Matching Top NFL Head Coaching Candidates With New 2024 Job Openings

Shortly after the final game of the 2023 regular season, the Atlanta Falcons announced that they fired Arthur Smith, which signaled the beginning of Black Monday for NFL head coaches.

Monday morning, the Washington Commanders fired Ron Rivera, a move that many people saw coming following the team's 4-13 finish. On Tuesday, the Tennessee Titans fired Mike Vrabel.

Before the Falcons, Commanders and Titans dismissed their head coaches, the league had three openings. The Las Vegas Raiders, Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Chargers fired their lead skippers during the season.

As of Tuesday, six clubs will look to fill positions, but a couple of other teams could move on from lead skippers as well.

Most notably, Bill Belichick told reporters (via The Athletic's Chad Graff) that he could have "a series of meetings" with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft about his future.

Per ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Dallas Cowboys' playoff performance could determine Mike McCarthy's fate.

For now, we'll focus on the current openings and the top candidates for those jobs.

Who will make the jump from a coordinator to a head coach? Will Jim Harbaugh return to the NFL ranks after winning a national championship with Michigan?

Let's take a look at some possible team-coach fits for the upcoming hiring cycle.

Between 2022 and 2023, the Atlanta Falcons kept most of their starting offensive line intact and added rookie running back Bijan Robinson, pairing him with Tyler Allgeier, who ran for 1,035 yards and three touchdowns last season. Moreover, the Falcons have two former first-round pass-catchers in tight end Kyle Pitts and wideout Drake London.

Former head coach Arthur Smith had the playmakers to field a top-10 offense, but the Falcons ranked 26th and 17th in scoring and total yards, respectively, this past season.

Smith struggled to settle on a starting quarterback. Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke threw for 17 touchdowns and 16 interceptions combined.

The Falcons must address the quarterback position and find a way to optimize the talent across their offense, and Ben Johnson can help them do it.

Johnson may see similarities between his current Detroit Lions roster and the Falcons offensive personnel, which may appeal to him if he interviews for Atlanta's job opening.

Atlanta has continuity across its offensive line, a couple of ball-carriers in a top-nine rushing offense, an athletic pass-catching tight end and a go-to wide receiver, which is similar to Detroit's unit.

Johnson and general manager Terry Fontenot can target a quarterback with the No. 8 overall pick in the draft or acquire a veteran to find the missing piece to the Falcons' offensive puzzle.

Under Johnson, quarterback Jared Goff threw for 59 touchdowns and 19 interceptions in two seasons with the Lions. Perhaps Johnson can get the most out of a young veteran signal-caller like Justin Fields if the Chicago Bears move on from him.

The Carolina Panthers fired Frank Reich at the end of November and relieved general manager Scott Fitterer of his duties on Monday, which signals wholesale change within the franchise's operations.

Carolina doesn't have the most appealing job on the market with turnover in its head-coaching ranks over the last two years. Also, the Panthers don't have their 2024 first-round pick because they included the selection in a trade to the Chicago Bears, which allowed them to move up and pick quarterback Bryce Young.

However, despite Young's struggles through his rookie campaign, he could draw a top head-coach candidate like Mike Vrabel to Carolina.

Aside from a couple of high-level years out of Ryan Tannehill with Arthur Smith calling the offense, Vrabel didn't have consistent quarterback play. Yet he won about 55 percent of his games and led the Titans to two AFC South titles and an AFC Championship Game.

Vrabel could reunite with Smith as his offensive coordinator to develop Young in his early years.

Remember, under Smith, Tannehill won 2019 Comeback Player of the Year and threw for 55 touchdowns and only 13 interceptions between 2019 and 2020. Perhaps he can tap into Young's full potential while Vrabel brings another level of toughness to the defensive side of the ball.

This past season, Carolina ranked third against the pass while allowing the fourth-fewest total yards per game. Vrabel can build on that and take the Panthers' defensive unit to another level in a division that doesn't feature top-tier quarterbacks.

Vrabel's no-nonsense approach seems like a culture fit for the Panthers' "keeping pounding" mantra.

On Monday, Bleacher Report's Jordan Schultz said it's a "two-horse race" for the Las Vegas Raiders' job opening between Jim Harbaugh and their current interim head coach, Antonio Pierce.

Schultz mentioned Davis' desire to hire a big-time name, though he also said that Pierce has internal support. Team leaders Davante Adams and Maxx Crosby have publicly supported his candidacy.

Keep in mind that Pierce turned around a demoralized squad that lost its swagger under former head coach Josh McDaniels and went 5-4 with a rookie quarterback in Aidan O'Connell and a first-time play-caller in Bo Hardegree.

Furthermore, Pierce made significant progress with a roster and staff that he inherited, a difficult feat. By the way, he led a disciplined squad. Typically, the Raiders rank near the top of the league in penalties, but this season, they finished with the fewest infractions.

Unlike the other team-coach matches on this list, Pierce has already proved that he can do the job with the team associated with his candidacy.

In a full-time role, Pierce would have an opportunity to put together his coaching staff and build on what he took over midway through the 2023 campaign.

While Pierce would be an unorthodox hire because NFL interim head coaches rarely get a full-time job with the same team in the ensuing season, he would be following a pathway similar to late Hall of Famer John Madden, who went from a collegiate defensive coordinator to Raiders linebackers coach to the Silver and Black's full-time lead skipper.

According to B/R's Jordan Schultz, Jim Harbaugh has "a lot of interest" in the Los Angeles Chargers' head coaching position, though there's mutual interest between the Michigan lead skipper and the Las Vegas Raiders.

From a candidate's perspective, Los Angeles has arguably the most appealing job opening because it doesn't have to solve a critical issue at quarterback.

Chargers signal-caller Justin Herbert won 2020 Offensive Rookie of the Year and then threw for 5,014 yards, 38 touchdowns and 15 interceptions in the following season.

Herbert's passing touchdown and yard totals dropped every year under former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley. Based on his track record, Harbaugh can help the 25-year-old signal-caller trend back in the right direction.

Between his collegiate and pro coaching stints, Harbaugh helped develop Andrew Luck at Stanford, elevated Colin Kaepernick to a starter for a Super Bowl-caliber San Francisco 49ers squad and raised J.J. McCarthy's draft stock at Michigan.

Most importantly, for a perpetually underachieving Chargers club, Harbaugh has turned around or elevated all of his former teams from the San Diego Toreros, who won the most regular-season games (11) in its history under Harbaugh, to a Michigan program that's become a national champion on his watch.

At some point, owner Dean Spanos has to be tired of the Chargers failing to play up to their offseason hype.

The Tennessee Titans offense needs a complete reboot, and they hold the No. 7 overall pick in the draft.

Ryan Tanehill's contract will void this year, and rookie second-rounder Will Levis didn't show enough to secure the No. 1 spot on the team's quarterback depth chart, throwing for 1,808 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions with a 58.4 percent completion rate in nine starts.

Keep in mind that running back Derrick Henry will also become a free agent after his contract voids this year.

The Titans should pursue an offensive-minded head coach to develop a quarterback, whether it's Levis or a rookie, to breathe life into a new-look unit.

Bobby Slowik is the ideal candidate for this job opening.

Currently the Houston Texans offensive coordinator, Slowik has aided rookie C.J. Stroud's rapid development. In 15 regular-season games, Stroud threw for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns and just five interceptions with a 63.9 percent completion rate in the league's seventh-ranked passing attack.

Secondly, Slowik served as an offensive assistant, passing game specialist and passing game coordinator under San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan between 2019 and 2022. In that time period, Titans general manager Ran Carthon held a front-office role as the director of player and pro personnel in San Francisco.

Carthon has familiarity with Slowik, who can bring a bit of Shanahan's coaching style to Tennessee to revive the club's offense.

Like Vrabel before him, Slowik could make a move from a one-year coordinator with the Texans to Titans head coach if Tennessee shows interest in him.

We have to connect the dots to make sense of this match, but it will click when you consider Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris' plan to rebuild the franchise.

The MMQB's Albert Breer doesn't expect Harris to chase after big-name candidates because the team's brain trust, which includes former Golden State Warriors executive Bob Myers, will emphasize team "models" as opposed to individual resumes.

"I don't know whether he's settled on a model yet, but I have heard he's intrigued by the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles, and how they've built their football operations out. But the fall hire of Eugene Shen, who started as an NFL analytics guy working for John Harbaugh, is at least one sign of which way that might go, and one that could lead Washington looking at guys like Ravens director of player personnel Joe Hortiz or defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald."

Shen, who previously served as the Ravens' senior football analyst, is the Commanders' senior vice president of football strategy.

As Breer suggests, the Commanders may continue to poach Ravens executives and coaches. Washington has requested an interview with Macdonald, per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

Macdonald has worked under John Harbaugh in Baltimore and Jim Harbaugh in Michigan. Because of his experience working under two successful head coaches, he should have knowledge of how to build and maintain a quality staff, which would be crucial with the need to hire an offensive coordinator to develop a starting quarterback.

This year, the Commanders are projected to have the most cap space ($78.8 million), and they hold the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 draft. Macdonald, his staff and the team's new general manager would have ample resources to reshape the roster.

Maurice Moton covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @MoeMoton.