NFL Coaches, GMs Brace for Black Monday As Regular Season Concludes

The NFL heads into the final week of the regular season with Black Monday looming, and the hiring cycle for new head coaches and GMs already heating up.

There are three head coaching vacancies from in-season firings by the Saints, Bears, and Jets, with New York also looking for a new GM. And there will likely be more moves after Sunday. Last offseason, there were eight coaching and four GM changes.

The Search Is On in New York

Teams can’t conduct in-person interviews with coaching candidates who are employed by other clubs until after the divisional rounds of the playoffs. 

But the Jets have already been actively exploring their options, interviewing four GM candidates—ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, former Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff, former Titans GM Jon Robinson, and Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy—as well as former Commanders and Panthers coach Ron Rivera and former Titans coach Mike Vrabel. 

Former Jets and Bills coach Rex Ryan said he wanted to interview for New York’s opening, but nothing has been conducted yet.

Who Else Could Be Out?

Beyond the current openings, there is plenty of speculation about potential changes coming for the Patriots, Jaguars, and Giants, among others.  

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy is in the final season of a five-year contract he signed with Dallas in 2020. The deal expires Jan. 14, according to NFL Media, at which point McCarthy—who is 49–34 in Dallas (and 1–3 in the postseason), including three consecutive 12-win seasons between 2021 and 2023—could interview with other teams. The Cowboys (7–9) will finish under .500 this season, one year after getting bounced by the Packers in the wild-card round of the playoffs. 

McCarthy, who coached in Green Bay for 13 seasons, led the Packers to a Super Bowl title following the 2010 season.

Next Man Up

Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has been a top head coaching candidate since the last hiring cycle. This season, offensive coordinators in Washington (Kliff Kingsbury), Tampa Bay (Liam Coen), Buffalo (Joe Brady), and Houston (Bobby Slowik) have become sought-after names, too. 

Meanwhile, both former Raiders and Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden and Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores could receive head coaching interest despite their ongoing lawsuits against the NFL.