NFL Rumors: Latest Pre-Playoff Buzz Surrounding 2025 Coaching Vacancies
While 14 teams are embarking on Super Bowl runs amid the start of the NFL Playoffs, some teams not good enough to make the postseason are on the hunt for a new head coach that will guide them to the postseason sooner rather than later, reversing their fates for the foreseeable future.
One popular head coaching candidate is the offensive coordinator for one of the most dominant teams in the league. Another is a Super Bowl-winning linebacker with his fair share of experience on the sideline already.
The third? A college football national champion and Super Bowl-winning head coach.
What is the latest on those three and which teams are linked to them? Find out with this recap of insider reports and rumors.
Is Ben Johnson and Given to Leave Detroit?
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Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is one of this offseason's hottest coaching candidates. According to The Athletic's Dianna Russini, his interview with the New England Patriots went "great," and he has also met with three other teams searching for new head coaches.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reported that, despite the incredible interest in the young coordinator, there is no guarantee he will leave Detroit this offseason.
"Some people I talked to in the league believe Johnson could return to Detroit. And it doesn't seem like a leverage play. That's where he has been the past two cycles, and that could be the case again if his ideal head coaching destination isn't there," he wrote.
It is easy to see why he may want to stick around his current team. Detroit is in the midst of one of the greatest seasons in the franchise's long history and, while a great deal of that can be attributed to the culture head coach Dan Campbell has created in the locker room, there is considerable credit to be given to Johnson, whose offense has helped fuel a seemingly unstoppable attack.
He has helped rewrite the narrative on quarterback Jared Goff, coordinated a dominant run attack, and Amon-Ra St. Brown has developed into an All-Pro wide receiver.
Johnson knows what he has to work with in Detroit, where the team can be a perennial Super Bowl contender for the next handful of years if it can stay healthy and keep its current cast of characters around.
The same cannot be said of any of the available coaching positions.
The Jets have weapons but the front office is messy. The Patriots have a talented young quarterback in Drake Maye but little else to work with offensively. The Saints and Raiders have an abundance of questions.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have been in turmoil for so long at the head coach position that one would have to be hesitant to hitch their wagon to that organization, regardless of a still young and talented quarterback in Trevor Lawrence.
Ultimately, Johnson's future will likely be determined by how the Lions' season ends and how much he wants to prove himself as the guy on the sideline.
Vrabel the Heavy Favorite in New England
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Mike Vrabel won three Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots and since the franchise parted ways with head coach Jarrod Mayo after the season, has been linked with the team as its potential next head coach.
Fowler reported, "Vrabel is indeed the heavy favorite from all that I'm hearing, as he fits the mold when it comes to organization, player development and leadership. Whether Vrabel wants a level of personnel say or his own guys in the building remains to be seen."
Vrabel's previous stop as a head coach was in Tennessee, where he led the team to the AFC Championship at the end of the 2020 season and won the AP Coach of the Year award. A lackluster campaign or two following that season led to his dismissal from the organization.
In 2024, he served as a consultant for the Cleveland Browns.
Vrabel will likely be the most coveted of the head coaching candidates because he has proven himself in that position. He rejuvenated the Titans organization and will be tapped to do the same with any of the opening positions looking to hire him to helm the franchise's on-field product.
Expectations will be heightened if he ends up in New England, where fans and analysts will be watching closely how well he handles young quarterback Maye and rebuilds that organization into a championship contender after decades of Super Bowl-winning play under Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.
Don't Count Pete Carroll Out in Las Vegas
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The last time the football world saw Pete Carroll on the sidelines, it was as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, an organization he led to two Super Bowl appearances and a world championship.
He was the oldest coach in the league when he was fired at the end of the 2023 season and at age 73, would remain as such if he were to be hired to return to the sideline.
Fowler reported Carroll should not be counted out in Las Vegas, where the Raiders are looking for a culture builder.
The former USC head coach accomplished that once before, in Seattle, where he built a team in flux into a world title contender, with an unstoppable run game and a smothering defense that kept them in the hunt for a Lombardi Trophy in the majority of his seasons at the helm.
The Raiders are not quite in the same situation Seattle was when he arrived, though.
There are real questions about the number of legitimate playmakers on offense, the defense needs help, and the organization as a whole needs a facelift from a competitive standpoint. For so long, it has been a losing franchise that has remained incredibly popular despite foregone conclusions as far as their in-season prospects.
It needs a coach who can come in, change the attitude around the facility, and make it a winning environment.
Carroll can do it. He has, at both USC and with the Seahawks.
Whether he has the patience at this point in his career for a rebuild of that magnitude is the question.
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