7 NFL head coach candidates for 2026, from Jesse Minter to Matt Nagy

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Black Monday is coming. It's going to be a very bad day to be an underperforming NFL head coach.

The first day after the end of the regular season is the day most of the league's coach firings take place. While we already know the Tennessee Titans and New York Giants need new leadership, a handful of other franchises are set to join them in a coaching market light on rising stars in 2026.

Who could fill those openings? There isn't a rising assistant with the cache of Ben Johnson or a returning head coach with the buzz of Mike Vrabel, but this winter will still provide several emerging stars and revitalized retreads who can guide new teams to glory.

Here are seven candidates who should wind up fielding interview requests once Week 18 concludes, in no particular order.

Jesse Minter, Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator

LA Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, center right, watches a play against Detroit Lions during the first half of the Hall of Fame Game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio on Thursday, July 31, 2025.

Justin Herbert has spent the bulk of 2025 either running for his life or being driven into the turf. Yet his Chargers are 11-5 and headed to the playoffs for the second straight year. Minter has been a significant piece of that.

Minter succeeded current Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald as Michigan's defensive coordinator when he left for the NFL. He followed Jim Harbaugh to LA and engineered the league's top scoring defense last season. In 2025, his Chargers rank sixth in EPA allowed despite a tough schedule. His defense has held opponents to fewer than 270 total yards in half its games headed into Week 18.

Minter has two decades of coaching experience, much of it with various Harbaughs (he spent 2017 to 2020 as an assistant with the Baltimore Ravens). He's steadily worked toward his opportunity and has a resume chock full of success — see his steady improvement at a just-added-to-FBS Georgia State or pair of winning campaigns calling the defense at Indiana State. He may lack the gravitas of more established candidates like Steve Spagnuolo or Lou Anarumo, but there may not be a hotter defensive-based coach out there in 2026.

Matt Nagy, Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator

Nagy's first head coaching stint didn't go so well. Thus, he dialed up a strategy that worked wonders for Josh McDaniels; returning to call the offense for a Hall of Fame head coach/quarterback combination to restore his value as a coordinator.

Nagy went 34-31 in four seasons with the Chicago Bears, never quite recovering from Cody Parkey's double-doinked playoff field goal that knocked a 12-win team out of the postseason. His Bears teams were led, as most Bears teams are, by an above-average defense. Swapping out Mitch Trubisky, Nick Foles and Andy Dalton for a return to Patrick Mahomes has revived his status as a respected play-caller. He's expected to interview for jobs — including with the Tennessee Titans — this winter.

But the McDaniels comparison isn't quite a compliment. The New England Patriots' coordinator worked wonders with Tom Brady, made Mac Jones a Pro Bowler and has Drake Maye on the short list of MVP candidates. He's also 20-33 as a head coach and failed to finish a second season in either of his two head coaching jobs. That's the stigma Nagy will have to combat — that he can be more than just a useful playbook architect.

Robert Saleh, San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator

Saleh's value as former head coach of the New York Jets isn't measured by wins and losses. It's illustrated by how badly New York's defense plummeted after his departure.

The Jets ranked 32nd in points allowed and expected points added (EPA) allowed in Saleh's first season with a roster built by the sleep-deprived brain of Adam Gase. One season later in 2022, they ranked fourth in scoring defense and sixth in EPA/play. That EPA moved up to third in 2023 and ranked sixth in 2024 before the defensive mastermind was fired after five games. Interim head coach Geoff Ulbrich's defense slid to 30th (!) in the 12 games that followed.

Aaron Glenn, architect of a fierce Detroit Lions defense, came in for 2025. While he played most of the year without Sauce Gardner or Quinnen Williams due to trades, his unit currently ranks 29th. The 49ers, on the other hand, have dealt with a litany of injuries and roster churn but made modest growth from 26th last fall to 24th this year. That's not great, but it's happened with Fred Warner and Nick Bosa playing a combined 10 games and Clelin Ferrell emerging as the team's sack co-leader (he has four).

Is that enough time in the penalty box to restore his value as a head coaching candidate? It's a tough sell, but Saleh has been able to turn good players into stars and journeymen into valued starters. Pairing him with a solid quarterback and innovative offensive coordinator would be key to a rapid turnaround, but his defensive chops provide a stable floor for a team in need of improvement.

Kliff Kingsbury, Washington Commanders offensive coordinator

Kingsbury's tenure as Arizona Cardinals head coach ended with a thud, but he's responsible for the franchise's only non-Bruce Arians playoff bid since 2009. The year after he was fired he helped design the USC offense that improved the efficiency of reigning Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams. The year after that, he designed the offense that made another reigning Heisman winner, Jayden Daniels, the NFL's offensive rookie of the year as the Commanders rallied to the NFC title game.

That's a solid use of his time in the head coaching penalty box, and it could be enough for the 46-year-old to earn another role at the top of a franchise's leadership chart. Kingsbury's offenses are tailor made for an evolving NFL defined by dual-threat passers and downfield gunslinging. Got a big-armed, mobile quarterback? Kingsbury knows how to handle it — and the fact he took Kyler Murray to a playoff game only seems more impressive the further we get from it.

While his passing offenses aren't as prolific as you'd expect — he's cracked the top-16 when it comes to passing yards just once in six seasons as a head coach or coordinator — his efficiency and ability to bolster quarterbacks with an efficient run game make him an intriguing candidate. Kingsbury hasn't been a long-term winner anywhere; his tenure at a pre-NIL Texas Tech fell apart, Murray got stuck in neutral in Arizona and, uh (gestures broadly at the Commanders' 2025). Still, his quarterback whispering chops could push him to the top of a crop of coaching candidates without a clear top dog.

Declan Doyle, Chicago Bears offensive coordinator and Grant Udinski, Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator

We're probably a couple years too early on Doyle, the 29-year-old who has teamed with head coach Ben Johnson to lead a resurgent Bears offense to its first NFC North title since 2018. He's only got one season as a coordinator, but he's a product of both Johnson's and Sean Payton's coaching trees having spent three years with the New Orleans Saints as an offensive assistant and two with the Denver Broncos as tight ends coach.

That mean's he's had a hand in the development of both Caleb Williams and Bo Nix. A team looking to cut the line and gamble on the next hot name across coaching circles could tab him for interviews this winter and see what he has to say. His lack of experience is a major red flag, but the NFL is a league where Jeff Saturday can become a head coach and, a few years back, teams were eager to hand out jobs to folks within Sean McVay's orbit regardless of resume.

But Doyle could rebuff offers even if they come. Johnson, his current mentor, warded off interviews even as he emerged as one of the hottest offensive minds in the NFL in 2022 and 2023 before leaving for the right opportunity following the 2024 season. Doyle's 2025 should garner interest and probably a raise in Chicago. He's an exciting young mind, but he's still got plenty to accomplish with the Bears.

While we're at it, let's toss another 29-year-old into the mix. Udinski has been the offensive coordinator behind Trevor Lawrence's reclamation of potential in Jacksonville. He spent the three seasons before that as an assistant under Kevin O'Connell in Minnesota, helping Sam Darnold rise back toward the greatness he'd abandoned as a Jet. CBS Sports' Jonathan Jones called him "the new Sean McVay," which was probably enough to get a handful of NFL owners to add him to their interest pile.

Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach

Tomlin has spent 18 seasons in Pittsburgh and has never had a losing record. He also hasn't won a playoff game since 2016. He could be in for a long, uncomfortable talk with the Rooney family even if the Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens in Week 18 to clinch the AFC North. All but one of his five postseason losses since 2017 have come by double digits.

A clean break could benefit both sides; Tomlin is too good a coach to allow a proper rebuild in Pittsburgh. The Steelers have lacked the ability to put even a league-average quarterback atop his depth chart since Ben Roethlisberger's elbow ligaments went al dente. Yet somehow they've been varying shades of mediocre for nearly a full decade of snaps from Duck Hodges, Mason Rudolph, Mitch Trubisky (again!), Kenny Pickett, and the picked-over carcasses of Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers. Imagine what he could do with Cam Ward! Think of how much more coherent and damaging the New York Giants' defense would be with the guy who helped make T.J. Watt a Hall of Fame candidate and Alex Highsmith a 14.5-sack monster!

Even if Tomlin isn't fired, a departure to allow him to coach elsewhere could be the kind of soft breakup that maintains the coach's status as a Pittsburgh icon without the ignominy of packing up his office and having him escorted out. He may not want to jump right into another job — he could follow predecessor Bill Cowher into broadcasting — but there's value in a fresh start that can pair Tomlin's high floor with a ceiling that isn't dangled just a few feet above it.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: 7 NFL head coach candidates for 2026, from Jesse Minter to Matt Nagy

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