott Krinch
Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social
Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social
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Follow Robert on X: @robertmays
Follow Derrik on X: @QBKlass
Follow Dave on X: @davehelman_
Theme song: Haunted
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the athletic football show. |
| 0:05.4 | I'm Robert Mays. |
| 0:06.4 | It's time for a coaching carousel update. |
| 0:09.8 | Our friend Connor Oar from the MMQB at SI is back. |
| 0:13.4 | I just love talking to him about this stuff. |
| 0:15.3 | We were thinking about who I wanted to have on and what the discussion would look like. |
| 0:18.3 | I was like, let's just have Connor on to do this again because this is what he's doing all day, every day. Excellent conversation. We started things off with the Maitamo News, where the Steelers might be seeking out their next head coach, pivoted from there to their neighbors in the AFC North, chatted a little bit about the Ravens current coaching search and where John Harbaugh might end up. |
| 0:38.5 | Then just kind of ran through all of the different openings. |
| 0:40.9 | Titans, Falcons, Cardinals, Browns, Raiders. |
| 0:44.3 | I'm sure I'm forgetting one. |
| 0:45.7 | Talked about the three or four best candidates for those jobs, |
| 0:48.5 | the ones that might make the most sense and where these teams might land at the end of it. |
| 0:52.6 | And then we rounded things out with a quick kind of rapid fire run through |
| 0:56.3 | some of the coordinator searches that are currently happening. |
| 0:59.7 | It's a fun time in this world. |
| 1:01.5 | We had a good time today. |
| 1:03.1 | Let's dig into it with Connor right now. |
| 1:09.9 | Back today to help us comb through an avalanche of coaching news and nuggets and everything to deal with. |
| 1:18.8 | He's back for another round. |
| 1:20.3 | It is our friend Connor or from Sports Illustrated in the MMQB. |
| 1:23.0 | How are you doing, man? |
| 1:24.0 | I'm great, man. |
... |
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